Director, faculty
Margot Singer is a Professor of English at Denison and has served as the director of the Reynolds Workshop since 2010. She is the author of a novel, Underground Fugue (2017), winner of the Edward Lewis Wallant Award and finalist for the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Fiction; the short story collection The Pale of Settlement (2007), winner of the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction; and co-editor of Bending Genre: Essays on Creative Nonfiction (2013), a collection of critical essays. Her work has been recognized with the Reform Judaism Prize, the Glasgow Prize, the James Jones First Novel Fellowship, and an NEA Fellowship for Prose. She holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Utah, an M.Phil. from Oxford (where she was a Marshall Scholar), and a B.A. from Harvard.
Faculty
Peter Grandbois is the author of eleven books: three novels, half-burnt, Nahoonkara, and The Gravedigger; two memoirs, The Arsenic Lobster and Kissing the Lobster; a collection of short fictions, Domestic Disturbances; three novella collections or “monster double features”—Wait Your Turn, The Glob Who Girdled Granville, and The Girl on the Swing—and two collections of poetry, This House That and The Three-Legged World. His plays have been performed in St. Louis, Columbus, Los Angeles, and New York. His poems, essays, and short fiction have appeared in over one hundred magazines and been shortlisted for Best American Essays, Best American Horror, and the Pushcart Prize. He is the Poetry Editor for Boulevard magazine and teaches at Denison University in Ohio.
Faculty
Michael Croley was born in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in Corbin, Kentucky. He is the author of the short story collection Any Other Place (2019). He won a 2016 NEA Fellowship in Literature as well as an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award. Croley’s work has appeared in Lit Hub, Narrative, Kenyon Review Online, The Paris Review Daily, Blackbird, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Southern Review, Fourth Genre, and the Cleveland Plain-Dealer. He teaches creative writing at Denison University.
Faculty
Alison Stine, an alumna of Denison, was a student in the inaugural Reynolds Young Writers Workshop and has been a member of the Reynolds faculty since 2002. She is the author of seven books: two forthcoming novels, Road out of Winter (2020) and Trashlands (2021); a novella, The Protectors; a YA novel, Supervision, two award-winning books of poetry: Wait and Ohio Violence; and a poetry chapbook, Lot of My Sister. She has taught at Fordham University, Gettysburg College, at the University of Maryland, where she received her MFA, and at Ohio University, where she received her PhD in English. She works as a Contributing Editor with the Economic Hardship Reporting Project.
Faculty
Anne Barngrover is the author of two books of poetry: Brazen Creature (University of Akron Press, 2018) and Yell Hound Blues (Shipwreckt Books, 2013). She’s also co-author, with poet Avni Vyas, of the chapbook Candy in Our Brains (CutBank, 2014). Anne earned her BA from Denison University, her MFA from Florida State University, and her PhD from University of Missouri. She is currently an Assistant Professor of English and Creative Writing at Saint Leo University and lives in Tampa, Florida.
Teaching Associate Staff
The Reynolds Young Writers Workshop Teaching Associate Staff are recent Denison graduates or current students. Many participated in the Reynolds Workshop when they were in high school. All are accomplished poets and writers with substantial teaching experience. Recent TAs have earned graduate degrees in creative writing at Stanford University, Purdue, the University of Missouri, the University of Michigan, and other top graduate programs. TAs work closely with faculty in leading workshops, coaching participants, compiling the Reynolds Workshop Anthology, coordinating program activities, and supervising residential life.
Creative Writing at Denison University
Denison University offers majors and minors in English focusing on either creative writing or literature. Creative writers make up about half of Denison’s English majors.
Creative writing majors take writing workshops across the genres plus a range of literature classes. We offer many sections of the introductory multi-genre class plus advanced workshops in poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, literary translation, and/or other genres (no application required). All senior majors complete a full-year independent writing project. Senior writers work in small groups under the close mentorship of a creative writing faculty member and produce a book-length work!
Denison’s concentration in Narrative Journalism is open to students in any major who are interested in writing that combines rigorous research with compelling, story-driven prose. Students gain experience researching and writing long-form journalism on topics in their areas of interest. They build skills in fact-based storytelling with a focus on ethical reporting and research, gain experience through independent writing projects, and make connections through internships and workshops with editors and writers.
Denison’s large creative writing faculty includes prize-winning poets and writers David Baker, Michael Croley, Peter Grandbois, Jessica Hendry Nelson, Jack Shuler, Margot Singer, and Ann Townsend.
Denison’s endowed Beck Series brings prominent writers to campus for short residencies to give readings, craft talks, workshops, and manuscript consultations. Recent visiting writers have included Billy Collins, Ted Kooser, Louise Erdrich, Bill McKibben, Stephen Millhauser, Michael Pollan, Louise Glück, Pam Houston ’83, and many others.
The creative writing program also publishes Exile, a biannual award-winning student-edited literary magazine. We also have a vibrant creative writing club, student readings, and much more!