Zoe Ward, Staff Writer–
Amy Butcher has trekked through the Alaskan wilderness with an ice road trucker, excelled at the most prestigious Master of Fine Arts (MFA) program for creative writing in the country, and written a powerful memoir about her friend who committed murder. Now, she has brought her talents to Denison, teaching creative nonfiction and literary journalism.
Butcher previously taught at Ohio Wesleyan University, where she served as the Director of Creative Writing and an Associate Professor of English with a specialty in creative writing. Butcher attended graduate school at the University of Iowa, which is widely regarded as the most prestigious creative writing MFA program in the country.
Butcher held a teaching fellowship while at Iowa and later was an Olive B. O’Connor Creative Writing Fellow at Colgate University. Butcher states that mentoring student writers and workshopping students’ writing is “a privilege,” bringing positivity to a role she is incredibly qualified for.
Butcher was initially inspired by her third-grade teacher, Mrs. Hinds. Butcher writes that Hinds “always provided wildly imaginative exercises in neat little piles along the radiator.” She remembers, “I came into her class loathing her, but I left a writer.”
Butcher said that her favorite class to teach is Creative Nonfiction Writing, partially because of “full circle” nature; Butcher initially discovered creative nonfiction at her own small liberal arts college. Butcher, who has been writing creative nonfiction for two decades now, said that she loves how the essay “can encapsulate subject matters both beautiful and hard.” She expresses her excitement to now be the professor introducing the genre to students, joking that she is recruiting a new generation of essayists.
Butcher grew up with two brothers in the countryside outside of Philadelphia. “I’ve moved around quite a lot in my adulthood,” she said.
Yet she finds that her love of landscape has burgeoned throughout the past ten years she’s lived in Ohio. Butcher enjoys spending time outside with the two dogs she’s rescued, as well as hiking, kayaking, camping, and gardening.
She also fosters and transports dogs with RescuedOhio, a local organization that provides pets temporary housing until their ‘forever home’ is found.
Over the past few years, she’s also served with Andrew’s House, a non-profit organization that seeks to improve hospitality and healing. Butcher shops, cooks and serves a monthly community meal for over 75 local food-insecure residents.
Butcher has engaged with the Denison community outside of her classroom’s walls, making time to attend many Beck Series events. Butcher said that Melissa Febos, who visited this fall for a Beck Series reading, “is particularly skilled at helping young writers find their place in the genre with courage and with urgency, and listening to her read and talk about the genre is one of the most powerful things I’ve ever experienced.”
Butcher’s engagement on campus is also evident through her relationships with her students. Her bubbly personality draws in even the novice writer. She said that she hopes her students “have fun, first and foremost” and “feel called to tell their own stories and truths boldly and with beauty.”
“It’s an inspiring gift and a privilege to get to talk about sentences and art and meaning every day with students who are, at best, very eager to talk about these things also and, at worst, delightfully unaware of how meaningful the experience can be,” Butcher said.
Butcher also notes how glad she is to be at Denison, saying that she feels grateful for the small class sizes at Denison, which allow her to develop deep relationships with her students. She expresses her gratitude for being able to mentor students and engage with their work. “To now have the opportunity to do it alongside the other incredibly talented professors in this department is a dream,” Butcher said.
Editor’s Note: The professor spotlight is a recurring feature. Send an email to [email protected] if you would like to suggest a professor to be featured.