Charles Aukema, Professor of English
A.B. Calvin College
M.F.A. University of Iowa, Iowa Writers' Workshop

In addition to teaching creative writing, Professor Aukema teaches studies computer applications in writing. These include writing hypertext fiction. He is the founder of The Coe Review, the college's nationally known literary magazine.

Robert D. Drexler, Whipple Professor of English
B.A. Amherst College
M.A. University of Iowa
Ph.D. University of Chicago

Author of two poetry chapbooks, Dr. Drexler has been director of the ACM Japan studies Program, director of the India Studies Program at Puna, and a Fulbright Lecturer at Chiang Mai University in Thailand.  He teaches Early Modern British, Medieval English, 20th Century British, Irish and Asian Literature.

Carol Gorman
B.A. University of Iowa

Ms. Gorman has published more than 35 novels for young readers.  These books have won numerous awards, including New York City Public Library's Books for the Teen Age, American Library Association's Children's and Young Adult Choice Awards, American Booksellers' Pick of the Lists, and honorable mention from the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights. Her books have sold to publishers in England, France, Germany, Sweden, and Finland. She teaches creative writing and courses in the Genders Studies Program. One of her more recent books is Stumptown Kid, a novel about an interracial friendship in a small Midwestern town in the 1950s.

Personal Web site

Gina Hausknecht, Associate Professor of English
B.A. Oberlin College
M.A., Ph.D. University of Michigan

Dr. Hausknecht teaches early modern British literature, including Shakespeare, British Renaissance poetry, and the Milton seminar. She also teaches gender studies and teaches regularly in the First Year Seminar program. She has published articles on Milton, 17th century literature and culture, pedagogy and technology, and girls in contemporary popular culture.

Terry Heller, Howard Hall Professor of English
A.B. North Central College
A.M., Ph.D. University of Chicago

Dr. Heller is author of The Delights of Terror and The Turn of the Screw: Bewildered Vision,  and editor of Sarah Orne Jewett's The Country of the Pointed Firs and Other Fiction.  He has written reference articles, short fiction, and literary journal essays .He is the current manager of the on-line archive, the Sarah Orne Jewett Text Project. Dr. Heller teaches Russian, American, and popular literature.  One of his favorite courses is Monsters in Film.

Personal Web site

Gordon Mennenga, Assistant Professor of English
B.A. University of Northern Iowa
M.F.A. University of Iowa, Iowa Writers' Workshop

Professor Mennenga is a fiction writer whose short story, "Peepers" won a Nelson Algren Award. He has written monologues for Garrison Keillor and a film based on a monologue was released in 1999.  Professor Mennenga teaches film and creative writing. His academic interests include hip hop music and popular culture.

James Randall, Stead Family Professor of English
B.S. North Carolina Agricultural and Technical University
M.A. Carnegie Mellon University

Professor Randall's offerings include courses in African-American, Caribbean, and African literature; he also teaches African-American history. He helped establish the Cedar Rapids African American Historical Museum and Cultural Center of Iowa.

Melissa Sodeman, Assistant professor of English
B.A. University of Washington, Seattle
M.A. Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles

Professor Sodeman is a scholar of 18th and 19th-century English Literature. She has published on Jane Austen and has given several conference presentations related to her George Eliot award-winning Ph.D. dissertation, "Wandering, Form, and the Sentimental Novel."

Ann Struthers, Writer-in-Residence and Visiting Professor of English
B.A. Morningside College
M.A., Ph.D. University of Iowa

Founding faculty advisor for The Pearl, Dr. Struthers is the author of two chapbooks and two collections of poetry. She has published numerous book reviews, articles in literature reference books, academic essays, and short fiction. She was a Fulbright Fellow in Syria and in Sri Lanka. She teaches creative writing, modern American literature, and Middle Eastern Literature.

Patrick Naick, Visiting CFD Scholar 2007-2008
B.A. University of California, Berkeley
M.A. Purdue University
Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Iowa

Mr. Naick is completing his Ph.D. in American Studies.  His dissertation "Representations of the Black Metropolis: Place and African American
Identity on Chicago's South Side" focuses on the Chicago Renaissance in 20th-century African-American literature and arts.