ANGELINA DOHRE
Photo Editor
This past summer, four new faces were hired to support Fredonia’s creative writing minor. Two full-time lecturers, Eric Schlich and Sarah Green, and two part-time adjunct lecturers, Rebecca Cuthbert and Cornelius FitzPatrick, were welcomed to the English program.
The four lecturers are bringing back courses to the minor like Introduction to Creative Writing, Form and Theory of Writing, Intermediate Creative Nonfiction, Intermediate Fiction Writing, Intermediate Poetry Writing, Literary Publishing, Advanced Fiction Writing and Advanced Poetry Writing.
The two full-time lecturers both specialize in an aspect of creative writing. Schlich’s specialty is in fiction. Graduating from the University of Kentucky in 2010, he received his bachelor’s degree in English and Spanish.
He later received his master’s degree in fiction at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. After meeting his wife in Ohio, Schlich applied for his Ph.D. in fiction at Florida State University and is currently still enrolled there.
At Fredonia, he currently teaches four classes including two advanced fiction workshops. These are for students that have already taken the Introduction to Creative Writing and Intermediate Fiction Writing courses.
He also teaches the Form and Theory of Writing course which is more about the theory of writing.
“It’s less of a workshop-based class and more of a study and craft essays of fiction writing,” Schlich said. “Students will read lots of essays by other writers about the techniques of writings and then do small exercises off those techniques.”
The fourth class is the Intermediate Creative Nonfiction course which entails more personal memoir writing.
According to Schlich, one reason he was drawn to Fredonia’s program was for their growing creative writing minor. “They’re looking to develop a creative writing major because the minor’s got really good appeal,” said Schlich. “The fact that it’s growing means I get to sort of be a little bit of an influence on that or at least get to help build the program from within.”
Green specializes in poetry. She received her bachelor’s degree in English at Oberlin College and went on to receive her master’s of fine arts in creative writing, concentrating in poetry, at Purdue University. Later, she got her Ph.D. in English literature at Ohio University.
Past jobs of hers include visiting assistant professor appointments in creative writing at Wheaton College and Oberlin College, as well as part-time instructor appointments in writing and literature at a variety of Boston area and Twin Cities colleges and universities, including Emerson College and Hamline University.
Green currently teaches three classes at Fredonia. Along with also teaching Introduction to Creative Writing and Form and Theory, she also teaches Intermediate Poetry.
“This class is intended to develop and polish writers’ personal styles and broaden their awareness of contemporary poetry,” she said. “We focus heavily on discussing students’ original poems, making our way through special topics week by week such as image, sound, meter and so on.”
One of the two new part-time adjunct lecturers, Cornelius FitzPatrick, lives in Buffalo and commutes to Fredonia, teaching three classes a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
“I was attracted to Fredonia in terms of the department but also its size,” he said. “I really loved that it’s a state university but it’s a small campus and I think it promises students who are more engaged with the liberal arts.”
According to English Department Chair Bruce Simon, the only change to the creative writing program currently is personnel but they are contemplating more changes now that they have a larger staff. Green and Schlich co-chair what is called the Writing Task Force (WTF) where they are looking at models of different creative writing programs.
“We’re trying to look at other models out there of successful creative writing programs but also hybrid programs that might include some technical writing, business writing or professional writing, and then ones where there’s less creative writing, where there’s more writing in general with creative writing folded under it,” he said. So we’re looking at three different kinds of models out there, trying to figure out what would work best here and what we want to shoot for.”
Green believes the research into the viability of a major right now is preliminary but quite exciting. “There is so much talent here at Fredonia,” she said. “It would be wonderful to see students offered even more chances to hone their craft.”