Outside Readers for Creative Nonfiction [updated 11/2015]

Lucie B. Amundsen [email protected] ​ Lucie B. Amundsen is a writer, speaker, and reluctant farmer. She co-owns Locally Laid Egg Company, a farm that provides pasture-raised eggs in Minnesota, Iowa, and Indiana. Amundsen also holds a master of fine arts degree in writing from Hamline University. As a former editor at Reader’s Digest Association and contributor to the Minneapolis Star ​ Tribune, Amundsen has written for scores of publications during her freelance career. ​ She lives with her husband and two children Duluth, Minnesota.

Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew [email protected] ​ ​ Elizabeth received her M.F.A. from Hamline in 1998. Her books include Hannah, ​ Delivered (fiction), Koehler Books 2014; Writing the Sacred Journey: The Art and Practice of ​ ​ Spiritual Memoir (nonfiction), Skinner House Books, 2005; Swinging on the Garden Gate: A ​ ​ Spiritual Memoir (memoir), Skinner House Books, 2000; On the Threshold: Home, ​ ​ Hardwood, and Holiness (essays), Westview Press, 2005; and Living Revision: The Spirited ​ ​ Work of Transforming Stories (nonfiction), forthcoming. She teaches at The Loft Literary ​ Center and Madeline Island School of the Arts. You can visit her websites at www.spiritualmemoir.com and www.elizabethjarrettandrew.com. ​ ​ ​ ​

Jennifer Bowen Hicks [email protected] ​ ​ Jennifer Bowen Hicks is a 2014 Bread Loaf-Rona Jaffe Scholar in nonfiction. Her work has been honored with a Tim McGinnis Award from the Iowa Review, a Best American Essay Notable mention, a Pushcart Prize nomination, the Arts & Letters Prize, a Jerome Foundation Travel grant, and a Loft Mentor Series Award. Her essays and stories appear in The Iowa Review, North American Review, Third Coast, the Rumpus, and elsewhere. She's the founder and Artistic Director of the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop and teaches creative writing in prisons throughout the state.

Pamela R. Fletcher [email protected] ​ Pamela R. Fletcher serves as associate professor of English and the director of writing at St. Catherine University in St. Paul, Minnesota. She also serves as a contributing editor. Currently, she is senior editor/contributor of the Saint Paul Almanac (2014/2015) and ​ ​ co-editor/contributor of Blues Vision: African American Writing from Minnesota (2015), ​ ​ As We See It: A Fresh Look at Vision Loss (2014), and Transforming a Rape Culture (1993, ​ ​ ​ ​ 1995, and 2005). Her prose and poetry have appeared in many academic and literary journals, and she has earned several writing and scholarly awards, and grants. In addition to teaching at St. Catherine University, she also has taught African American literature courses at the University of Minnesota and at Carleton College, among other Minnesota institutions; and, she has taught creative writing at Hamline University (MFA), at the University of Minnesota, and abroad in Ghana, West Africa for the New School of New York. Pamela has also presented her writing and research at national and international conferences.

Laura Flynn [email protected] ​ See Laura’s bio here. ​ ​

Patricia Weaver Francisco [email protected] ​ See Patricia’s bio here. ​ ​

Margot Galt [email protected] ​ Margot has published seven books, including The Circuit Writer: Writing with Schools ​ and Communities (Teachers and Writers Collaborative, 2006); Stop This War: American ​ ​ Protest the Vietnam Conflict (Lerner, 2000); and Turning the Feather Around: My Life in ​ ​ Art (Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1998). She has also published a collection of ​ poems, Between the Houses and The Country’s Way with Rain, a fine-press chapbook of ​ ​ ​ ​ poems

Deborah Keenan [email protected] ​ See Deborah’s bio here. ​ ​

Julie Landsman [email protected] ​ Julie is the author of three books of creative nonfiction: Basic Needs: A Year with Street Kids ​ in a City School (Milkweed Editions, 1993) A White Teacher Talks About Race (Rowman and ​ ​ ​ Littlefield 2001) and Growing Up White (Rowman and Littlefield, 2008. She is also the ​ ​ editor of many collections of essays stories and poems, the most recent being Voices for ​ Diversity and Social Justice, A Literary Education Reader, with Paul Gorski and Rosanna ​ Salcedo, (Rowman and Littlefield 2015) She is a consultant, fiction writer and speaker. Julie is a retired teacher from the Minneapolis public schools and teaches seminars on education, writing, race and culture. She has also been a member of the adjunct faculty in the Creative Writing Programs as well as at Carleton College and Metro State. Visit her website at www.jlandsman.com. ​ ​

John Medeiros [email protected] ​ John Medeiros received his MFA from Hamline in 2006. A widely published poet and writer, John is the author of the poetry collection, couplets for a shrinking world (North Star ​ ​ Press, 2012), and is the recipient of numerous awards in poetry and creative nonfiction, including two Pushcart Nominations (one for poetry and one for creative nonfiction), two Minnesota State Arts Board grants (one for poetry and one for creative nonfiction), a Notable Essay in Best American Essays, and the AWP Intro Journals Project. ​ ​ www.jmedeiros.net

Juliet Patterson [email protected] ​ ​ Juliet teaches at St. Olaf College and is a frequent instructor in Hamline’s Creative Writing Programs. Patterson is the author of two collections of poetry, Threnody (Nightboat ​ ​ Books, forthcoming in 2016) and The Truant Lover (Nightboat Books). In 2012, she ​ ​ published Dirge, a chapbook, with Albion Books. Her recent awards include the Arts & ​ ​ Letters Susan Atefat Prize in Non-Fiction, Lynda Hull Memorial Poetry Prize, and fellowships from the Minnesota State Arts Board, Jerome Foundation and the Minneapolis-based Institute for Community and Cultural Development. For more details visit:www.julietpatterson.com ​

Angela Pelster-Wiebe [email protected] ​ See Angela’s bio here. ​ ​

Sun Yung Shin [email protected] ​ Sun Yung Shin is the author of the forthcoming prose book Unbearable ​ Splendorfrom Coffee House Press as well as poetry collections Rough, and ​ ​ ​ ​ Savage and Skirt Full of Black, also from CHP. Her new anthology A Good Time for the Truth: ​ ​ ​ ​ Race in Minnesota will be available in early 2016 from the Minnesota Historical Society ​ Press. She also co-edited the anthology Outsiders Within: Writing on Transracial ​ Adoption and is the author of Cooper’s Lesson, a bilingual Korean/English illustrated book ​ ​ ​ for children. She has received fellowships from the McKnight Foundation, the Bush Foundation, the Minnesota State Arts Board, and the Jerome Foundation. She participates frequently in community and public poetry events, has taught creative writing at Macalester College, Hamline University, the University of Minnesota, St. Catherine University, Intermedia Arts, the Loft Literary Center, in the public city schools, and elsewhere. She lives in Minneapolis. Visit Sun Yung’s website at www.sunyungshin.com. ​

Katrina Vandenberg [email protected] ​ See Katrina’s bio here. ​ ​