Meet Our Instructors
When did you first feel like a writer?
It was the first time I was published. In college, I had taped all the rejection slips--dozens of them--to the wall by my computer. And then a letter arrived that said the editors liked my little essay. I'd always thought of myself as a writer, but this was the first time someone else agreed.
What's your philosophy about teaching a writing class?
I try to bring the same blue-collar attitude that I grew up with into the classroom, so I stress the daily process of writing and reading. I try to bring the same blue-collar attitude that I grew up with into the classroom, so I stress the daily process of writing and reading. A nonfiction teacher must mentor and guide students to not only examine the text at hand, but to also scrutinize their own backgrounds and ideas. I want to be certain my students are aware of the centuries-long dialogue swirling about them, and that they feel confident enough to enter into the discussion as writers and readers. Literature can expose us to something grander than our own experiences, it is most often words that help us understand and evaluate our beliefs.
When did you first feel like a writer?
I think the first inkling that I might be a writer came in my sophomore year of college. I had just won an award for my poetry chapbook (I wanted to be a poet then) and people started to think and speak of me as a writer. And yet, despite all the positive feedback, I remained unconvinced, because I knew I had no idea what I was doing. Then, after graduate school, when my stuff started appearing in magazines, I thought, Okay, now I’m a writer. But whenever people asked me what I did, I was still reluctant to call myself a writer. It was only after a long stretch on my own, without any support or encouragement, when I was left to the daily practice of facing myself and the page, and feeling drunk with discovery, that I finally began to feel like a writer.
Is there a particular book or essay that made you want to write?
When I was a teenager, I wanted to write like Jane Austen. I loved (still love) the mellifluous rhythm of her sentences and her crisp, funny dialog. Later it was Alice Munro, The Beggar Maid in particular. I'm enthralled by her ability to turn a moment over and over, showing new layers, as well as the organic complexity of her narratives.
When did you first feel like a writer?
When I was a little boy, my mom bought me a journal. That was the first time that I felt like a writer.
What's your philosophy about teaching a writing class?
First, I always adjust the class based upon the students in the class. Second, I always create a relaxed environment. Third, together, we, as poets, try to help each other improve.
When did you first feel like a writer?
If I'm sure of one thing, it's that I never felt like a writer while I was growing up--observant, yes; articulate, yes. Teachers would submit my compositions to the school magazine, but "a writer" was someone, mostly dead, with a name on a book. If anything, I was a story teller--about incidents that were scandalous; the adults would listen and laugh, and then tell me to not repeat that. Having a by-line in college and at newspapers later on was great, but it was only when an editor at Harper's called about publishing a piece of mine that I dared try on the title--and quickly put it back. Today, with a few books in print, I see it less as a matter of professional validation than as an intuitive response to life and language--to capture and shape experience, make others feel as you felt, and create a world that others can share.
When did you first feel like a writer?
In 5th grade I considered myself an author/illustrator. I had a thick manuscript of poems and stories written in large, loopy handwriting on lined paper with pencil and crayon illustrations. Most of the stories were mysteries but some were humorous. One title was “Lucky: The Story of a Dog Who Wore Black Lace Underwear.” When I tell kids in schools today about this one, they crack up laughing.
When did you first feel like a writer?
When I was a freshman in high school, I competed in speech tournaments in Dramatic Interpretation. I couldn't find a monologue I liked, so I wrote one for myself, and used a pseudonym. And I won a big shiny trophy for it!
What's your philosophy about teaching a writing class?
After taking workshops with Edward Albee and others, I've come to the conclusion that the best classes help a writer find what is uniquely theirs, and help remove any roadblocks that may be blocking their voice. That said, for those of us who want to find an audience, structure and character development are a big help!
If you could meet any fictional character, who would it be and why?
I would love to meet Linda Loman, so I could find out if she was getting any on the side.
Rachel Unkefer has been using computers since the late 1970s and training others how to use them more effectively since the 1980s. She was one of the founders of Silicon Valley-based Computer Literacy Bookshops, the world's largest specialty technical book chain. She began using Scrivener during NaNoWrimo and has never gone back to Word.
