Brodie Gress

Class of 2014, BFA in Creative Writing

Brodie Gress

What was your favorite part of studying Creative Writing at UE?

The professors. I know everyone says that, but the writer-teachers at UE care just as much about your development as a writer as their own. I remember them encouraging me to submit my pieces and offering to set up conference times during their office hours. And they are superb in class; Paul Bone's impressions and Rob Griffith's outrageous metaphors are hilarious.

What did you experience in UE's CRW department that feels special/unique to our program?

There are so many aspects: studying Shakespeare at Harlaxton, the small student-to-teacher ratios, and the opportunities to meet prolific, terrific writers. A few years after graduating, I returned to a few of the coffeehouse readings and was inspired to apply for graduate programs. No matter how many years it's been, Creative Writing at UE welcomes its alumni back with open arms.

What was your favorite Creative Writing class and why?

I took Rob Griffith's humor writing course and discovered one of my favorite authors in that class. Through his class, I learned not to take writing so seriously all the time. It's okay to have fun with it! I also enjoyed a contemporary poets course, screenwriting, and fiction workshops. I even liked the “grammar boot camp” my freshman year. It's hard to forget about punctuation and grammar rules when the professor puts zombies in nearly every example sentence.

What are you up to now?

I'm working on a Masters of Fine Arts in fiction writing at Western Kentucky University. I love it! It shares a lot of the same qualities I loved about the UE program: the small classes, academic focus, and multiple genre offerings.

I'm certainly writing again now, currently working on essays and short stories. I still remember jumping for joy when I published my first poem in a small undergraduate journal, and since then I've published a few short stories, an essay, and several more poems. If you work hard, your oeuvre of good writing will grow a lot during your career with UE; send it all out!

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