Summer Creative Writing Institute Faculty
Professor Joshua Isard is a native of the Philadelphia area, and has been teaching creative writing, composition, and literature since 2004. Before coming to Arcadia, he held positions at Temple University and Drexel University.
He completed his undergraduate studies at Temple University, and studied creative writing at the University of Edinburgh with acclaimed writers Alan Jamieson and Dilys Rose. Professor Isard later earned a master’s degree in modern literature from University College London.
Prof. Isard is currently the Direcor of Arcadia’s M.F.A. program in Creative Writing. His fiction has recently appeared in Storychord, Northwind Magazine, Inscribed, The Broadkill Review, and Press 1. He has also worked with and written for several publications, including The American Poetry Review, and Philadelphia Weekly.
His first novel will be published in 2013 by Cinco Puntos Press.
Professor Tracey Levine grew up in Northeast Philadelphia and has been teaching creative writing, composition, literature, and film courses for seven years. She currently teaches at Arcadia, Bucks County Community College and at Community College of Philadelphia, and has taught at Syracuse University. She has also been active at Bucks County Community College in creating and facilitating a student-run book club.
Prof. Levine earned a B.F.A. in Screenwriting from the University of the Arts, an M.A. in English from Arcadia University, and an M.F.A. in Fiction from Syracuse University where she was on fellowship. She has worked at WHYY on several documentary projects, and her creative writing work has appeared in Verbal Seduction, Metropolis VoxPop, and the Philadelphia Citypaper. She was a finalist in the Glimmer Train Family Matters Contest in 2010, and was also involved in the Living Writer’s Reading Series at Syracuse University, and is currently working on a collection of short fiction.
Professor Gretchen Haertsch has taught graduate and undergraduate writing and literature classes at Arcadia University since 2000. Her advanced writing classes include Magazine Writing and Writing for Children. She has taught a children’s literature course for the Honors Program and a spring 2012 course in classic Scottish children’s literature that culminates with a week in Scotland. She also mentors students in middle grade and young adult novel writing and research.
A freelance writer for more than 25 years, her work has appeared in magazines, newspapers, and juvenile textbooks. Her publishing credits include such diverse publications as People, Places, Plants Magazine, Garden Borders, Strength and Health, and Early American Life, as well as various newspapers. Her juvenile writing credits include creative classroom materials for Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, as well as fiction and nonfiction for magazines such as MetroKids, Hopscotch, The Friend, and Junior Trails.
She received a B.A. in journalism and advertising from Pennsylvania State University and an M.A. in English from Arcadia University. She writes picture books, middle grade, and YA — both fiction and nonfiction — and is particularly interested in historical fiction.
Recent Visiting Writers
Justin Kramon is the award-winning author of the novel Finny (Random House 2010). A graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, he has published stories in Glimmer Train, Story Quarterly, Boulevard, Fence, TriQuarterly, and others. He has received honors from the Michener-Copernicus Society of America, Best American Short Stories, the Hawthornden International Writers' Fellowship, and the Bogliasco Foundation. He teaches at Gotham Writers' Workshop in New York City and at the Iowa Young Writers' Studio. He lives in Philadelphia.
Paul Elwork was the visiting writer for the 2011 Creative Writing Institute. He has a bachelor's degree in anthropology from Temple University and a master's degree in English from Arcadia University. His stories have been published in various literary journals, including SmokeLong Quarterly, Philadelphia Stories, Word Riot, Quiet Feather, and Johnny America. His novel The Girl Who Would Speak for the Dead came out from Amy Einhorn Books (Penguin Group) in March 2011. He lives in Philadelphia.
Dr. Richard Wertime was the visiting writer for the 2010 Creative Writing Institute. He has taught English since 1968, and is now a full Professor and Director of Arcadia’s Graduate program, specializing in English Literature of the Renaissance, the Restoration, and the Eighteenth Century, with a special emphasis on Renaissance drama. More recently, he has focused on contemporary American fiction, with special emphasis on creative writing. His memoir, Citadel on the Mountain, was published in 2000, and won the 2001 James A. Michener Memorial Prize in Literature.
