Increasingly, Creative Writing Instructors Are Widening Their Job-Search and Considering

Pedagogy and Job Prospects at Two-Year Colleges

Increasingly, Creative Writing instructors are widening their job-search and considering positions at two-year colleges. Although most begin their careers at these colleges as adjuncts, many discover a thriving creative community and a dynamic, diverse population, and begin to hope they have found a permanent home. Creative Writing instructors from community colleges across the country discuss the advantages and challenges of teaching at two-year institutions, the role of Creative Writing in an Associates Degree program, and the full-time job prospects for new MFAs.

The panel will benefit graduate students and Creative Writing instructors on the job market, and those who advise them. Many of our panelists have served on hiring committees or worked closely with adjuncts applying for full-time work at their institutions. Because we come from a range of institutions, we will share a range of perspectives. The panel will also attract other instructors from two-year colleges who can share their experiences in the classroom and on the job market, and we plan to leave ample time for discussion.

Margaret Files is Chair of the English Department and director of the Creative Writing Program at Pima Community College in Tucson, the fifth largest college in the country, with over 84,000 students. She is the author of a novel and a collection of stories, and scores of her stories, poems, and articles have appeared in magazines such as Fiction, Crazyhorse, and The Tampa Review. She was Thurber Writer-in Residence at Ohio State University.

Mary Cantrell is an instructor at Tulsa Community College. She received an MA with an emphasis in Creative Writing from Iowa State University and has worked as a fiction editor for Nimrod Literary Journal. For the last six years, she has been granted released time to hire and serve as liaison to the adjunct English faculty on Tulsa’s Southeast Campus.

Thomas Ray earned his bachelor's at the University of Minnesota, but also studied at Michigan State and Cambridge University. He earned an MFA at Louisiana State University and is presently a tenured member of the English department at Alpena Community College where he teaches creative writing, literature, oral interpretation and composition. He writes fiction, poetry, and social satire and has published most notably in Exquisite Corpse.

James Cervantes has lived, studied, and taught in Washington state, Iowa, Vermont, California, and Arizona, and has published two books of poetry, several chapbooks, appeared in dozens of print and electronic magazines, edited a print and an online magazine, and edited an anthology. He is Professor of English at Mesa Community College.

Dorothy Ellis Barnett is a James A. Michener Fellow in Creative Writing. She is founding editor of two poetry journals, Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review and The Rio Review, associate coordinator of the Poetry Festival at Round Top. She writes screenplays, memoir, poetry and fiction. Her short film, The Scent of Roses is out at various contests. She is associate professor of Creative Writing and English at Austin Community College.

Simone Zelitch is the author of three novels, including Louisa (Putnam, 2000) which was the winner of the Goldberg Prize from the National Foundation for Jewish Culture. She teaches at Community College of Philadelphia, where she is in the process of developing an Academic Certificate Program in Creative Writing, and where she designed a network of teaching circles to integrate new faculty into the life of the department.