Education: I studied at Syracuse University as an undergrad and received my MFA from the University of Arizona. (Please consider the temperature differential between those two schools: roughly 100 degrees.)
Courses Taught: I’ve taught all levels of poetry and creative nonfiction. Right now I teach beginning and advanced creative nonfiction, the Living Writers Series, and Literary Citizenship.
Favorite Poets: Elizabeth Bishop, Jack Gilbert, Anne Carson, Li-Young Lee. Have met two and have heard three of them read.
Some of my favorite nonfiction authors: Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard; Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer; Lying by Lauren Slater; Maps to Anywhere by Bernard Cooper; On Looking by Lia Purpura; Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman; Fun Home by Alison Bechdel; and The Boys of My Youth by Jo Ann Beard.
Self-portrait in my study at home. (Bird painting by Amy E.Bartell)
Donna Steiner
Associate Professor
Donna Steiner's chapbook, Elements, was published by Sweet Publications in Spring 2013. Click the photo above to order a copy.
A few novels I’ve loved: To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf; One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez; Howards End by E.M. Forster; The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse by Louise Erdrich; Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann; Far Tortuga by Peter Matthiessen; and The Voyage of the Narwhal by Andrea Barrett.
Miscellany: I love maps, my favorite place in the world is Sandy Hook beach in New Jersey, and a perfect day would consist of hanging out with friends, eating Thai food and talking until we’re hoarse. I’d wrap it up by watching a Wes Anderson movie or sleeping somewhere balmy enough to have the windows open.
If you’re looking for advice about blogging or MFA programs, or want to discuss the ethics of writing creative nonfiction or learn what literary citizenship is, talk to Professor Steiner.
Click here to be taken to Professor Steiner's official SUNY Oswego faculty page.
