Her stories, poems, and essays have appeared in Salon Magazine, Women's Studies Quarterly, Journal of Developmental Education, The Wisconsin Academy Review, and HipMama, as well as other magazines and anthologies.  She speaks at universities and conferences on a variety of topics, including first-year experience, critical thinking, third-wave feminism, and the depiction of masculinities in popular film.  She was the recipient of the 2004 Academic Staff Excellence in Performance Award from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and the 2006 University of Wisconsin-System Regent Award for Excellence.   

Bruce Taylor, Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, has taught courses including first-year experience, introduction to college writing, creative writing, American literature, as well as in the Honors Program in his thirty-five years as a college teacher.  He is the author of six books of poetry, including Pity the World (Plainview Press) and This Day (Juniper Press); he is the editor of seven anthologies, including the UPRIVER series of Wisconsin Poetry and Prose, and Wisconsin Poetry, published by the Wisoconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters..  His poetry, prose, and translations have appeared in such places as Carve Magazine, The Chicago Review, Exquisite Corpse, The Nation, Nerve, The New York Quarterly, The Northwest Review, Poetry, and E2ink-1: the Best of the Online Journals 2002.

    He has also served as a member of the Literature Panel of the Wisconsin Arts Board and host of The Writer's Workshop: Wisconsin ETN, and he has served as program scholar and consultant for the Wisconsin Humanities Council, the Lila Wallace Foundation, the L.E. Phillips Library, and the Annenberg/CPB Project.  He has won awards and fellowships from the Wisconsin Arts Board, Fullbright-Hayes, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Bush Artist Foundation. He was the recipient of the 2004 Excellence in Scholarship Award from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, and the 2006 Major Acheivment Award from the Council of Wisconsin Writers for his lifetime of work as a poet, teacher, and community arts advocate.

We wwould love to hear from you. Please e-mail the authors with any feedback or suggestions at seepk@uwec.edu or taylorb@uwec.edu

• From Up from Slavery   ·    Booker T. Washington    *  MEMOIR (1901)  Prejudices in 1872 force the author to sleep outside during his journey to college, but when he finally reaches what he calls his “promised land,” he must pass an unconventional test before he is admitted.
• Incurring My Mother’s Displeasure    ·    Zitkala-Sa     *  MEMOIR (1900)  Recounts the author’s difficulty balancing her Native American childhood with learning the “white man’s ways” at college and living with the pain of disobeying her mother by continuing her education.
• From One Writer’s Beginnings   ·    Eudora Welty    MEMOIR (1983) Chronicles this Pulitzer prize winning author’s earliest memories in a household that valued books.
• NEW! From The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir ·  Kao Kalia Yang   *  MEMOIR (2008) An immigrant family follows the American dream: education for the children and a house of their own.
• Saved    ·    Malcolm X     *  MEMOIR (1965) Malcolm X uses his time in jail to hone his reading and writing skills. 
• NEW! Student Response to “Saved”
• Miss Rinehart’s Paddle    ·    Jeri McCormick  POEM (1991) Depicts the loss of power for students who always follow the rules and those who can’t help themselves.
• 50% Chance of Lightning    ·    Cristina Salat   FICTION (1994) Best friends and high school seniors decide their futures much differently: Robin has the guts to “come out” in a column in her school newspaper, but she is unsure that she will find her life’s plan in a college catalogue. 
• Somewhere in Minnesota    ·    Peter Klein   *  POEM/STUDENT WRITTEN (1979)  The “brilliant future” that awaits many high school graduates is especially bright as portrayed in their senior photos.
• LD    ·    Jeff Richards   ESSAY (2000)   First-person account of what it’s like to live and thrive with a learning disability.
• School’s Out: One Young Man Puzzles Over His Future Without College    ·    Laura Sessions Stepp  
• ARTICLE (2002)   A high school graduate chooses the factory over the university.    
• 8th Grade Final Exam  Exam (1895)   An original test on file at the Smoky Valley Genealogical Society and Library in Salina, Kansas.
• NEW! This Was the Assignment: Disability Culture   ·     Peter Gimbel    ESSAY/STUDENT WRITTEN (2007) A young man with Duchenne muscular dystrophy describes his membership in “white culture” and “disability culture.”
• NEW! This was the assignment: College Ain’t Cheap   ·   Alexander J.F. Thornton   ESSAY/STUDENT WRITTEN (2009)  A would-be scholarship recipient writes why he’s the “most deserving person on the planet” to be awarded money to pursue a degree in nursing, even if he’s got testicles.
• Further Suggestions for Writing
• Selected Films     

