Scott Nadelson

For me, teaching and writing go hand in hand, and I strongly believe that the teaching of creative writing, particularly on the undergraduate level, complements traditional studies in literature. My primary aim in creative writing courses is to teach students to read from a writer's perspective, and do so by providing a framework of rigorous analytical exploration of narrative and regular practice of craft. Along with reading for the overall thematic, cultural, or historical significance of a work of fiction, students in my courses learn to read with an eye toward understanding how a writer has put a narrative together, how characters are developed and plots unfurled, and finally, how a certain combination of words and sentences creates an emotional or intellectual response in a reader. At the same time, I try to encourage students to engage their imaginations, to free themselves from the strictures of academic writing in order to discover their natural voices and their unique perspectives on the world.

In practical terms, I design my courses to immerse students in the world of fiction writing. I assign numerous spontaneous writing exercises to keep students' imaginations limber and to allow them to tap into the rich fictional material of their subconscious minds, while also assigning more structured essays in which they develop their analytical skills. Classroom time is taken up almost entirely with discussion, either of professional or student stories, which we treat with an equal amount of seriousness and respect. I challenge students to move beyond simple critiques of what they liked or didn't like about a story; instead they begin by working to understand what an author has tried to accomplish in a work, how she has tried to do so, and where, if at all, she has fallen short of her goals. As a class, we put ourselves in the shoes of a writer, in order to gain a better understanding of both her work and our own.

I am author of two short story collections, Saving Stanley: The Brickman Stories, winner of the 2004 Oregon Book Award for short fiction and the Great Lakes Colleges Association New Writers Award, and The Cantor's Daughter. My primary creative interest centers on character-driven fiction, in which people struggle between the competing influences of their fears and desires, sometimes sabotaging their own best interests. My stories often revolve around the cultural limbo of American Judaism and the mundane world of the New Jersey suburbs, both of which provide a backdrop for characters who fail to participate fully in their own lives. I have a secondary interest in creative nonfiction, and along with another story collection and a novel, I am currently working on a collection of essays on the nature of memorials and the ways in which people mark their losses.

Interests

Fiction