Born 1953 in a deserved obscurity; entered Jesuits in 1974 and ordained 1984.  Degrees are an AB in Philosophy and Greek, St. Louis University; Bachelor of Divinity, Milltown Institute, Dublin, Ireland; MA in English Literature, St. Louis University; the coveted M. Stud., Oxford University ; and to the delight of Western Christendom in general, a D Phil, Oxford University .  Dr. Ryan teaches Middle English Literature, Tudor Literature, the Bible as Literature and am fondly known by undergraduates as "The Devourer of Souls'. Dr. Ryan is on leave for the 2005-06 academic year, doing research in England.

Debby Rosenthal received her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Princeton University. She loves teaching all aspects of American literature, including 19th- and 20th- century literature, African American literature, women's literature, environmental literature, and such specialized topics as alcohol in literature, the gothic, and single-author courses. Professor Rosenthal's most recent books are Race Mixture in 19th-Century US and Spanish American Fiction , and a new edition of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin . For the 2005-06 year she is conducting research at Oxford University, where she won a Visiting Fellowship.

Dr. Tom Pace
Freshmen Composition Director
(216) 397-1736
tpace@jcu.edu

Tom Pace is Director of the First-Year Composition program at John Carroll. He joined the JCU faculty in 2002 after completing his doctorate at Miami University of Ohio with a specialty in Composition and Rhetoric and Renaissance studies. He received his B.A. and M.A. from the University of Louisville. Dr. Pace teaches a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses: Composition and Rhetoric I and II, Advanced Writing, Studies in Rhetoric and Composition, Major British Writers, and Rhetoric and Education in Renaissance Lyric.

Dr. Pace's research interests revolve around the history and theory of teaching writing and rhetoric, especially stylistics. He is the co-editor of Refiguring Prose Style: Possibilities in Writing Pedagogy (Utah University Press) and is also working on various research projects, including histories of Renaissance rhetoric and writing instruction in Puritan New England.

Dr. Andrew Morse
JCU Writing Center Director
(216) 397-1911
amorse@jcu.edu

Drew Morse is the Director of the JCU Writing Center . He also coordinates the English Department's Internships in Writing Program, and teaches courses in writing consulting, composition, poetry, and modern and contemporary American and British literatures.

His research areas are writing instruction, 20 th - and 21 st -century American poetry, science fiction, and literature and science. Current projects include a critical history of speculative and fantastical poetry; an anthology of the best science fiction, fantasy, and horror poetry of 2005; a chapbook of SF verse; and a series of articles on the relationships between writing centers and creative writing. His poetry can be found in such publications as Mythic Delirium , Illumen , The Magazine of Speculative Poetry , Timberline , and Star*Line .

Dr. Morse received his B.A. in English and psychology from Stanford University , and his M.A. and Ph.D. in English Literature from the University of Oregon . He has been with John Carroll since August of 2004. He can be reached at amorse@jcu.edu.

Peter Kvidera teaches nineteenth-and twentieth-century American literature, as well as Japanese literature in translation. His recent courses include Major American Writers, American Immigrant Narrative, American Realism, Hemingway and Faulkner, Modern and Contemporary American Literature, and American Ethnic Literature. His research fields include U.S. immigrant and ethnic literatures and he has published articles in New England Quarterly , American Literature , and American Quarterly . Hailing from Iowa, he received his B.A. from Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa, his M.A. from Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and his Ph.D. from the University of Washington in Seattle. Before joining the faculty at John Carroll, he taught as a Mellon Fellow at Duke University's Center for Teaching, Learning, and Writing.

John McBratney is the Victorianist of the department. He received his B.A. in English from Dartmouth College, after which he served for three and a half years in the Peace Corps in Thailand. He received his M.A. and Ph.D. in English from the University of California, Berkeley. Since graduating from Berkeley, he has taught at John Carroll University for 17 years.

He teaches a range of courses on the undergraduate and graduate levels including Romantic and Victorian studies, major English authors, colonial and postcolonial literature, world literature, and East Indian literature.