Chapter TWO: School Daze -  Life in the First Year

• A Day in the Life of...    ·    Greg Adams      POEM/STUDENT WRITTEN (1994)      Offers a sequence of concrete nouns and name-brand products to show one college student’s life in which the only action is “rewind,” a clue to get up and do it all again.
• My First Week at Mizzou    ·    Andrew Hicks        JOURNAL/STUDENT WRITTEN (1995)   A blog of one student’s first week at a mega-university.
• Hunters and Gatherers    ·    Jennifer Hale      JOURNAL/STUDENT WRITTEN (1996)   An excerpt from a course journal shows the connection between one student’s social life and what she’s learning in her history classes. 
• From Lummox: Evolution of a Man   ·    Mike Magnuson      MEMOIR (2001)  A weekend in jail helps this suspended student find his path as an intellectual. 
• Outside In: The Life of a Commuter Student    ·    Patti See   *     ESSAY (1998)  Describes a less-than-traditional college experience in which the only friends the narrator makes during her first year are professors and custodians. 
• NEW! Student response to “Outside In: The Life of a Commuter Student”.
• From I Walk in Beauty   ·    Davina Ruth Begaye Two Bears     *  ESSAY/STUDENT WRITTEN (1997)      Tells the story of how one student simultaneously received one of the worst and best grades a student can.
• NEW! Sisterhood ·   Stephanie Stillman-Spisak    MEMOIR/STUDENT WRITTEN (2000) A sorority member feels comfortable coming out to her peers.
• NEW! Walking in My French Shoes  ·   Benedicte Bachelot  ARTICLE/ STUDENT WRITTEN (2009) A French exchange student discovers she needs a little orientation to America after all. 
• NEW! Lost in Italy ·   Elizabeth Barney  ARTICLE/ STUDENT WRITTEN (2009) An American student abroad learns what it’s like to be that strange, foreign, annoying girl.
• NEW! First Year in College is the Riskiest  ·   Robert Davis and Anthony Debarros   ARTICLE  (2006) Details how alcohol can make first-year college students more vulnerable.
• NEW! This was the Assignment: History as a Student  ·   Kayla Piper *   ESSAY/STUDENT WRITTEN (2010) A low-income student tells how she found success in school, even without her own computer.
• Further Suggestions for Writing
• Selected Films     

Chapter THREE: Student Relations -  Family, Friends, and Lovers

• Raspberries    ·    Jennifer Fandel      POEM/STUDENT WRITTEN (1993)    Discusses the heaviness of new love, often too much for the vine and the heart.
• Ten Commandments for a College Freshman    ·    Joseph McCabe      LETTER (1963)    Offers advice to first-year students in a personal letter from father to son.
• NEW! Commandments for a First-Year Student (From His Mom) ·   Patsy Sanchez *   LIST (2009)  Contemporary advice to first-year students from a mother.
• Carmen    ·    Jennifer Sheridan      FICTION/STUDENT WRITTEN (1996)   Best friends make their way through college by taking turns mothering each other among people who do not seem to care.
• “Who Shall I Be?” The Allure of a Fresh Start    ·    Jennifer Crichton      ESSAY (1984)  Students sometimes expect to find a reinvention of self at college.
• NEW! Welcome to Facebook ·   Cody Meyers   RESEARCH PAPER/STUDENT WRITTEN (2006) A student researches the history of the world’s most popular social network.
• What It’s Really Like    ·    Frank Smoot      POEM/STUDENT WRITTEN (1995)  A never-taken chance at love.
• No More Kissing — AIDS Everywhere  ·    Michael Blumenthal      POEM (1989)  The link between love and death is portrayed through the metaphor of a kiss.
• Dear Concerned Mother  ·    Jill Wolfson      ARTICLE (2001)   Writing students in juvenile hall offer great parenting advice to their teacher, whose son is giving her some trouble.
• The Undeclared Major  ·    Will Weaver     *       FICTION (1989)   A farm kid struggles with telling his dad he’s majoring in English.  NEW! Student response to The Undeclared Major.
• Homeward Bond  ·    Daisy Nguyen     *   ESSAY/STUDENT WRITTEN (1998)   Illustrates the differences between school and home, places to use one’s mind and one’s heart.
• Everyday Use  ·    Alice Walker    *   FICTION (1973)   An older daughter returns to the country homestead with new ideas about family relics.
• NEW! This was the assignment: Liberating Act
• The Stages, Struggles and Reliefs of Coming Out  ·   Alicia Merclazo  RESEARCH PAPER/STUDENT WRITTEN (2010) Despite the risks, a college student writes to her extended family about her sexual orientation.
• Further Suggestions for Writing    
• Selected Films    

