The Arts and Letters Division at Delta College has a number of creative writing faculty specializing in different areas. Meet your faculty!
Dr. Mark Brown
Title: Dr./Associate Professor/Honors Director
Classes Taught:
- ENG 111 – Comp 1
- ENG 112 – Comp 2
- ENG 120 – Intro to Creative Writing
- ENG 226 – Intro to Film
- ENG 227 – American Motion Picture
- ENG 254 – Creative Writing: Fiction
- EMB 175 – Studies in Film Genre
Favorite Writers: Robert Hass, Willa Cather, Ray Bradbury, Brian K. Vaughan, Anne Carson, Kurt Vonnegut, Stephen King, Brady Udall, Carolyn See, Alan Moore, Chaim Potok.
Biography: Mark Brown was born in southeast Idaho in 1974. After earning a BA in English from Idaho State University, he earned an MFA in Creative Writing with an emphasis in poetry from Boise State University and a PhD in Film Studies from Wayne State University. His poems and short stories have appeared in a variety of print and digital publications. Recently, his poem “Miles” won first place in the SVSU Writing Center’s annual creative writing contest. He lives in Midland with his wife, three daughters, and two stupid dogs.
Lauren Smith
Title: Professor
Classes Taught:
- ENG 111 – Comp 1
- ENG 112 – Comp 2
- ENG 120 – Intro to Creative Writing
- ENG 256 – Non-Fiction Writing
Biography: Lauren Smith writes essays. Originally from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she earned a BA in Writing from Emerson College and an MFA in nonfiction from Bennington College. Her work has appeared in New Madrid, The Writer’s Chronicle, Six-Word Memoirs, Unusual Efforts, and many others. She’s been part of the Delta faculty since 2010, and she founded the Pioneer Post in 2014. She teaches Delta’s Introduction to Creative Writing course and is always happy to think and talk about creative nonfiction. Her essay interests are wide-ranging and have included soccer, introversion, and ghost stories. Currently, she’s writing about the pandemic (as anybody would).
Dr. Jeff Vande Zande
Title: Professor
Classes Taught:
- ENG 254 – Creative Writing Fiction
- ENG 258 – Introduction to Screenwriting
- ENG 259 – Advanced Screenwriting
- ENG 257 – Advanced Creative Writing
- ENG 221 – Readings in the Short Story
- EM 180 – Introduction to Digital Cinematography
- EM 280 – Digital Film Capstone
Favorite Writers: Raymond Carver, Ray Bradbury, Bernard Malamud, Elizabeth Bishop, Joan Didion and many others.
Biography: Jeff Vande Zande’s award-winning short films have been accepted over 200 times in national and international film festivals. His books of fiction include the story collections Emergency Stopping (Bottom Dog Press)and Threatened Species (Whistling Shade Press). His novels include Into the Desperate Country (March Street Press), Landscape with Fragmented Figures (Bottom Dog Press), American Poet (Bottom Dog Press) and Detroit Muscle (Whistling Shade Press). In 2012, American Poet won a Michigan Notable Book Award from the Library of Michigan. In 2020, Whistling Shade Press released his new collection, The Neighborhood Division: Stories, and in 2022, Montag Press will release his new dystopian novel, Falling Sky. He maintains a blog at http://www.authorjeffvandezande.blogspot.com
Donald Winter
Title: Assistant Professor, Editor-in-Chief of Pioneer Post
Classes Taught:
- ENG 111 – Composition 1
- ENG 112 – Composition 2
- ENG 113 – Technical Communications
- ENG 220W – Readings in Poetry
- ENG 253 – Creative Writing (Poetry)
Favorite Writers: Meg Day, Robert Fanning, Mary Lambert, Sylvia Plath, Theodore Roethke, Siegfried Sassoon, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Walt Whitman
Biography: Donny Winter (pen name) is a LGBTQ+ poet, educator, and activist residing in Saginaw, Michigan. He currently teaches Creative Writing at Delta College. His two poem collections, Carbon Footprint (2020) and Feats of Alchemy (2021) were released by Alien Buddha Press. Both have garnered him two Pushcart Prize nominations and a nomination for Best of the Net. His poems have appeared in numerous outlets including CultureCult Magazine, Flypaper Mag, Sonder Midwest, and Awakened Voices.
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