Susan Nagelsen

Philosophy of teaching
Teaching students to find their voice, to tell their stories has been my passion for many years, and I work to create a classroom that allows students to find a comfortable place in which to do just that. Writing with passion, writing with focus, writing in ways that demand the reader’s attention requires students’ full determination, and my students will hear me urge them to work smarter not harder as I encourage them through the craft of writing and rewriting. I believe that students who are successful at drafting and rewriting have also become successful critical thinkers, a valued commodity in life as well as in their other classes. Through the reading of text, the thoughtful responses to materials and discussions, students are urged to find their voice, and I have the joy of watching them develop as thinkers and writers in an environment that values both.

Special areas of expertise or research interests:
Fiction and creative non-fiction, working with imprisoned writers.

Teaching background:
I have been teaching since 1977 and at the College since 1985. For me there has been joy in the classroom regardless of where the classroom is; it doesn’t matter whether it was in prisons or the barrio, the inner city or the upper class white school, I take great pleasure from watching students light up with the joy of learning.

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Susan Nagelsen is the consulting editor of Tacenda, an online literary magazine that specializes in issues of social justice. Her fiction writing, Going Nowhere, was published in Tacenda this spring. She is also the managing editor of the Bleakhouse Press that produces a book each year. Susan provided the afterword for Robert Johnson’s collection of poetry, Burnt Offerings. Most recently, she has served as the editor of the second offering of the New England College Press, Exiled Voices, Portals of Discovery and provided introductions for each of the contributing writers.