Meet our talented family of teachers—each an accomplished writer and trustworthy guide. Leaf through our faculty bios, profiles, book excerpts, and writing advice articles. You’ll like the people you meet.
Irene Zabytko

Faculty Profile

Meet Irene Zabytko

If there’s one thing Irene Zabytko loves, it’s exploring the world through the written word.


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K Hank Jost

Faculty Profile

Meet K Hank Jost

If you spend any amount of time with K Hank Jost, you’ll know reading and writing are his favorite things in the world.

It’s a love that colors everything he’s done—as a Gotham Fiction Writing teacher, a novelist, a founder of a literary journal, and even as a bartender.

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The instructor had an almost uncanny ability to spot the key elements necessary to make a good story great.

Robert Watson, environmental advocate

Faculty Excerpts

Night and Its Longings

Night and Its Longings

Philip Cioffari
These are the opening pages of Philip Cioggari's new novel, Night and Its Longings, a tale of desire, adultery and crime.***PROLOGUENew York City, 3 a.m.July, 1995This is the Nite Hawk, coming to you from the far end of your radio...
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Shaken

Shaken

James Preller
This is an excerpt from James Preller's latest middle-grade novel, Shaken.***It was the first time Kristy was alone for the day in an empty house. No problem. She’d just take it slow, recover.That was the word, over and over, recover.“That’s...
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Faculty Articles

Robert Repino

The Essential Storytelling Device that Fuels Superman and The Matrix

Robert Repino
I am both proud and slightly horrified to say that my first published novel took over a year to write, and three long years to rewrite. And that’s not counting the failed book projects that preceded it over the previous...
Barbara DeMarco-Barrett

On Revision

Barbara DeMarco-Barrett
Writers have a love­/hate relationship with revi­sion. On the one hand, we hate it because we want our pieces to come out right the first time, and the drafting process is so much more fun, full of prom­ise and discovery,...