Personal:
27 Stockwell Rd., N. Hadley, MA 01035
Tel: (413)-584-6257; fax account (413)-549-6401; e mail: robert.abel@the-spa.com
Date of birth: 5/27/41. Married with daughter born, 1966, and son born 1968.
Special Awards:
Nominated for Pushcart Prize “Best of the Small Presses,” 1994, for two stories.
Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction, for Ghost Traps, 1989.
Publication of story collection, Full-tilt Boogie, sponsored by Masachusetts Council on Arts and Humanities in cooperation with Lynx House Press, 1989.
National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship,1978.
Second Prize, O. Henry Festival Contest, 1987.
Finalist, Drue Heinz Literature Prize, 1984, for War Babies.
Nominated for "Best of the Small Presses," 1977, for "Matching Parts,"which appeared in Dark Horse.
Honorable mention, Martha Foley's Best Short Stories of 1974, for "Rabbitskin," published in Kansas Quarterly (Summer 1974).
Education:
1971-1974, M.F.A. in English, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003. Creative writing, specializing in prose fiction. Thesis:"Lying in Eden, and Other Stories."
1965-67, M. A., English, Kansas State College of Pittsburg, 66762. Thesis: "The World of Tristram Shandy."
Summer, 1970, received NDEA Fellowship to Institute for Black Studies, Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI.
1959-64, B.A., English, College of Wooster, Wooster, OH 44067. Graduated cum laude. Left college in 1963 to travel in Africa and Europe.
Teaching experience:
Dec. 2005-June 2006, Union Institute and University/Vermont College MFA Program, workshops, lecture, rading, online tutorials. August-Sept., 1999--U. S. Information Service, specialist. Gave lectures and workshops at six universities in four S. E. Asian countries: Langkawi, Malaysia--”Developing Literary Skills,” and “What is Stylistic Analysis?” Medan, Indonesia, University of Sumatra, American Studies Conference--”Perpetual Paradoxes in American Literature,” and “America’s Protest Literature.” Padang, Indonesia, Andalas University--keynote speech, “American Literature: Diversity in Unity,” “Exercises to Promote Literary Thinking,” and “The Characteristics of Literary English.” Bangkok, Thailand, Thammasat University--”Why Study American Literature?” “Common Problems for EFL Students” and “Characteristics of Literary English.” Manila, The Phillipines, De LaSalle University--”Strategies for EFL Teaching in an English Rich Environment” and “Literature with a Big ‘L’”. Baguio City, The Phillipines, St. Louis University--
“Special Problems in Understanding American Literature--Idioms, Connotations and Cultural Background.”
Spring-Summer 1999, wrote five lesson plans for the U. S. Information Service Project ELLSA (English Language Learning in Southeast Asia) and its associated web site, http://www.rdlthai.com/ellsa_index.html. The lesson plans were created for EFL teachers and based on the USIS anthology of American Literature, Being People.
Fall, 1998, Mount Holyoke College, Fiction Writing, workshop and readings.
Fall, 1997, and Spring, 1994, Beijing Foreign Studies University, Beijing, China--teaching English through literature; oral communications; wrote six units on “the special qualities of literary English” for a long distance education project, parts of which are being used by Open University in Manchester, England.
Fall, 1993: Trinity College, Hartford, CT--creative writing workshops and theory of the novel.
Summer, 1993: The Workshop at Linfield, McMinnville, OR, a week long intensive writing workshop, sponsored by the Oregon Writers Workshop.
1990-1993: Visiting Assistant Professor, English Dept., Trinity College, Hartford, CT 06106. Full-time: writing workshops, critical reading, senior seminars, theory and practice of the novel, the future of the novel. Supervised master's theses in short fiction and the novels of John Cheever.
July-August, 1990 and July, 1989, creative writing, "Festival at Newport," Newport, OR, sponsored by Oregon Arts Council.
Feb.-June, 1989, English 233, News Writing, Mount Holyoke College.
July, 1988, creative writing, "Festival at Newport," Newport, OR, sponsored by Oregon Arts Council.
