John Skoyles

Can a poetry class change your life? Spend a semester with John Skoyles and you might, like others before you, emerge with a heightened sensitivity to the world and a renewed delight in the play of language. You will surely be a more lyrical writer.

Reading Professor Skoyles' bio before your first Art of Poetry class might leave you a bit daunted. The author of three books of poems ("A Little Faith," "Permanent Change," and "Definition of the Soul") as well as a memoir ("Secret Frequencies: A New York Education"), and a collection of personal essays ("Generous Strangers"), he has received two grants from the National Endowment of the Arts.

He is, indeed, the literary real deal. And he also knows how to teach extremely well. He is an elegant writer who understands how to bring out the elegance in his students' work.

"It's rare to have silence in an Emerson class. The students are intelligent, engaged, and passionate — not only about writing but about changing the world. And they are funny,” he says. “Very funny.”

Professor Skoyles has been teaching the BFA Senior Thesis class for more than a decade. A curious class that never meets as such, it consists of  one-on-one tutorials with Professor Skoyles that help seniors develop a well-polished body of work — a book of poetry, a collection of personal essays, or the beginnings of a novel or a memoir.

This thesis — this book — that is nurtured along in Professor Skoyles' office, supported by conversation and readings from his personal library, serves as an application portfolio for an MFA program or for — who knows? — a student's first published collection of short stories or novel.

"Students will sometimes say, 'I want a class on how to get published.' I say all you really need is a one-hour session with me about that," he says. “Then I tell them to get back to writing.”

John Skoyles' Links

• Pr. Skoyles' Faculty Biography