Bruce Walsh
Adjunct Professor of English
Interest and areas of expertise
Creative Writing: fiction, plays, screenplays, teleplays, podcasts
Education
- MFA, Playwriting, Indiana University Bloomington
- BA, Theater, Temple University
Classes I teach
Fiction Workshop
Profile
Since receiving his MFA in playwriting from Indiana University Bloomington in 2017, Bruce's plays have been produced around the country, winning the Heideman Award, the Gary Garrison National Ten Minute Play Award, and the Maxim Mazumdar New Play Competition. Before attending IU, he was a longtime arts reporter and editor for the Philadelphia Metro and City Paper, where he wrote over a thousand features on the many talented, visionary artists of the Philadelphia region. He has previously taught creative writing at IU and Millersville University.
Most college writing is predicated on constructing cogent arguments. The student is encouraged to stake out intellectual territory and defend it from aggressors. Though it is an important skill to learn, this is not what a creative writing classroom is about. Interesting creative writing has a tendency to dissolve the state of mind that constructs these arguments. It touches us in ways that are difficult to explain, but none-the-less delivers wisdom that slowly unfolds over time. Because this artform necessarily ebbs away from any singular line of reasoning, writers often confront the many contradictory values, choices, fears, loves, etcetera, that they hold within. It's a messy difficult business. But, of one thing I am sure, when students get together to help each other write better fiction, a sacred space is formed. And I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.
Some of Professor Walsh's favorite books include:
On creative writing:
Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott
Writing Down the Bones, Natalie Goldberg
A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, George Saunders
Plawywrights Teach Playwriting, edited by Joan Herrington and Crystal Brian
Other favorite books (life changing):
The Courage To Be, Paul Tillich
Falling Upwards, Richard Rohr
Sickness Unto Death, Soren Kierkegaard
New Seeds of Contemplation, Thomas Merton
The Happiest Baby on the Block: The New Way to Calm Crying and Help Your Newborn Baby Sleep Longer, Harvey Karp
Publications
“Grown-Ass Louis,” A Younger Ten: Writing the Ten-Minute Play, Hackett Publishing Co., 2020, pp 30-36
“Grown-Ass Louis,” Best Ten Minute Plays of 2019, Smith and Kraus, 2019, pp 301-12