Douglas Whynott

Graduate Program Director, Creative Writing and Associate Professor

Doug Whynott believes that persistence and commitment are key ingredients for success as a writer. To date, Doug has published four critically acclaimed and commercially successful nonfiction books, including: Giant Bluefin; Following the Bloom: Across America with the Migratory Beekeepers; and A Unit of Water, A Unit of Time: Joel White's Last Boat.

His latest book, A Country Practice: Scenes from the Veterinary Life, earned praise from Booklist as the “best introduction to the profession since James Herriott.”

Doug discovered the potential benefits of a writing career by reading National Geographic. “There in the masthead, it said articles were accepted for ‘generous remuneration.' I realized that people could travel the world and write for a living.” On the advice of a mentor, he pursued his MFA at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Never expecting overnight success, Doug earned a living tuning pianos while devoting no less than three hours a day to writing. His first book took 10 years to be published, but he never stopped working on it. Meanwhile, he advanced his career by publishing articles and teaching writing at Mount Holyoke College and Columbia University. In his position as Graduate Program Director for Emerson's Creative Writing program, Doug has fulfilled a lifelong goal of leading a graduate program and instituting a nonfiction track for MFA candidates.