In his research, he is particularly interested in studying encounters between Britons and non-Britons within intercultural contact zones,and whether these are set at home in Britain or abroad on the margins of the British Empire . He has published a book on Rudyard Kipling, Imperial Subjects, Imperial Space: Rudyard Kipling's Fictions of the Native-Born (2002). He has also published articles on Kipling, Tennyson, Conan Doyle, Forster, Orwell, and Paul Scott. From time to time, he also publishes poetry. In his current research, he is studying the intersections between Victorian literature and a range of subjects in nineteenth-century culture: cosmopolitanism, globalization, English national identity, exhibitions, detectives, and Indian nurses and wet-nurses. He is working on a book about Victorian cosmopolitanism in canonical and non-canonical writers in English.

Philip Metres' poetry, translations, and critical essays have appeared in numerous journals and in Best American Poetry (2002).  His books include Primer for Non-Native Speakers (a chapbook, 2004), A Kindred Orphanhood: Selected Poems of Sergey Gandlevsky (2003), and Catalogue of Comedic Novelties: Selected Poems of Lev Rubinstein (2004).  Current projects include two collections of poems, and a critical monograph, "Behind the Lines: War Resistance Poetry in the U.S. , 1940-2005."  His teaching interests include Creative Writing (all genres), Poetry, American Literature, and Literature of War and Peace, both in the U.S. and in the Middle East.  Check out http://www.philipmetres.com  for more information.

Chris Roark's teaching interests include Shakespeare, Renaissance Literature, and African American Literature, and he has published essays that treat, among other subjects, Shakespearean comedy, John Donne, Zora Neale Hurston, and John Edgar Wideman (see note, lower left). He grew up in Philadelphia and received a BA degree from Lafayette College, MA and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Buffalo. When he is not changing diapers (he has two young sons) or chairing the Department of English, his work includes studying how Shakespearean soliloquy has influenced the development of the novel. A student from his introductory Shakespeare course recently referred to the class as "steroids for your writing."

Anna Hocevar has been the English Department secretary since 1996. She has a BA in Communications from John Carroll, and, besides being indispensable to the department chair, specializes in helping department faculty and students with concerns both small and large.

In June, 2005 I retired from the Cleveland Municipal School District after teaching Special Education and English for over thirty years. I began teaching at JCU this year, and I quickly learned that there is life after high school.  I received my B.A. from Western Reserve University in 1966; certificates in English 7-12 , Behavior Disorders, and Learning Disabilities from John Carroll University in 1979; and my M.A. in English from John Carroll University in 1997. I have also participated in writing workshops at John Carroll University, Cleveland State University, and the Poets and Writers Guild of Cleveland, as well as in workshops sponsored by Facing History and Ourselves.

In addition to my work at JCU, I also teach a seminar in the SAGES program at Case Western Reserve University.

When I am not teaching, I enjoy spending time with my three grandchildren; running marathons for Team in Training to raise funds to fight leukemia and lymphoma; participating in the Jewish Big Brothers /Big Sisters program as a Big Sister to Anna; mentoring a young woman from the I Have a Dream program; and traveling with my husband, George Woideck, a ceramic artist.

For the student writers in my classes, I like to repeat what Nikki Giovanni wrote when she autographed a book of her poetry: “Rewrite is good.”  As my students know, some of my pet peeves include passive verbs, unnecessary quotation marks, and long sentences when a short one will work just as well. The most useful advice I’ve ever received about my own writing? “Write what you don’t know about what you know.”

Yvonne Bruce has been teaching at John Carroll University since 2004. She received her PhD from Rice University in 1999 and taught in Houston and in Charleston, South Carolina before moving to Ohio. Her research interests include Shakespeare’s Roman plays and English closet drama of the late Tudor period. She is the editor of Images of Matter: Essays on British Literature of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, published by Delaware Press in 2005.

Yvonne urges her students not to take criticism of their writing personally.  Her main pet peeve about student writing style is when they try to rely on anything other than practice to help them develop a good writing style.

Steve received his B.A. in English from the University of Kansas in 1976 and an M.A. in English from John Carroll University in 1996.  He has been teaching at JCU as an adjunct instructor since 1998.  Steve also coaches high school cross country and track. His wife, Polly, is a high school science teacher.  They have two daughters, Mackenzie, 10, and Delaney, 8, which means Steve spends a lot of time outside of school driving to various soccer, basketball, swimming, and softball events.

Teaching philosophy:  Writing is advanced communication, and like anything only improves when given regular exercise.  Student writers seem to know this, but tend to treat this notion like a New Year's resolution- a promise made but seldom kept.  As a college writer, I was told constantly that if I wasn't making mistakes, I wasn't trying hard enough.  This "advice" is something I try to pass on without reservation.

