Erin Stalcup

Instructor Bio:

M.F.A., editor-in-chief of Defunct, co-founder of Waxwing & former Editor of Hunger Mountain. Ms. Stalcup taught in community colleges, liberal arts schools, prisons, state schools & MFA programs in NY, NC, TX & AZ. She’s published a story collection & two novels. Learn more at erinstalcup.xyz.

Instructor Statement:

Editing is a collaborative act and I seek to teach courses that benefit people who want to work as editors and people who want to submit their writing to editors. I think editing courses have two main purposes: working in the editing industry can be thrilling, so I teach employable skills; and, seeing writing from an editor’s point of view improves creative writers’ own work, even if they don’t want to edit as their jobs. I ask students to bring in their own writing to be edited by their peers, so that everyone can experience both sides of this process—which is to honor the writing and its intentions and then apply editing strategies to make the work the best possible version of itself. My courses are experiential, hands-on practicums, so they can feel more like internships than conventional classes. I aim to make them challenging, mostly fun and rewarding.