At Gotham, we believe that teaching is every bit as much of an art as writing, and we know through vast experience that the ability to teach creative writing is a unique and valuable skill. That's why all of our teachers are professional writers and professional teachers. They know what it means to work at the craft of writing - they've been in the trenches - and they are expert at conveying the larger concepts and nuances to students of writing. And, most importantly, they don't just talk about writing, they get you writing.

By Britt Gambino

Gotham teacher David Seigerman doesn’t sleep enough. He writes, teaches, coaches his kids’ softball/baseball teams, and heads up the PTA—all with the ease of a trained circus artist. Even his down time is active. He likes to unwind with a game of golf with his father-in-law or ice hockey with neighborhood friends. (He admits to being terrible at skating, but figures if his sixty-four-year-old teammate can do it, so can he.)

Ironically, it was the devastation of Hurricane Sandy this past fall that brought ice hockey into David’s life. While his family had four feet of water in the basement to contend with, most of the neighborhood didn’t even have power. The Seigerman home became a spot for folks to band together. One of the visitors noticed David was wearing a hockey t-shirt and ask...
MORE | ARCHIVE Gotham teacher Amy Shearn recently saw the release of her novel The Mermaid of Brooklyn. It tells the story Jenny Lipkin, a Brooklynite magazine editor/writer and mother of two small children, who is pushed to the end of her rope by all the demands in her life…until she forms a mysterious connection with a mermaid from the East River.  It’s funny and touching and O (Oprah’s magazine) likes it, saying, “Shearn captures both the beauty and the banality of parenthood.”
 
Here’s the tantalizing opening:  # # #

Before I died the first time, my husband left me broke and alone with our two tiny children and it made me feel very depressed, etc. It’s the same old story: He went to buy cigarettes and never came home. Really. Wouldn’t you think you’d want to pack a bag or two, leave a forwarding address? Couldn’t he have at least taken the dog? These were ...
MORE | ARCHIVE

• Amy Shearn: In Poets & Writers magazine's Writers Recommend column, Amy Shearn recommends coffee. • Jennifer Keishin Armstrong: Simon & Schuster's blog Tips On Life & Love published Jennifer Keishin Armstrong's essay "Five Great Dating Tips From TV's Mary And Rhoda."  • Scott Cheshire: Scott Cheshire reads his story Romantics for the podcast In The Telling. • Amy Shearn: Amy Shearn interviewed herself about mermaids, dinglehoppers, and her novel The Mermaid of Brooklyn for The Nervous Breakdown. • Joe Gilford: The New York Times published Joe Gilford's essay "Blacklisted, From A Child's View." • Jennifer Keishin Armstrong: The Boston Globe reviewed Jennifer Keishin Armstrong's book Sexy Feminism, (co-written with Heather Wood Rudulph).