Joanne teaches Composition and Rhetoric I and II and Major British Writers at John Carroll In addition to teaching, her research interests include Postcolonial literatures and theory, particularly concerning African and Indian subcontinents; women's autobiographical writings; language and culture.   She received her BA (Honours) from the University of Cape Town in South Africa and Postgraduate Diploma in Publishing Studies, West Herts, Watford, U.K.  She earned her MA in English and Comparative Literature from the University of Arizona in 1999.

About students and writing: expansive reading of good literature and a willingness to subject your work to rigorous editorial feedback are the two most important factors in developing and improving writing skills.

Lakeland Community College, AA; John Carroll University, BA, Ma; as an adjunct I have been teaching the Multicultural Affairs Summer Bridge Program and first-year Composition and Rhetoric since 2000.  My scholarly concentration has been on Composition and Rhetoric and Modernist Literature.  As a sports fan, I enjoy attending and watching all sporting events. I maintain some sanity and composure by listening to classical music.  Since my husband has worked in television for thirty years, and my daughter received her BSBA in accounting here at JCU, I add their career experiences to apply to the concepts of student writing.

I would like my students to recognize that quality writing takes time, from the initiation of ideas to a final polished essay. I value their voices, so I want them to make sure that their goal is to make their writing effective.  My writing style pet peeves include the ambiguity of "there are," "it is," and "things," along with the abuse of the apostrophe.  After my graduate essay advisor read the first few pages of my essay, he told me I had to narrow my argument from all of the points about portfolio that I had included in just a few pages.  So for the first time, I used freewriting, six pages of scribbling ideas, to arrive at the claim that propelled my argument.

Received her BA English/Teaching from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1962 and her MA from John Carroll University in 1991.  Nancy served as a Graduate Assistant at JCU from 1988-1991 and has been a member of the Adjunct Faculty since 1992.

Nancy is the mother of three adult children and is a very involved grandmother of six.  A longtime resident of Cleveland Heights, her interests include reading, sewing, politics, and personal writing
  
1. My advice to students is that enthusiasm for a task an important way to success.
    Therefore choose a topic which interests you.

2. I do not like to read verbose writing...keep it clear, concise and crisp.
    I am disappointed when a paper lacks organization and/or logic.

3. One of my own writing teachers encouraged me to add more specific evidence to my arguments.

I earned my Master of Arts in English from John Carroll in 1985 and her BA in English from Cleveland State University in1981. I have also completed additional graduate courses in education and counseling at JCU and at CSU.  I have been teaching writing at John Carroll since 1993 and has also taught at Notre Dame College, CSU, and Cuyahoga Community College.  My writing and editing skills have been honed as a freelancer for several dozen organizations and formerly as a staff writer/editor in the public affairs division at CSU and as a correspondent for The News-Herald.

I have been writing ever since I could hold a crayon or pen--as evidenced by early experiments on the walls of my childhood home. Upon the advice of a neighbor, my mother bought a blackboard. Soon I was holding classes in our basement. My parents were immigrants who initially struggled with English, and education was valued in our household. Among my other interests are nature, science, and music.     

My teachers provided unstinting encouragement and little advice. However, one morning, Professor Phillips Salman at CSU told our poststructuralist criticism class that “all writing is creative.” As a literature major who loved writing (but who somehow had missed this main point), I was moved. This insight has stayed with me as a professional writer and, of course, as a teacher. Creative processes spawn technical documents as well as poems. A good classroom is a place to experiment. A good writer juggles inner processes along with a sense of the project--sustaining inspiration, developing content, understanding audience, and polishing style. A good writing teacher may be considered a muse–but also a coach, listener, editor, guide, and collaborator.      

As a writing teacher, my main pet peeve is jargon that blocks a reader from getting a critical message in a hurry.  To all students, be willing to try new approaches, persevere, and do a lot of work.  Invest in your own writing; it is important to your professional success and personal growth. Take some creative risks in class, and be willing to surprise yourself.

After graduating from Case Western Reserve University, I spent several years teaching, raising my three children, and working as a director of the ELS Language Center at CWRU.  I earned my MA in English from John Carroll and have taught at JCU for fifteen years.  I also teach at Ursuline College, where I also work in the writing center.

