Writing, Literature & Publishing Faculty

Douglas Whynott teaches courses in nonfiction writing.  In Norman Sims' new history of literary journalism, True Stories, Mr. Whynott is described as "an accomplished master of the literary journalism of everyday life."  Following the Bloom, published in Beacon Press Concord Library Series of Nature Writing and in a Penguin reprint in 2004, was described in the New York Times as a book that "excites our wonder."  Giant Bluefin, an account of the bluefin tuna fishery in New England, was described in the New York Times as an eloquent book that "dazzles us" and was a highly recommended selection in The New York Review of Books Reader's Catalog.  His book about a Maine boatyard, A Unit of Water, A Unit of Time, was an independent bookstore bestseller, reviewed in the San Francisco Chronicle as a book that "becomes a profound look at the human condition," and read in entirety on "The Book Club" at an NPR affiliate in Ames, Iowa.  A Country Practice was described in BookList as the "best introduction to the veterinary profession since James Herriot," selected as one of the top ten nonfiction books of 2004 by New Hampshire Public Radio, and optioned for development as a television series.

Among his magazine work, Mr. Whynott has written book reviews for the New York Times Book Review and the Boston Globe, travel stories for Outside, Islands and New England Monthly, and articles about telemetry and robotics for Discover and Smithsonian.  As a guest writer for the San Diego Reader he wrote articles about the photographic archives at the Museum of Photographic Arts, a study of the California current at Scripps Institution, and the work of astronomers at Palomar Observatory. An essay about his mother's heart transplant surgery was published in The Boston Globe Magazine and Reader's Digest.  He spent a week aboard a cod trawler on Georges Bank for New England Monthly.  His essay on nonfiction book structures was published in Writer's Chronicle.  An essay about studying music with blues and jazz pianist Sammy Price was published in The Massachusetts Review.  For 10 years Mr. Whynott was the concert piano tuner at the Fine Arts Center at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. He performs as a blues pianist.