Emma Stockman is a Seattle-based writer and educator with an MFA in Fiction from the University of Oregon. In 2023, she moved to Seattle to pursue greater literary opportunities. She writes short fiction and is currently working on a novel.
Describe your teaching style.
I believe the best teachers are the ones who create the most spacious, curious, and playful containers out of their classrooms, no matter the subject. I strive to bring this philosophy to every class I teach, no matter the age or experience-level of my students. I do this by setting clear community guidelines at the beginning of class, and by fostering connections between students, so there's a collective sense of exploration and acceptance.
When it comes to teaching fiction more technically, I believe there is no one or best way to tell a story; the most successful art will be made out of spiritual and emotional alignment between the writer and the piece. Concepts of craft are often taught from an overly intellectualized and (predominantly white) academic perspective, but I aim to make literature feel approachable and accessible. It’s important to me that students learn to recognize elements of craft by their own reading experience, rather than by some external assessment of what’s “good.” If you can read by feel, you can learn to write that way, too.
