Résumé

CHRISTIAN McEWEN,
P.O. Box 313,
WILLIAMSBURG, MA 01096
Website: www.christianmcewen.com
Email: christianmcewen@gmail.com

TEACHING:

Freelance workshop leader at the Zen Mountain Monastery, NY, at Rowe Conference Center, MA, and at numerous other venues, with a focus on poetry and nature writing, creativity and slowing down. 2000 – ongoing.

Adjunct faculty: Williams College, Center for Environmental Studies, Winter Studies Program. 1998-ongoing. Helps students develop “a mind of winter” through disciplined exercises in writing and drawing.

Writer-in-the-schools: Teachers & Writers Collaborative, City Lore and ALPS (Alternative Literary Programs), and The Scottish Poetry Library: 1988-ongoing. Conducts workshops in schools and senior centers, documenting their outcome through anthologies, public readings and radio programs.

Interviewer: Sparks From the Anvil: 2009-2013. Conducted in-depth interviews with visiting poets for the Smith College Poetry Reading Series.

Lecturer: Lesley University, Creative Arts in Learning Program. 1996-2009. Taught teachers to use poetry in the classroom.

Eugene Lang College and Parsons School of Art and Design. 1992-94. Designed courses in memoir, nature poetry and creative writing.

Writer: Roots & Branches Intergenerational Theater. 1991-94.  Worked with seniors  (65-88) and New York University acting students (19-23) to script and produce a series of full-length plays.

Advisor: Brooklyn Public Library Literacy Program. 1986-88. Taught weekly writing groups, tested and evaluated literacy students.

Creative Writing Teacher: Fulham and South Kensington Adult Education Institute, and University of London, Goldsmith’s College. 1984-86. Initiated new programs and weekend workshops. Organized readings and published the magazine, Off the Cuff.

Counselor: Casa La Vida, Oakland, California. 1981-82. Taught weekly writing groups and published the magazine, Undiagnosed.

PUBLICATIONS:

Articles in Lion’s Roar, Granta, The Mindfulness Bell, The American Voice, Orion Afield; and in numerous anthologies, including Out of the Class Closet: Lesbians Speak; My Mother’s Daughter: Stories by Women; The Granta Book of the Family; and in Old Faithful: 18 Writers Present Their Favorite Writing Assignment. Reviews in The Nation, The Village Voice, and the Shambhala Sun.

Poems in Poiesis; Sinister Wisdom; Poems for Peace; Love Poems By Women: An anthology of poetry from around the world and through the ages; Virago New Poets and My Lover is a Woman: Contemporary Lesbian Love Poems, and in numerous other journals.

Editor: Naming the Waves: Contemporary Lesbian Poetry, and, with Sue O’Sullivan, Out the Other Side: Contemporary Lesbian Writing (1989). Also edited Jo’s Girls: Tomboy Tales of High Adventure (1997), and, with Mark Statman, The Alphabet of the Trees: A Guide to Nature Writing (2000).

Own books: In the Wake of Home (2004). World Enough & Time: On Creativity and Slowing Down (2011). Audio ed: 2014. The Tortoise Diaries: On Creativity and Slowing Down (2014). Sparks from the Anvil: The Smith College Poetry Interviews (2015). Legal Tender: Women & the Secret Life of Money (2019), In Praise of Listening:  A Gathering of Stories (2023).

Video documentary Tomboys! Feisty Girls & Spirited Women (2004) co-produced with Julie Akeret.

EDUCATION:

B.A., English and Social Anthropology, Kings College, Cambridge, England, 1979. M.A., English, University of California at Berkeley, 1982.

AWARDS:

Fulbright Scholarship, 1979; the Lambda Literary Award, 1989 & 1997; The Fund for Poetry, 1991; The Quadrangle Award for Poetry, Springfield, MA (first prize), 2002; Fresno Reel Pride: Directors Club Award Best Short, 2005; Massachusetts Cultural Council: Artist Fellowship in Playwriting, 2011. Bechtel Prize, 2016.

FELLOWSHIPS:

Yaddo, MacDowell, Cummington, Millay, Hambidge Center, Cottages at Hedgebrook, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Associate at Five College Women’s Studies Research Center, Mount Holyoke, 2010-2011, Mesa Refuge 2016.

About Christian McEwen

Biography

Christian is a writer and workshop leader who currently lives in Williamsburg, Massachusetts. She has edited five anthologies, including Jo’s Girls: Tomboy Tales of High Adventure (Beacon Press, 1997), The Alphabet of the Trees: A Guide to Nature Writing (Teachers & Writers, 2000), and Sparks from the Anvil: The Smith College Poetry Interviews (Bauhan Publishing, 2015). Her book World Enough & Time: On Creativity and Slowing Down (Bauhan Publishing, 2011) is now in its second edition, and also exists in an audio format (read, in its entirety, by Christian herself). It has also given rise to a little book of slow quotes called The Tortoise Diaries (Bauhan Publishing, 2014). Christian has written for the Nation and The Village Voice, and for numerous other journals, including The Edinburgh Review of Books and Shambhala Sun. In 2004, she helped produce the video documentary Tomboys! Her most recent book is In Praise of Listening: A Gathering of Stories (Bauhan Publishing, 2023) in print and audio (Tantor Media, 2024).

Christian grew up in the Borders of Scotland, and first came to the United States on a Fulbright Scholarship. She has taught poetry and creative writing at a number of different venues, including Williams College in Massachusetts, the Zen Mountain Monastery in Upstate New York, and the Scottish Poetry Library in Edinburgh. She has also worked as a writer-in-the-schools for ALPS and the Teachers & Writers Collaborative. Christian has been a fellow, several times, at both the MacDowell Colony and at Yaddo. In 2011 she received a grant in playwriting from the MA Cultural Council. For more information, please see her résumé and a further list of publications.

Interviews

 

Sparks poetry interviews

 

Work Samples

Bechtel Prize

Christian was awarded the 2016 Bechtel Prize for her essay on the Scottish poet and translator, Alastair Reid. The piece is called “Alastair Reid: Traveling Light” and can be viewed here on the Teachers & Writers website.

Articles

Christian McEwen taught a day long workshop with Phyllis Labanowski on “Anxiety, Abundance & the New Regime” at the Art Garden in Shelburne Falls. See Trish Crapo’s article “What’s Your Money Story?” in the Greenfield Recorder.

Short Bio

Christian McEwen is a freelance writer and workshop leader, originally from the UK. She is the author of several books, including World Enough & Time: On Creativity and Slowing Down, now in its second edition. Her most recent book is In Praise of Listening: A Gathering of Stories. Her articles have appeared in The Nation, The Village Voice, The American Scholar, and Lion’s Roar, and she has edited a number of books, including Jo’s Girls: Tomboy Tales of High Adventure; The Alphabet of the Trees: A Guide to Nature Writing; and Sparks from the Anvil: The Smith College Poetry Interviews. Christian has enjoyed residencies at Yaddo, MacDowell, Mesa Refuge, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and has received a fellowship in playwriting from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. She lives in western Massachusetts. www.christianmcewen.com