Ariél M. Martinez Selected as Bennington Writing Seminars Residential Teaching Fellow
Ariél M. Martinez, an MFA student in nonfiction, has been selected to be the seventh Residential Teaching Fellow at the Bennington Writing Seminars.
The fellowship is the first of its kind in the country to offer full-time undergraduate teaching experience in a low-residency MFA format. Benefits include full tuition remission for one term, housing and board, and enrollment in an on-campus class. Martinez will begin in August.
“We conceived this fellowship to give Bennington students a unique opportunity to have full-time teaching experience and also to work closely with our literary partners,” said Mark Wunderlich, Director of the Bennington Writing Seminars. “We’re thrilled to have Ariél here as a Residential Teaching Fellow. Her skills and experience are well-suited to this position and we’re excited that we can return to in-person teaching.”
Martinez will be working with Bennington faculty member Manuel Gonzales in his class, Screenwriting: The Story Studio. Her duties include grading, advising, assisting in the development of course materials, guest lecturing, and research, among other responsibilities, along with continuing her regular MFA coursework.
“Spending the semester immersed in the classroom is a dream come true and I am so excited to work alongside Manuel this fall,” said Martinez. “I am very grateful to Bennington for this opportunity!”
Ariél M. Martinez is a queer femme writer from San Antonio, Texas. She holds a BA from Bard College, where she majored in social sciences with a concentration in gender & sexuality studies. She attended the Tin House 2020 Winter Workshop and her work has been published or is forthcoming from The Rumpus, Peach Mag, and The Gordon Square Review. She is working on a memoir and lives on the East Coast with her chihuahua, Frida.
This competitive fellowship is open to Bennington MFA students rising into their second, third or fourth term. Students are mentored one-on-one with the on-campus faculty member with whom they are working, and by the faculty mentor with whom they have been assigned to work on their manuscript. Martinez has studied with Bennington faculty members Jenny Boully, Dinah Lenney, and Chelsea Hodson.
Application deadlines to the Bennington Writing Seminars are September 1 (for admission to the January residency) and March 1 (for admission to the June residency.)