Leah Hager Cohen
Professional Title: M.F.A. Creative Writing Faculty
Areas of Academic Focus and Expertise:
Fiction, Nonfiction
Representative List of Recent Courses Taught:
Distance-Learning Courses:
Creative Writing I-IV
Craft and Reflection I-III
Graduating Seminar Preparation
Creative Thesis
Residency Seminars:
Scuffed Shoes: The Journalistic Imperative
Going the Distance: A Panel Discussion on Writing the Novel (with Michael Lowenthal and Hester Kaplan)
Pot of Gold, Or the Viable Non-Fiction Book Proposal
Who’s Driving This Bus?: The Balance of Power Between Writer and Subject in Nonfiction Research and Writing
The Carrot and The Schtick: The Use of Suspense in Fiction
Education: B.A. in Creative Writing, Hampshire College
M.S. in Journalism, Columbia University
Representative List of Recent Publications / Exhibitions:
Nonfiction Books:
Without Apology: Girls, Women, and the Desire to Fight (2005)
The Stuff of Dreams: Behind the Scenes at an American Community Theater (2001)
Glass, Paper, Beans: Revelations on the Nature and Value of Ordinary Things (1998)
Train Go Sorry: Inside a Deaf World (1995)
Novels:
No Book But the World (forthcoming in 2014)
The Grief of Others (2012)
House Lights (2007)
Heart, You Bully, You Punk (2003)
Heat Lightning (1998)
Teaching Philosophy: As a teacher, how can I help students grow as writers? First, I encourage their growth as readers, helping them select a rich and varied range of readings, and working together to demystify and discern some basic tenets of good writing. No amount of art or imagination will carry a piece of prose if its grammar, syntax, diction or logic falter, and here I strive not only to be a good editor, but to help students internalize the process and increase their own self-editing capabilities.
In the workshop, I see my role as mediator, setting the tone and ensuring the conversation is intellectually precise, creatively curious, and deeply respectful of the spiritual impulse to create with language.
Above all I strive to help my students uncouple process from product, granting themselves permission to experiment, to invest, to reach, to fail – all of which do more to enable growth than would an exclusive emphasis on product.
Finally, I believe that neither writing, nor the teaching of it, can be rightly considered separate from the practice of compassion, which not only lies at the heart of writing and teaching, but may be the principle reason writers are called to tell stories in the first place.
Awards & Honors: Longlisted for the Orange Prize and the IMPAC Dublin Award; finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize; New York Times Notable Book (five times); American Library Association Ten Best Books of the Year; Toronto Globe and Mail Ten Best Books of the Year; Oprah Book of the Week
Affiliation: Jenks Chair in Contemporary American Letters, College of the Holy Cross.
Past Affiliations: Boston University, Emerson College.
Website: www.leahhagercohen.com