Elizabeth Deborah Cohen       

                                             151 Broad Street

                                          Plattsburgh, NY 12901

                                               607-221-2178/ecohe001@plattsburgh.edu

                                                        https://web.plattsburgh.edu/academics/english/faculty/cohen.php

                                                  www.elizabethcohen.me

 

                                                              

                                                                           

 

 

CURRENT POSITION

 

SUNY Plattsburgh August 2010- present   

          Associate Professor of English, Writing Arts Division/English

          Editor, Saranac Review

          Teach college writing, comp, memoir, poetry, fiction, literature

           and creative writing courses to undergraduates.

 

 

 

EDUCATION                                                                                                  

        

         Columbia University                                            New York, NY

         • MFA — Creative Writing, poetry, 1990  

 

            Temple University                                                        Philadelphia, PA

• MA — The Anthropology of Visual Communications (interdisciplinary program on cultural studies and filmmaking, 1986)

 

            University of New Mexico                                     Albuquerque, NM

         • BA — Anthropology, minor English. Magna Cum Laude, 1983 

 

 

 

Additional TEACHING (selected)                                                  

 

 

Western Connecticut State University 2008-2010    

Assistant Professor of Writing, Linguistics and Creative Process

Taught English 100, 101, journalism and creative writing courses to undergraduates

 

Western Connecticut State University 2007-2008

Writer-in-Residence, MFA PROFESSIONAL WRITING PROGRAM

Taught graduate students journalism, poetry, memoir and magazine writing

 

Gotham Writer’s Workshop  2007-present

Teach creative non-fiction and fiction courses online to online adult ed learners

 

Broome Community College- 2006

Taught undergraduate comp and creative writing courses focusing on fiction, playwriting, poetry and CNF essay.

 

State University of New York — Binghamton 2005

Philip and Eleanor Piaker Chair for Assistant Professor of Creative Writing and Judaic Studies.  Taught creative writing.

 

The New School for Social Research- New York City 1998

Created and taught one year long course in publishing and writing for the internet.

 

University of New Mexico – Gallup Branch 1995

Taught courses in English department, Writing & Rhetoric, English Composition and Introduction to Journalism

 

CUNY Staten Island- 1989

Taught English composition, rhetoric and college writing

 

 

 

 

WRITING Honors/Awards
                                                              

* Winner, Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award, 2003

         * New York Times Notable Book of the Year selection, 2003

         * New York State Associated Press Award recipient

* State of New York Legislative Resolution honoring The Family on Beartown Road

* Winner, fiction category Adirondack Writer’s Project, Saranac, NY 2014, for The Hypothetical Girl

* Winner, New England Medical Writer’s Association Award

            * Winner, Jon Davidoff Scholarship, Wesleyan Writer’s Conference

*  Columbia School of Journalism Certificate of Merit winner for   “outstanding work in the coverage of race and ethnicity in journalism”

* MacDowell Colony Fellow, The MacDowell Colony, Peterborough, NH

* Distinguished Visiting Poet, The Poetry Center, Paterson, NJ

* Best summer book selection, O Magazine, 2013
* Co-Winner, best book of poems, BIRD LIGHT, 2016, Adirondack Center for Writing

 

 

Books

 

        

 

 

The Under, A Novel. Shopping in the spring of 2018

 

The Hypothetical Girl,   Other Press, August 2013. Fiction. Short stories on the theme of digital love. Selected/reviewed by Oprah Magazine as a “summer must read and “book of the week

 

The House on Beartown Road (paperback title The Family on Beartown Road), Random House, 2003/4. In print, large print, digital and audio.New York Times notable book of the Year, 1st chapter featured on NYTimes web site. B&N Discover Great New Writers winner, State of New York Legislative Resolution. Excerpted widely in national magazines including Reader’s Digest and the Times of London Sunday Magazine.

 

The Scalpel and the Silver Bear, Bantam, 1998 a biography of first Native American woman surgeon. Written with Dr. Lori Arviso Alvord. Excerpt printed in The New York Times, and in A Life in Medicine: A Literary Anthology, Random House, edited by Robert Cole. Winner, New England Medical Writer’s Association Award.

 

 

Bird Light, poems, Saint Julian Press, Houston, Texas, 2016

 

What the Trees Said, poems, Split Oak Press, 2013

 

The Economist’s Daughter, poems, Excited Utterance Press, 2009

 

Mother Love, poems, Keshet Press, 2008

 

Impossible Furniture, poems, Nightshade Press, 1995

 

Georgie, the Flying Dog, children’s book, Trafford, 2004

​

 

PERIODICAL, Newspaper, AND ANTHOLOGY Publications                      (Selected)                                     

​

 

“A Plague and a Blessing in My Empty Nest”, essay. NYT, 2018
“Anthropologist of Love” in THE WRITER MAGAZINE, Winter, 2013. Essay about writing about relationships and love.

“The House that Sylvia Built,” Adirondack Life, 2015. Forthcoming article about writer Kate Moses’ house in Essex, NY

“Choosing Happiness.” SELF Magazine, An article about the obsession of Americans with optimism and feeling good, forthcoming August, forthcoming fall 2009.
“A Predator in the House,” Brain,Child, 2015.

“The Fifth Commandment.”  Bread and Fire: Jewish Women Find God in the Everyday,  Urim Press, 2008.

“Love at Any Age.“ Behind the Bedroom Door: Women Write about Sex, Random House, 2009.

