Nancy Shiffrin's Creative Writing Services

WELCOME! I'm a widely published author/teacher with more than 20 years' experience helping aspiring writers achieve publication and personal satisfaction. I have published 2 collections of poetry, THE HOLY LETTERS and WHAT SHE COULD NOT NAME as well as a collection of essays, MY JEWISH NAME. My work has appeared in the LOS ANGELES TIMES, NEW YORK MAGAZINE, THE CANADIAN JEWISH OUTLOOK, NEW YORK QUARTERLY, HUMANISTIC JUDAISM and numerous other publications. I've authored or co-authored six non-fiction books, including PAST LIVES THERAPY (William Morrow 1978) with Morris Netherton. I've received awards and honors from THE ACADEMY OF AMERICAN POETS, THE DORA TEITELBAUM FOUNDATION, and the PUSHCART PRIZES. I received an M.A. degree in English studying with the late Anais Nin. I also received a Ph.D. in English from The Union Institute, Cincinatti, Ohio, where I studied Jewish-American women authors in the context of multiculturalism.

My teaching experiences includes Composition, English as a Second or Foreign Language, Creative Writing, Literature, Women's Studies, Spirituality, Jewish Literature, mentoring of graduate students, and artist residencies in a variety of academic and community settings. I'm a dynamic speaker. I've presented my work at Barnes and Noble Bookstores, the Lassen County Arts Council, the Santa Monica Public Library, The Society for Humanistic Judaism, the Workman's Circle, the San Gabriel Valley Poets, the National Women's Studies Association, The Mid-West and Western Jewish Studies Association. I'm available for workshops, lectures and readings.

If you have a book or a story or a poem inside you, I can help you share it with the world. My students work in all print genres, including poetry, fiction, autobiography, memoir, journalism, general non-fiction and academic writing. I can help you write theses and dissertations. I specialize in making difficult subjects accessible to the generally educated reader.

WRITE THE BOOK YOU WERE BORN TO WRITE!

I OFFER

ENCOURAGEMENT
REASONABLE RATES
INDIVIDUALIZED APPROACH
EXPERIENCE WITH FOREIGN LANGUAGE SPEAKERS
CREATIVE BREAKTHROUGH
EDITING, REVISION, MANUSCRIPT EVALUATION
GUIDANCE TOWARD PUBLICATION

I'M INTERESTED IN DEVELOPING
YOUR UNIQUE VOICE
YOUR INDIVIDUAL TALENT

About Nancy Shiffrin

"Nancy has been an instructor of courses in both the Writer's Program and the Humanities Department here at Learning Tree University. She has taught conventional genres of Creative Writing, including the novel and poetry, as well as a more practical course for writer and would-be writers, 'Writing While Making a Living'. Nancy has also helped pioneer more experimental, exploratory courses, such as her recent Humanties courses, 'The Goddess Cult: Myth, Divinity, and the Female Principle' and 'Life Beyond Reason: Literature of the Mystical Experience'. Our writing and humanities courses are not offered for academic credit, and so students enter these courses from widely varying educational backgrounds and degrees of familiarity with the material. This alone can present unusual and difficult challenges: the success of our courses is totally dependent on the ability of the instructor to read the needs of the class and adapt both methods and material to those needs. Nancy has been particulary successful at establishing a level of common ground among her students and at empowering them to ...explore new ideas and materials. I recommend Dr. Shiffrin highly as an instructor of the technical aspects of poetry, fiction and professional writing, and as an innovative thinker in many areas of literature and contemporary issues." Clodagh Harvey, Ph.D., Chair, Department of Humanities and Languages, Learning Tree University.

"Dr. Shiffrin offered an approach that went beyond the mechanics of rewriting what I had already done...Her insightful comments and thoughtful criticism guided me past my fear and insecurity to a free expression of my thoughts and feelings. She showed me how to use my own life experience as a springboard to fiction. Dr. Shiffrin suggested topics for free-writing exercises that kept the work flowing part my internal roadblocks. She suggested books and stories that illustrated different approaches to creative writing. Perhaps most importantly...she gave me the courage to believe in myself." Carol Bova

"What I want to emphasize, is Nancy's ability to determine what I need at any particular moment to keep me writing. Sometimes it is advice on some specific techniques I might try, or a book I might read. Other times it is nothing more than...encouragement not to give up, assurances I really am doing something worthwhile...Nancy's approach has given me faith in myself, and made the writing of my novel one of the most rewarding experiences of my life." Marcy Whalley

"Nancy Shiffrin had insights into my poetry that would have taken me months to arrive at. She readily picked up on the spirit of what I was attempting...and helped me reaffirm my belief that the soul of the work is more important than popular fads...Ms. Shiffrin believes that process is as important...as the end result. She...responded to the work in great depth. I believe that working with Nancy Shiffrin resulted in my being awarded a full scholarship to Vermont College, Post-Graduate Summer Program, August '99, (as well as) recent publication in The Louisville Review and other magazines...Dianna Henning, MFA, Facilitator, Lassen County Arts Council.