Chris Lynch

MFA in Creative Writing Faculty

Having worked with quite a few editors over the past twenty years, I feel my strongest work as a teacher is when I bring the best of those experiences to my students. The most energizing exchanges always came when I realized a great editor was in fact pouring her energy into channelling me, rather than battling me. I believe new writers come to us wanting to sound like their best selves, I believe they are right to feel this way, and I believe it is my duty to help them achieve this. (We may sometimes have to debate what that best self might actually be, but that too is part of the fun.)

In workshop there is one horse I feel is never too dead to beat: our objective is to get the writer back to the keyboard. All feedback does not need to be cheerleading but it does need to be designed to leave the writer with the ideas - and the will - to go back and make the work stronger.

Work


Books

The Vietnam series (2011-)
Angry Young Man (2012)
Inexcusable (2012)
Kill Switch (2012)
Hothouse (2010)
The Cyberia series (2008-09)
The Big Game of Everything (2008)
Me, Dead Dad, & Alcatraz (2005)
Freewill (2004)
Gold Dust (2002)
All The Old Haunts (2001)
Extreme Elvin (2001)
Whitechurch (1998)
Shadow Boxer (1997)
Slot Machine (1997)
Iceman (1995)

Awards

National Book Award Finalist, Michael L. Printz Honor Book winner, ALA Best Books for Young Adults (four times).

Education

M.A., Professional Writing and Publishing, Emerson College
B.A., Journalism, Suffolk University