“Love at Age.” In MORE Magazine, Dec., 2008.

“Bless.” Poem in Connecticut River Review.

“The Gravity Doctor.” Short story in The Full Moon Anthology, spring 2010.

“Listening to Water.” Poem in anthology of the same name, Foothills Press, 2008.

“A House Made of Straw.” Press & Sun Bulletin, Feb. 2008.

“Close to Home.” Newspaper columns, Press & Sun-Bulletin, 2005-2009.

“Love Shine.” Short Story in Small Spiral notebook, 2004.

 

 

Additional creative pieces – stories, poems and essays— in lit mags and journals, including Yale Review, Northwest Review, River Styx, Open City, Kalliope, Ellipsis: Literature and Art; and in anthologies such as Walk on the Wild Side: Urban American Poetry since 1975 (Scribners), edited by Nicholas Christopher.

 

Articles/Journalism in SELF, Glamour, Redbook, Family Circle, Newsweek, NYT Magazine, Rolling Stone and other national magazines.

 

 

 

 

EDITORIAL

 

 

Editor, The Saranac Review, 2010- present

Fiction Editor, The Broome Review, 2008-11

Staff Editor, The Columbia Review, 1989-90      

Editor, Conceptions Southwest, 1982

 

 

 

 

Journalism                (Selected)                                     

        

         The Press & Sun Bulletin

•    Columnist: penned weekly column, book reviewer, features reporter (1999-2008)

•    Won Columbia University School of Journalism Certificate of Merit for special issue of newspaper “Who Are We” and for creating ongoing annual youth newspaper in Binghamton, NY, awarded at national conference “Let’s Do It Better: Workshops on Journalism, Race, and Ethnicity” in New York City 

•   Won New York State Associated Press award on two occasions

 

            The New York Times

•   Worked as a clerk and op-ed assistant to Anna Quindlen, then as stringer, (1990-1995)

•   Served as online editor for New York Times Book Forum, cyberforums, 1990

•   Wrote articles for sections including Health, Home, Science, Education, Technology, Cybertimes, Sunday Book Review, Metro, and National (including a page-one story)

        

            The New York Post

•   Worked as a reporter (1997-9), filing stories on health, women’s issues, trends, fashion, book reviews, assorted cultural topics

 

For article examples and book excerpts, go to www.elizabethcohen.me

 

 

 

 

Readings and PUBLIC APPEARANCES                    (Selected)         

 

• Visiting Author, Knox College, May, 2015

• AWP conference, organized and moderated two panels, spring 2015

• Visiting Author, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, fall, 2013

• Visiting Writer, Poets & Writer’s Grant, Saranac Library Free Library, September, 2013

• Visiting Poet, Bright Hill Literary Arts Center, Treadwell, NY September 2013

• Writing Along the River, A Celebration of Place, Owego, NY, May 2009

• Broome Public Library, Binghamton, NY – Three Upstate Poets Reading, 2008

• Faculty Reading Series, Western Connecticut State University, 20009

• Visiting Poet, The Poetry Center, Patterson, NJ – Taught workshop      

and gave reading with poet Tom Lux, 2007.

 

• My Kid Could Paint That (Sony Classic Pictures, 2007)

-give narration and commentary throughout documentary released in nationally and aired on Lifetime, based on a local news story I wrote about a four-year-old artist.

 

•  Manhattan readings at such venues as KGB, Cornelia Street Café,   

Nuyorican Café, Bowery Poetry Café, The Poetry Project, and Barnes &

Noble., among other locales.

 

• Internationally recognized speaker on topics of elder care, Alzheimer’s disease, end-of-life decision making (spokesperson for the Alzheimer’s Association). Also lecture on women and work and raising families.  Speeches and keynotes, including:

 

         Keynote, Broome County Council of Churches, 2008

 

         Visiting Lecturer, Syracuse University, 2008

 

         Keynote, Cortland Respite Care women’s luncheon, 2007

 

         Keynote, American Association of University Women, 2006

 

         Keynote, NY State Teachers Association 20th Anniversary Luncheon, 2006

 

         Keynote, Geriatric Scholar Certificate Program, 2005

 

         Keynote, Alzheimer’s Awareness Luncheon, Alzheimer’s Society, Western      Canada, 2005 

 

         Keynote, Advance Care Planning Week, Southern Tier End of Life Coalition,   2005

 

         Keynote, London Elder Care Symposium, 2005

 

         Invited Lecturer, Social Work Teaching Day, Binghamton, NY, 2005

 

         Keynote, “A Celebration of Caring,” Alzheimer’s Association, Pittsburgh, 2004

 

         Keynote, “When the Diagnosis is Alzheimer’s: Help for the Journey,”   Alzheimer’s Association, Kingston, NY, 2003

 

​

 

 

 

References                                                                                       

 

Brian Clements

Professor, Coordinator, MFA in Professional Writing

Western Connecticut State University

181 White St.

Danbury, NY 12902

(203)837-8876

Hired and supervised me as writer in residence in the MFA Professional Writing Program.

                 

 

Liz Rosenberg

Professor of English

Binghamton University

Binghamton, NY 13902

(607) 797-6599

Referred me for Piaker Chair in Creative Writing at Binghamton University.

 

 

Alex Steele

Director

The Gotham Writer’s Workshop

NYC

(212)974-8377

Hired me and supervises me at GWW.