As a first-year composition teacher, I most value honesty in student writing.  Many students feel like they should tell me "what I want to hear . . ." (whatever that is).  Well, I want to hear what you have to say, and as long as you can support your views in a clear and concise manner, I'm delighted with the result.  I also value students feeling comfortable enough with their writing that they will use humor and use a comfortable voice.   As any writing teach, I also have a few pet peeves, but I was told this should be a brief discussion, so  the two that most bother me are  a rigid and uncomfortable writing style where the thesaurus reigns supreme (part of your honesty is implied in enjoying your own voice in writing) and using  repetition to complete the page requirement, when using examples, experiences, observations, or the text to support your views makes such sense.

I think the best advice I received regarding my writing style was not to leave too many of my ideas in the computer.  I write the way I tallk . . . I go on and on.  So, as I start to revise, I cut and cut and cut, until no one but me is really sure what it is I wanted to say.  And, perhaps the best advice I should have received is to enjoy what I'm writing.  That enjoyment will be contagious.

Lindsey Stephans earned her Bachelor of Science degree from Miami University in Secondary English Education in 2002.  She then taught English at Euclid High School for three years before coming to John Carroll University to pursue her Masters in English full time.  She completed the program requirements in May 2007 and accepted a position at John Carroll as an adjunct professor of English.  She also teaches English part time at Walsh Jesuit High School.  Lindsey's passion is for Postmodern Literature and Colonial Studies, though she thoroughly enjoys helping her students improve their Composition skills.  When she is not teaching, she enjoys reading, hiking, giving conference papers to small audiences, and alphabetizing her bookshelves.  Her best advice for writers is to not procrastinate - start early and stay focused!

Jody Brown Podl attended Brown University for her BA and MAT.  She has taught at a variety of high schools and universities in her professional career.  Outside of school, she spends a lot of time walking her dog, driving her children to soccer, basketball, baseball and gymnastics, and reading.  Her advice to writers is to enjoy the process by appreciating that the first draft is never the last!

Paula McLain has published two collections of poetry, Less of Her and Stumble, Gorgeous, both from New Issues Poetry Press, and a memoir entitled Like Family: Growing Up In Other People’s Houses (Little, Brown 2003). She received her MFA in poetry from the University of Michigan in 1996, and has since been a writer-in-residence at Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony and Ucross, and received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Ohio Arts Council. Individual poems and essays have appeared in numerous journals, including the Gettysburg Review, Antioch Review and The New York Times Sunday Magazine. She is a core-faculty member in the low-residency MFA Program in Poetry at New England College, and has taught American Literature and Creative Nonfiction at John Carroll for the past two years.

My primary writing advice to student writers—and I’m stealing this from Annie Dillard, who likely stole it from someone else—is to read the kind of books or prose you’d like to write, and write what’d you’d like to read. My only real pet peeve is purple prose, or what I like to call “adjectival madness.” Effective description and use of concrete sensory detail is about accuracy of seeing and saying—and doesn’t have to be over the top to communicate the essence of a perspective or experience to readers. The most useful advice I ever received came in the way of very bad advice, when one of my poetry professors in graduate school said, “Don’t send your work out to editors or publishers. That’s a waste of time. If you’re really good, they’ll come to you.” Now, that sounded so completely wrong to me that I tell my students with aspirations to publish exactly the opposite: Persist, persevere. Lots of writers have talent, but not all have what it takes to stick to their guns and their goals.

I'm a writer.  I write short stories, essays, novels, and poetry.  My first novel, Some Things that Stay, (FS&G, 2000) was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, won the Stephen Crane Award for First Fiction 2000, and was awarded The Cleveland Arts Prize in Literature 2000. Some Things that Stay  was also made into a movie.  My other novels are, The Rehearsal (FS&G, 2001), A Good Distance  (Berkley, 2004), and The Sound of Us, (Berkley, 2005).  My short stories, essays and poems have appeared in a variety of magazines and newspapers.  I have taught creative writing and fiction writing classes at JCU for two years now, and hope to stick around for a while.  I'm a big believer in positive energy, hard work and following your dreams.  I also like to hike in the woods.  (Sounds like a personal ad, huh?  It's not.)

The advice I give most often to my writing students is that creative writing is an art form.  You need to think about the beauty of words, and their power.  Find the right word, find the right detail.

My pet peeves about writing are flowery, melodramatic writing.  And mixed tenses.