Teaching Philosophy

If I were to describe my philosophy of teaching in terms of writing, I would say it is a narrative that I am constantly revising. Each time I teach I am learning. While my ideas, methods and approaches to the teaching of writing develop each time that I enter a new workshop or seminar or begin the journey of mentoring a student, my approach stems from and illuminates a central philosophy. I believe that each of us is unique and that, being unique, each of us has infinite value. My aim as a teacher is to make this simple fact evident.  I draw my philosophy of teaching from this belief and from the conviction that what we really learn and retain, we learn not from what other people tell us, but from what we are able to tell ourselves.

One of the great values of teaching here at Holy Cross where we can offer the intensive learning environment of a workshop is the possibility it offers for students to make real and concentrated progress with their work.  As a teacher, I love to help facilitate that growth.  But I do it carefully, for I believe that there are no short cuts; it is only when we internalize information by actively thinking out ideas, concepts, problems – when we tell these things to ourselves – that they become part of us. Thus my teaching style is to always begin with the student work in front of me -- comments, line-edits, readings and advice is focused around helping the student realize more fully, deeply and eloquently their own in their own voice. In other words I listen and read carefully.

As a graduate of the Columbia MFA program, I know how important it is for students to know that they are making progress and reaching their goals. I respond to student work promptly with line-edits and thorough written comments but I like to follow up written comments with a one-on-one conference. Sometimes for example, it can be helpful to read a given passage aloud and listen to how it sounds.  I have high standards and a strong sense of what works on the page, but because I take the time to listen and read carefully, one of my strengths as a teacher is the ability to communicate my advice and feedback well, in ways most productive to the individual student.

I believe that we become better writers as we become better readers so I am big on reading and I will assign readings of all kinds whenever I think they will be of help. Who are my favorite writers? Hard to say, I have so many. I am well grounded in literary studies and I have perhaps an unusual area of knowledge for a contemporary American writer for I am fluent in Japanese with a background in medieval Japanese poetry and East Asian Studies.  My early studies and training in poetics and Japanese language and literature has left me particularly alert to and interested in the writings of other cultures. This has led to my keen interest in the growing arena of ethnic literatures in English and it is an area in which I have taught and have expertise. On the writing side, I have taught courses in literary nonfiction, creative nonfiction, literary journalism, the lyric essay, the personal essay, the braided essay and workshops of all kinds in all forms on nonfiction as well as workshops in fiction. I love all kinds of writing. I am genuinely interested in a wide variety of aesthetics and styles. I am always interested writing that pushes at the edges of genre.

Having completed an MFA in fiction and an advanced degree in East Asian Studies, having published two memoirs, a book of literary journalism, a multitude of essays and short pieces of literary journalism as well as poetry, having worked for years as a journalist before that and written straight up journalism as well as short stories, I'd conclude by saying that I am confident reading all forms of fiction and nonfiction.