Feb.-June, 1987, journalism and literature courses, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
Spring, 1986, "Newswriting," English 233, Mount Holyoke College, S. Hadley, MA 01075.
Summer, 1980, "Short Fiction: Character and Conflict," UMass Division of Continuing Education, UMass/Amherst, MA 01003.
Summer, 1979, "How and How Not to Tell a Story," Elderhostel Program, UMass Division of Continuing Education, as above.
Summer, 1977, "How to Produce a Magazine," Elderhostel Program, as above.
Winter 1975-Spring 1976, "A Cooking Course for Men," Amherst Senior Center, Amherst, MA 01002. Designed for widowers.
Summer, 1973, Instructor, Waubonsee Community Junior College, Aurora,IL."Introduction to the Humanities."
1969-72, Instructor, Northern Illinois University, Dekalb, IL 60115. English 101 (a special course within the CHANCE Program designed for inner city Chicago youth with limited college preparation--an "accelerated" writing program based on team teaching and intensive tutoring); Introd. to Literature: Prose and Poetry; Literature for Non-majors.
1968-69, Instructor, Flint Community Junior College, Flint. MI Composition; Introd. to Literature: Fiction. Offered tenure, but declined, to take a more challenging position.
1965-67, Full-time temporary Instructor, Kansas State College of Pittsburg, KS. (I was hired without an M.A., taught a full course load of 12 hours each semester while pursuing the M.A. part-time and during the summers.) Freshman English; Introd. to Lit.: Non-fiction.
Other Professional Work Experience:
Jan., 1997, excerpted and edited an anthology of Hong Kong writers for Asia 2000, for publication in Manoa (U. of Hawaii).
Dec. 1996, judged the Delaney Fiction Prize entries for Univ. Massachusetts Writers’ Program.
Profile writer for Massachusetts Magazine on a consulting basis, Nov. 1996 and Jan. 1997. Wrote profiles of UMass alumnae.
Self-employed, freelance journalist and fiction writer, 1978-1989, 1994-.
Aug.-Dec., 1978, Editor, Contact, a UMass/Amherst news and feature magazine of the Office of Public Affairs. Left to finish a novel on learning of NEA Creative Writing Fellowship.
1974-1977, news and feature writer, and production manager for the UMass/Amherst publications Bulletin and Contact. In the spring of 1975, I served as the editor of the Bulletin on an emergency basis for six weeks. Wrote and helped design (Fall 1977) the 72-page recruiting booklet, Here Comes Tomorrow, for the UMass Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs and Admissions Office. Prepared a readable, poster-format summary of a conference on "studentology" for the UMass Community Development Center.
1972-1980, fiction editor for Lynx magazine and editor for Lynx House Press. This small, non-profit press devoted to fiction and poetry was the recipient of awards from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Mass. Council on the Arts and Humanities.
1977-1980, consultant to Expanding Horizons, a magazine of arts and opinion by people of retirement age for people of all ages.
Academic Service: Trinity College Writing Majors Evaluation Committee; Univ. of Massachusetts China Committee, 1988-1990; Freshman English committees at each of the colleges where I have worked. Wrote curriculum proposals for CHANCE Program at NIU, and contributed to the development for a Black Literature course, conducted interviews for the CHANCE coordinator search committee, and wrote evaluations of the "block concept" of course offerings.
Recommendations and credentials: complete dossier available
Placement Bureau, Galpin Hall, College of Wooster, Wooster, OH 44067.
For immediate recommendations by telephone, call:
Milla Riggio, English Dept., Trinity College, 115 Vernon St., Hartford, CT 06106, 203-297-2467; or Ron Thomas, current chair, or Fred Pfiel, director of creative writing program, at the same address; Terry Allen, former Contact editor, now at 413-548-9011; and Jay Neugeboren, director, M.F.A. Program in English, 410 Bartlett Hall, UMass/Amherst, 413-545-1000; Christopher Howell, director, The Workshop at Newport, 509-624-4894.
Publications: see attached list.