More about Amy Nolan
Amy Nolan’s essays on mental health, ecology and place, horror studies, and feminist criticism appear in multiple publications, including Parts Unbound: Narratives of Mental Illness and Health (2015), Cultural Critique, Studies in Contemporary Fiction, and Critical Innovations: Reading and Writing Experimental Texts (2017). Her memoir excerpt, The Whirlpool, was named winner of the 2013 Nonfiction Prize in Solstice: A Magazine of Diverse Voices, and her creative nonfiction has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize.
Her teaching interests include poetry, memoir, screenwriting, horror studies, contemporary fiction and film. She earned a master of arts in creative nonfiction from Central Michigan University and a doctorate from Michigan State University.
RECENT COURSES TAUGHT
EN 220: Poetry Writing
EN 221: Fiction Writing
EN 219: Screenwriting
EN 252: Film History
EN 257: Studies in Film Authorship (Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, and Bong Joon-ho)
EN 218: Graphic Narratives
DISTINCTIONS
2020: Recipient, The Peggy Pruisner Scholarly and Creative Endeavors Award for distinction in scholarship, Wartburg College
2016: Shining Armor Award, Wartburg College, for excellence in student mentorship
2015: Shifts: An Anthology of Women’s Growth through Change. Winner, Indie Book Award
2015: Nominee, Pushcart Prize, for nonfiction essay, “My Mother’s Hips,” published in Ruminate Magazine
2013: “The Whirlpool.” Winner of the 2013 Nonfiction Prize. Solstice: A Magazine of Diverse Voices
2011: Fall convocation speaker, Wartburg College, in the series “Telling Our Story,” selected by Convocation Committee and the Dean of Faculty/Vice President for Academic Affairs
2010: Recipient, John O. Chellevold Student Award for Teaching Excellence, Wartburg College
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
“Seeking a Language that Heals: Teaching and Writing from a Ruined Landscape.” Encountering the Natural World: Environmental Education in the Arts and Humanities: a special issue of the Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning. Vol. 24. Spring 2019: pp. 66-80.
“Writing a Sacred Self: Kathy Acker and Wonder.” Critical Innovations: Reading and Writing Experimental Texts. Robin Silbergleid and Kristina Quynn, editors. Palgrave Macmillan Press. October 2017.
“What I Learned from My Mother.” Seven Hills Review. Winner, Second Place, Penumbra Nonfiction Contest, Tallahassee Writers’ Association. Summer 2017.
“Running Toward Balance.” Parts Unbound: Narratives of Mental Illness and Health. Edited by Ginny Levy and Matthew Bohn. Lime Hawk Literary Collective. Anthology selection. October 2015.
“Mazes, Mushrooms, and Medicine: Living ‘Soft Bipolar.’” Tiferet: Literature, Art, and the Creative Spirit. Honorable Mention, 2014 Tiferet Writing Contest, Nonfiction. May 2015.
“My Mother’s Hips.” Ruminate Literary Magazine. VanderMey Nonfiction Prize, Winner, Honorable Mention. Issue 32. Summer 2014. Nominated for a Pushcart Prize, Spring 2015.
“1983.” Shifts: An Anthology of Women’s Growth through Change. Edited by Michelle Duster and Trina Sotira, with Jen Cullerton Johnson. Anthology selection. November 2014.
RECENT COLLEGE SERVICE
2020:
German Program Review, faculty consultation committee
Co-director, Iowa Humanities
Chair, Faculty Review Committee, Wartburg College
Appointee, Emergency Covid-19 Governance Task Force, Wartburg College
Guest instructor, Knight Vision Public Relations Creativity Workshop, Wartburg College
Faculty advisor for The Castle, student literary publication, Wartburg College (since 2008)
Appointed to the Faculty: 2006
Her teaching interests include poetry, memoir, screenwriting, horror studies, contemporary fiction and film. She earned a master of arts in creative nonfiction from Central Michigan University and a doctorate from Michigan State University.
RECENT COURSES TAUGHT
EN 220: Poetry Writing
EN 221: Fiction Writing
EN 219: Screenwriting
EN 252: Film History
EN 257: Studies in Film Authorship (Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, and Bong Joon-ho)
EN 218: Graphic Narratives
DISTINCTIONS
2020: Recipient, The Peggy Pruisner Scholarly and Creative Endeavors Award for distinction in scholarship, Wartburg College
2016: Shining Armor Award, Wartburg College, for excellence in student mentorship
2015: Shifts: An Anthology of Women’s Growth through Change. Winner, Indie Book Award
2015: Nominee, Pushcart Prize, for nonfiction essay, “My Mother’s Hips,” published in Ruminate Magazine
2013: “The Whirlpool.” Winner of the 2013 Nonfiction Prize. Solstice: A Magazine of Diverse Voices
2011: Fall convocation speaker, Wartburg College, in the series “Telling Our Story,” selected by Convocation Committee and the Dean of Faculty/Vice President for Academic Affairs
2010: Recipient, John O. Chellevold Student Award for Teaching Excellence, Wartburg College
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
“Seeking a Language that Heals: Teaching and Writing from a Ruined Landscape.” Encountering the Natural World: Environmental Education in the Arts and Humanities: a special issue of the Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning. Vol. 24. Spring 2019: pp. 66-80.
“Writing a Sacred Self: Kathy Acker and Wonder.” Critical Innovations: Reading and Writing Experimental Texts. Robin Silbergleid and Kristina Quynn, editors. Palgrave Macmillan Press. October 2017.
“What I Learned from My Mother.” Seven Hills Review. Winner, Second Place, Penumbra Nonfiction Contest, Tallahassee Writers’ Association. Summer 2017.
“Running Toward Balance.” Parts Unbound: Narratives of Mental Illness and Health. Edited by Ginny Levy and Matthew Bohn. Lime Hawk Literary Collective. Anthology selection. October 2015.
“Mazes, Mushrooms, and Medicine: Living ‘Soft Bipolar.’” Tiferet: Literature, Art, and the Creative Spirit. Honorable Mention, 2014 Tiferet Writing Contest, Nonfiction. May 2015.
“My Mother’s Hips.” Ruminate Literary Magazine. VanderMey Nonfiction Prize, Winner, Honorable Mention. Issue 32. Summer 2014. Nominated for a Pushcart Prize, Spring 2015.
“1983.” Shifts: An Anthology of Women’s Growth through Change. Edited by Michelle Duster and Trina Sotira, with Jen Cullerton Johnson. Anthology selection. November 2014.
RECENT COLLEGE SERVICE
2020:
German Program Review, faculty consultation committee
Co-director, Iowa Humanities
Chair, Faculty Review Committee, Wartburg College
Appointee, Emergency Covid-19 Governance Task Force, Wartburg College
Guest instructor, Knight Vision Public Relations Creativity Workshop, Wartburg College
Faculty advisor for The Castle, student literary publication, Wartburg College (since 2008)
Appointed to the Faculty: 2006