John Smolens

Professor
B.A., Boston College
M.A., University of New Hampshire
M.F.A. in Writing, University of Iowa
jsmolens@nmu.edu
Visit his Homepage

Teaching Specialties

• Fiction Workshop
• Creative Nonfiction
• Good Books
• Composition

John Smolens has been teaching in the English Department since 1996.  He teaches a variety of writing fiction workshops at the graduate and undergraduate level; he has also taught Good Books, Composition, and writing workshops devoted to Creative Nonfiction, Memoir, and Travel Writing. 

He has published five novels (Cold, The Invisible World, Fire Point, Angel’s Head, and Winter by Degrees), and one collection of short stories (My One and Only Bomb Shelter).  Cold was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, and the Detroit Free Press selected Fire Point as the best book by a Michigan author in 2004.  His new book, a historical novel set in 1901, will be published by Shaye Areheart Books/Random House in 2008.  His short stories and essays have appeared in various magazines and newspapers, including:  the Virginia Quarterly, the William and Mary Review, the Massachusetts Review, Yankee, Redbook, the Los Angeles Times, and the Boston Globe.  His work has been translated into Dutch, Greek, Italian, and Turkish, and has been published the United Kingdom by Hodder & Stoughton, London. 

He holds degrees from Boston College, the University of New Hampshire, and the University of Iowa.  In 2006 he was the recipient of a Distinguished Faculty Award from Northern Michigan University.  You can visit his dedicated website at www.johnsmolens.com.