Brandon French

Instructor Biography:

Ph.D.’s in English and Psychoanalysis; has taught literature, film and cultural analysis at Yale University, Indiana University, and The New Center for Psychoanalysis. Her short stories have appeared in Calliope, Riverlit, The Nassau Review, Thrice Fiction, The Avalon Literary Review, Bete Noir, The Anterior Review, and Constellations, among others. Ms. French’s work has also appeared in Ms. Magazine and New York magazine, and she is a recipient of a Chicago Tribune Nelson Algren fiction award.

Instructor Statement:

Every time I watch the end of The Miracle Worker, when Helen Keller asks Annie Sullivan who she is and Annie signs “teacher,” I (apologies to Patsy Cline) fall to pieces. I was raised by three teachers and my first loves, if you don’t count the six-year-old twins Donald and Douglas, were teachers. My last loves, too. I’m a sucker for learning, which is why I’m always taking classes, and as soon as I learn anything new (like how to get short stories published, for instance), I want to share it. Which leads into why I love teaching–you see, I’m addicted to that light bulb look students get when their brains get enlightened or inspired–or when students become so smart, they start teaching the teacher. And no matter how much I think I know, I always know more after I teach something.