Andrea Lawlor

Andrea Lawlor

Name: Andrea Lawlor
Department: English
Title: Assistant Professor

Education:

  • M.F.A., University of Massachusetts Amherst
  • M.A., Temple University
  • B.A., University of Iowa

Fellowships:

  • RADAR Labs 
  • Lambda Literary Foundation
Teaches: Creative writing, including fiction, poetry, queer and trans writing, writing for multilingual speakers and advanced projects.

 

“Mount Holyoke students are great to teach because they’re politically engaged, critical thinkers. They’re earnest and hardworking and they care about books. It’s exciting to work with emerging writers coming from all different cultural contexts.”

Andrea Lawlor first came to Mount Holyoke to teach a creative writing course for multilingual speakers. “It made a lot of sense, because so many of our students are multilingual and so many want to do creative writing.” 

Lawlor, who teaches writing courses focused on fiction, poetry, queer/trans writing, fabulist writing and utopian writing, appreciates their professorial colleagues just as much. “I kind of fell into this dream department. My colleagues are amazing. My department is so diverse, so progressive. I’m on the InterArts Council, the College’s coordinating committee that includes the theater, film, music and studio art departments. Mount Holyoke is a really vibrant place, artistically. I just feel really lucky.”

Author of the debut novel, “Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl,” published in 2017 to outstanding reviews, from The New Yorker to The Guardian. In 2019 the book was picked up for reprinting in the United States and Britain

The College’s support of student literary work is also very impressive, Lawlor says. “I’ve worked with many students who’ve written for zines and literary magazines, including the literary magazines Moneta and Ink, and the zine Gender & Sexuality. And another new publication is in the works, along with student organizations like Conscious Poets Society. Mount Holyoke is keeping poetry and writing alive on campus.”