Areas I Teach
Darlene Pagán is a Professor of Arts and Humanities at 51Թ, where she teaches creative nonfiction, research and writing, poetry, first-year communities, and twentieth-century literature including Native American Literature and World Literature. She offers workshops in creative writing to the public including elementary schools, libraries, and community centers.
Pagán's creative work includes a chapbook, Blue Ghosts (2011), a book of poems, Setting the Fires (2015), and a middle grade fantasy titled, Lucía and the Sombra Trees, forthcoming in 2027. Set on an island where only children ever see the sunlight, the story centers on a 12 year-old girl who engages a risky climb to find a rare fruit for her ailing grandmother.
Of her work and teaching, Pagán says:
Listen to children on a playground and it’s obvious how much of their lives are steeped in story. The stories are full of beauty and heroism and trouble of the highest order, and they persist into adulthood. We’re drawn to music that tells the story of heartbreak and love. We spend hours lost in a world of daydreams and fantasy, and at night, our dreams are often vivid and strange.
Stories aren’t all play. They have tremendous power. They can tell us who we are, where we come from, and what we’re capable of. In his book, The Truth About Stories, Thomas King refers to stories as medicine, and says, “a story told one way could cure…told another way could injure”. Whether in the classroom or in my own writing, I want students to recognize the power their own storytelling can have to shape their lives and the world around them.
In my classes, we read widely and write across multiple impulses and genres to develop our own analytical skills, but also to hone our creative muscles. We learn through trial and error, writing and rewriting, and ultimately, through play.
Courses:
Engl 223 Native American Literature
Engl 227 World Literature: Magical Realism
Engw 206 Poetry Writing
Engw 209 and 309 Creative Nonfiction
Engw 180 Research and Writing
Hum 100 Storytelling
YA Literature
Selected Publications:
Books:
Lucía and the Sombra Trees, Little, Brown, and Company. Books for Young Readers, forthcoming 2027.
. Airlie Press, 2015
Essays:
Brevity: A Journal of Concise Literary Nonfiction 37 (2011).
"Where Muscle Connects to Bone." Montana Mouthful 4.2 (2021).
Poetry:
Field, Hiram Poetry Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Valparaiso Poetry Review, Calyx: A Journal of Art and Literature by Women
Cold Mountain Review, Hawai'i Pacific Review, Poet Lore, Apple Valley Review