When did you first feel like a writer?
I began writing plays when I was 8 or 9 but seriously considered myself a writer when I was 10 and kept an almost-daily diary. My first publication was an essay about my teacher (which was not complimentary but was accurate) when I was 14 and our hometown newspaper held an essay contest. I won $7.
Is there a particular book or essay that made you want to write?
From the time my parents began telling me stories and reading me books, I knew that nothing was more exciting than being part of a literary world. And once I understood where the books came from, that some adults had the privilege of making a life out of being storytellers, well, there was no going back after that. Later, when I began studying the art of writing, Flannery O'Connor's Mystery and Manners and John Gardner's The Art of Fiction became two texts that I always returned to for inspiration.
When did you first feel like a writer?
The day I stopped relying on facts and literal-minded interpretation to tell a story. For a long time, I called myself a reporter, a witness who investigates and reports in service to a greater good. I still love reporting, but I eventually found even the most accurate, detailed eyewitness accounts and interviews don't always reveal the deeper truths that interest me. When I started including motivations and undercurrents, I felt like a writer.
Julie Gottschalk has taught writing at Peabody School for seventeen years. She has taught grades 1-5, and is happily settled into third grade, teaching science, math, social studies and philosophy, in addition to reading and writing.
When did you first feel like a writer?
Like many of students, I wrote books when I was very young. In my earliest stories, I invented a family (I think they were the Popples), and I wrote about their adventures. Nowadays I try to write songs. What I enjoy most, though, is writing along with my third grade students.
Robin Albertson-Wren has taught Writing Workshop to students since 1992. She has loved teaching 4th grade, 1st grade and Kindergarten. Robin currently teaches at St. Anne's-Belfield School and serves on the Board for Free Union Country School.
When did you first feel like a writer?
I first felt like a writer in the first grade. I remember "publishing" a book in my classroom. It was a short story about a caterpillar and her adventurous lifestyle. I handwrote the story line and drew all my own illustrations. The front and back pages were made from heavy cardboard and I remember gluing floral wallpaper to the inside flaps. The whole book was bound with rawhide laces. It was displayed in the classroom authors' nook and I was thrilled!
Erin James teaches English at Henley Middle School in Crozet and is the co-editor of Jambalaya, the literary magazine that is published three times/year by the Village School in Charlottesville. She was a counselor at UVa's Young Writer's Workshop in 2003, and has been a judge in the Elementary School Prose category for UVa's Writer's Eye competition for the past four years.
When did you first feel like a writer?
I first felt like a writer when I bought my own journal. I think I was in middle school and had saved some money from babysitting, and I wanted badly to have something of my own to write in. I had always enjoyed writing and making up stories, but it was around the time I bought a journal that I first realized that to write was to think on paper, to process or reflect on an experience on paper, and it felt like something that no one could ever take away from me. That first journal was so liberating!
When did you first feel like a writer?
In middle school, I received a medal from an online poetry contest. Looking back on it, I think they may have given one to everyone who submitted, but at the time I felt like I had achieved something. I still use the medal as a paperweight on the poems that sit unfinished on my desk!
What’s your philosophy about teaching a writing class?
I think one of the keys to writing well is writing a lot. I usually have to produce a lot of writing before I find a piece that I really want to stick with. With young writers, I think it’s especially important for them to play around with styles that they haven’t tried. Young writers also need to hear about what’s working in their pieces so that they can begin to hone in on an individual style. Striking a balance between exploration and dedication to a particular piece are key.
Charlotte S. Wood has been teaching Creative Writing at Albemarle High School for the past fifteen years. She has won several writing contests and prefers writing Southern Gothic fiction and humorous non-fiction. Her favorite things include her son Truman, bouncy balls, and ice cream trucks.
When did you first feel like a writer?
In sixth grade Language Arts I was forced to read, in front of the class, an original poem I had written. Besides being horrified that I had to speak in front of everyone, when I was done, I heard a few girls in the front say they didn't think I'd written it, that I had copied it from somewhere. They were jealous because they couldn't write something as well as I had. I realized then that I could write.
