Creative Writing Faculty and Staff

Sherrie Flick

sflick@chatham.edu
Lecturer

Lecturer

• Hometown : Beaver Falls, PA
• Joined Chatham : 2009

• Academic Areas of Interest

  Flash fiction, The novel, Contemporary American fiction, Food writing

• Personal Areas of Interest

  Gardening, Cooking, and Long urban walks

• Personal Website

  Visit Website

• Biography

  I have written and published flash fiction for over 20 years, but in 2003 I decided to write a novel. In transition from a tiny form to a huge one, I became obsessed with sentences--their structure, their purpose, writing them, revising them. Beyond sentences, I am very involved in Pittsburgh's cultural community. In 2001 I co-founded the Gist Street Reading Series and served as Artistic Director for 10 years, bringing in emerging poets and writers to James Simon's Sculpture Studio to read each month. I enjoy collaboration across disciplines and have taught creative writing and curated readings in many eclectic arts settings. Recently, I've helped start Into the Furnace, an urban writer-in-residence project in Braddock, Pa.

Education

• M.A, University of Nebraska (Lincoln, NE), 1996
• B.A., University of New Hampshire, 1989

Publications

• Reconsidering Happiness (2009), University of Nebraska Press, Flyover Fiction Series.
• New Sudden Fiction: From America and Beyond (2007), Norton, "How I Left Ned."
• Flash Fiction Forward (2007), Norton, "The Paperboy."
• I Call This Flirting (2004), Flume Press, chapbook.
• The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction: Tips from Editors, Teachers, and Writers in the Field, (2009), Rose Metal Press, "Flash in a Pan."
• Ploughshares, North American Review, Quarterly West, Manoa, Quick Fiction, Black Warrior Review, Northwest Review, Puerto del Sol, among others

Awards

• Work of Art Award for Artistic Vibrancy - Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council, 2011
• Semi-finalist (Reconsidering Happiness) VCU Cabell First Novelist Award, 2010
• Finalist, Poetry Paths Public Art Project, Lancaster, Pa. (with James Simon, Terrance Hayes, Nancy Krygowski), 2010
• PA Council on the Arts individual fellowship in fiction, 2007
• Audience Experience Initiative grant, (Heinz Endowments) with Silver Eye Center for Photography, 2007-09
• PA Partners in the Arts grant (Gist Street Reading Series), 2006 to present
• Associate Artist Fellowship, Atlantic Center for the Arts, 2004
• Artist's Fellowship, Ucross Foundation, 2003
• Tennessee Williams Fellow, Sewanee Writers' Conference, 1996

Organizations

• AWP
• Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council
• Fractured Atlas, NY

Achievements

• Series editor for At Table, University of Nebraska Press, Food Writing book list
• Writer-in-Residence, Salem College, Winston-Salem, NC, 2011
• Visiting Writer, Creative Writing Program, Carnegie Mellon University, 2010
• Visiting Writer, Creative Writing Program, University of Pittsburgh, 2009/2010
• Artistic Director, Gist Street Reading Series, 2001 - 2010
• Associate Curator of Education, Frick Art & Historical Center: 1998-2004

Presentations

• Panelist, "Anytown USA: Representing Place in Fiction," Associated Writing Programs Annual Conference (Chicago, IL), March 2012
• Panelist, "Rose Metal Press Guide to Writing Flash Fiction: Tips from Editors, Teachers & Writers in the Field," Associated Writing Programs Annual Conference (Denver, CO) April 2010