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Elizabeth Searle
Elizabeth Searle (Fiction, Pop Fiction) is the author of three books of fiction: Celebrities in Disgrace, a novella and short story collection that is being adapted for film; A Four-Sided Bed, a novel nominated for an American Library Association book award; and a story collection, My Body to You, winner of the Iowa Short Fiction Prize. Elizabeth's opera based on the Nancy Kerrigan-Tonya Harding figure skating story has recently brought her national media attention. 'Tonya and Nancy: The Opera' will preview at the American Reperatory Theater in 2006. Elizabeth has published stories in magazines such as Redbook, Ploughshares, Agni, Massacusetts Review, and Kenyon Review and in anthologies such as Lovers. She was the winner of the 2000 Lawrence Foundation Prize for fiction and a finalist for the 2002 Paterson Fiction Prize. She has taught writing at Emerson College, Brown University, UMass Lowell, and as a guest faculty at Bennington MFA. She serves on the Literacy Committee and Executive Board of PEN/New England and runs the annual Erotic PEN reading. Selected Publications: Celebrities in Disgrace (a novella and stories) (Graywolf Press, Summer, 2001) Four-Sided Bed (Graywolf Press, 1998 Teaching Philosophy: To me, a big advantage of the 'mentor' one-on-one system is that we can tailor it to fit students' individual and idiosyncratic needs. We can be creative about how we work together. Having published a novel, a novella, and story collections, I am comfortable working with all forms of fiction. Having been through an MFA myself, I know how much the students invest in the program and how important it is for them to make real progress with their work. I urge students to be direct in their feedback; if what I am doing is not helping them, we can always try another approach. I like to get to know each 'mentee' well. I am flexible about how I communicate with students. I do line-by-line editing and give fairly detailed written replies; I also am open to doing periodic phone conferences or email conferences. While writing can't be 'taught' per se, any writer can benefit from the honest reactions of serious readers. I try to convey to students my own 'experience' of reading a piece. In all writing, I look for 'charged' points, for sources of energy. The fiction that I aim to produce as a writer and that I respond to as a reader tends to be psychological character-oriented fiction; writing that is sensual and intelligent, that captures what Virginia Woolf called the 'texture of a mind.' However, I am open to a variety of styles: experimental; popular fiction that takes character seriously; genre work if done in a fresh way. I am happy to assign exercises upon request; I try to fit reading suggestions to the specific concerns of students. On the third semester critical papers, I have mentored a variety of subjects; I like to stretch myself. In all my teaching, I enjoy delving into different styles and minds, working with beginning writers to find the strengths of their own voices. I love helping writers create, for each new piece of fiction, a shape that completes itself. Links Elizabeth Searle's author page: elizabethsearle.net An interview with Elizabeth Searle from 2004 published in POST ROAD Magazine: Audio File: ELIZABETH SEARLE READING ^top
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