Olivia Gerber Selected as Residential Teaching Fellow at the Bennington Writing Seminars
Olivia Gerber '15, an MFA student in nonfiction, has been selected to be the seventeenth Residential Teaching Fellow at the Bennington Writing Seminars.
Olivia Gerber '15, an MFA student in nonfiction, has been selected to be the seventeenth Residential Teaching Fellow at 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. Gerber, who was also an undergraduate at Bennington, will begin her fellowship in September.
“This competitive fellowship is a unique opportunity for our MFA students and it affords them intensive teaching experience under the guidance of an established faculty member,” said Megan Culhane Galbraith, Director of the Bennington Writing Seminars. “We are delighted that Olivia is this term’s teaching fellow, and I am thrilled this program continues to thrive.”
Gerber will be working with literature faculty member Jenny Boully in the class Fundamentals of Creative Writing. 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.
“The Bennington undergraduate classroom was instrumental in shaping my practice as an artist and writer, and in that way, Bennington feels like a sort of home,” said Gerber. “It's a dream to return to those rooms in this capacity and an honor to work with and learn from Jenny Boully in the process.”
Olivia Gerber is a writer, musician and arts worker. Performing as A.O. Gerber, she has released critically acclaimed albums that have been featured by publications such as NPR, NYLON and The Line of Best Fit, and her writing has been published in the Los Angeles Review of Books, among other venues. She has been an artist in residence at Hedgebrook, the Bootleg Theater, and the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation of New Mexico, and has received support from institutions such as Tin House and Lighthouse Writers Workshop. She is currently based in Providence, RI where she is working on a book of nonfiction.
The fellowship is open to enrolled Bennington MFA students rising into their second, third, or fourth term. Students are mentored 1:1 with the faculty member with whom they are working, and continue to work on their MFA coursework and manuscript.
For more information about the Bennington Writing Seminars, or to apply to the MFA program, please visit the website. The application deadlines are September 1 (to begin in the Winter term) and March 1 (to begin in the Summer term).