Chapter FOUR: Teacher, Teacher -  Will This Be on the Test?

• Take This Fish and Look ·    Samuel H. Scudder      ESSAY (1874)     A retrospective look at the interaction between Scudder as a young botany student and his professor, who teaches an important exercise in observation.
• NEW!  from How Lincoln Learned to Read: Twelve Great Americans and the Educations that Made Them  ·   Daniel Wolff  NON-FICTION (2009) ~ Examples of formal and not-so-formal educations of famous Americans.
• Teachers: A Primer  ·    Ron Wallace      POEM (1989)   A series of sonnets depicts influential teachers in the narrator’s life and how they helped form the future poet.
• From Tales Out of School  ·    Susan Richards Shreve      ESSAY (2000)   Stories about school days from the author’s perspective  as student, teacher, and parent.
• Signed, Grateful   ·   Kate Boyes     *    ESSAY (1998)   A returning adult student writes a thank-you letter to the professor who motivated her to overcome her fear of public speaking and eventually enroll in a doctoral program.
• NEW! Student response to “Signed, Grateful”
• What Teachers Make  ·    Taylor Mali      POEM (2002)   It’s about more than making money.
• NEW! This was the Assignment: Teacher Observation ·  Jon Anderson   ESSAY/ STUDENT WRITTEN (2009) A student on probation-after-suspension depicts his evolvingrelationship with his biology professor when he retakes her class and earns an A.
• Further Suggestions for Writing
• Selected Films    

Chapter FIVE: Been There, Done That -  Looking Forward, Looking Back

• NEW! Bricklayer’s Boy ·  Alfred Lubrano  *   MEMOIR (1989) A blue-collar father and a white-collar son have different expectations.
• When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer  ·    Walt Whitman     *  POEM (1892)   The difference between the way a poet and a scientist see the world, as well as a brief lesson about hands-on learning.
• The Art of Regret  ·    Jonathon Ritz      ESSAY (1999)   Looking back on “what if” and its remorseful cousin “if only.”
• Raising My Hand  ·    Antler     *  POEM (1990)  The narrator scrutinizes his formal education for lessons that did not, and perhaps could not, prepare him for adult life.
• NEW! It’s Electric: Fragments of My Life as an Epileptic  ·  Amanda Schaefer   RESEARCH ESSAY/STUDENT WRITTEN (2004) An English major borrows from a variety of texts totell her story.
• Reunion  ·    Dawn Karima Pettigrew     *  POEM/STUDENT WRITTEN (1998) A rumination on the rift education has made between the narrator and her Native American background, especially in the company of her boyfriend and colleagues.
• Scarlet Ribbons  ·    Michael Perry      ESSAY (1999)   Tells the story of how a registered nurse became a writer and why that was not so great a change as one might first expect. 
• NEW!  Student responses to “Scarlet Ribbons”.
• Passion  ·    Monica Coleman      ESSAY (1997)   A woman who thought she knew her life’s plan discovers a new calling she can’t refuse.
• On the Radio  ·    Richard Terrill       Poem (2003)   The difference between what’s learned in school and what’s learned from experience in the world.
• NEW! "Only Connect": The Goals of a Liberal Education ·   William Cronon  ARTICLE (1998)  Ten qualities of a liberally educated person.
• NEW! This was the Assignment: “Instructions for Life” LIST/ STUDENT WRITTEN (2010) 50 “instructions” compiled from students  that may shape the way they  want to live their lives.
•  Further Suggestions for Writing
• Selected Films    

*FIRST GENERATION AUTHORS

*First-generation writer

Appendix: Thinking and Writing About Film

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