Bennington Writing Seminars Announces Inaugural Residential Teaching Fellow
Lisa Ann Cockrel, a third-term MFA candidate in nonfiction, has been selected as the first at the .
The fellowship is the first of its kind in the country to offer full-time undergraduate teaching experience in a low-residency MFA format. Benefits include full tuition remission for one term, room and board, and enrollment in an on-campus class.
As the Residential Teaching Fellow, Cockrel will work in the classroom for a full term beginning in Fall 2018. She鈥檒l assist Bennington faculty member in his course, Her responsibilities will include grading, advising, assisting in the development of course materials, guest lecturing, and research.
The fellowship is open to Bennington MFA students in their second, third or fourth term. Students receive mentorship from the on-campus faculty member with whom they are teaching, as well as from the faculty mentor with whom they are working on their manuscript. Cockrel is working with faculty member .
鈥淲e are thrilled to offer this unique and necessary teaching experience to our MFA students and to have Lisa as our first Fellow,鈥 said Mark Wunderlich, Director of the Bennington Writing Seminars. 鈥淣o other low-residency MFA program in the country offers full-time teaching opportunities of this nature to current students, who will also gain experience in arts administration or editorial work thanks to our unique partnerships with , , and .鈥
For the past three years, Cockrel has been the director of the Festival of Faith & Writing at Calvin College, curating conversations with authors including Zadie Smith, George Saunders, Robin Coste Lewis, Paul Harding, Edwidge Danticat, Jamie Quatro MFA 鈥09, Mary Ruefle 鈥74, M.T. Anderson, Peter Ho Davies, Joy Williams, Kwame Alexander, Kirstin Valdez Quade, and Marie Howe. She also hosted and co-produced season one of a podcast featuring recordings from the festival鈥檚 archives. Prior to that, Cockrel spent 15 years as an editor for magazines and then books.
鈥淢anuel is an excellent writer and teacher, and I鈥檓 thrilled to learn all I can from him this semester,鈥 said Cockrel. 鈥淧lus, as much as I enjoy our MFA residencies, I think it will be great fun to experience the lively literary scene that Bennington hosts when undergraduates are on campus.鈥
Cockrel grew up in small-town Texas and spent ten years in Chicago but comes to Bennington from Grand Rapids, Michigan, where she鈥檚 lived for the last decade. When not reading and writing, she can usually be found swimming in Lake Michigan or taking in live music. Follow her on Twitter .
Applications to the Bennington Writing Seminars are due by .