Director: David Franke
David Franke is a professor of English at SUNY Cortland, where he directs the Professional Writing Program. He supports writing communities: college classrooms, a community prose group, the Seven Valleys Writing Project , and a writing group for faculty on SUNY Cortland’s campus. His dissertation (Syracuse University, 1999) studies teachers as writers. He’s interested in practical ways that writing and media affect how people do things. Some of his favorite authors are Michael Pollan, Wendell Berry, and Billy Collins. His writing is almost exclusively bureaucratic, but also posts to a blog: http://davidtfranke.blogspot.com. His main genres are email, poetry and creative nonfiction. He is working on a “Deep Map” project that studies the Tully Valley’s history and geology.
Co-Director: Brian G. Fay
brianfay@gmail.com
Brian joined the Seven Valleys Writing Project in 2007 when it was little more than an idea, and served as Co-Director through 2010. He returned in 2014 to again lead the Summer Institute, plan Saturday sessions, and otherwise help direct the project. He has never stopped writing. Currently he teaches English in the Alternative Education division of OCM BOCES primarily at the high school level.
Dr. Laura Davis will teach in the Summer Writing Institute for the first time starting summer 2017. She is a member of the English faculty at SUNY Cortland. Recently appointed to Associate Professor, Laura has revamped the curriculum for prospectiv
e English teachers and made major contributions to the Professional Writing and Campus Writing programs. She is also a Teacher Consultant, having graduated from the Literacy Institute (what we call “Summer Writing Institute”) at the University of New Hampshire in 2005. She brings to us a wonderful sense of humor, wide disciplinary knowledge, and a very down-to-earth style that puts people at ease (honed, no doubt, by raising her six kids, the youngest still an infant).