(pictured: Veronica Fitzpatrick & Brenna Casey)

BRENNA CASEY

Boston College, B.A., English; University of Notre Dame, M.F.A., Creative Writing; Duke University, Ph.D., English (candidate)  

Brenna teaches Creative Writing and Literature at Duke University where she is currently completing her doctoral dissertation in English and Women’s Studies. Her research investigates the intersections of literature, visual culture, and technology in the U.S. throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Brenna is the recipient of the Stephen Horne Award, awarded to a Graduate Instructor who has been nominated by his or her students for their outstanding commitment and excellence in teaching. Brenna completed her M.F.A. in Creative Writing at the University of Notre Dame where she was awarded the Sparks Fellowship. While in South Bend, Brenna founded a weekly writing group for adults at South Bend’s Center for the Homeless, was recognized by the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) for outstanding nonfiction writing, and received the university’s Distinguished Graduate Student Award, in part for her teaching excellence. Brenna’s essays, poetry, and reviews have been published widely. She has managed communications for nonprofit organizations in Seattle and Washington, D.C., and worked in the Putney Student Travel office where she specialized in new media outreach and Latin American programming. Brenna created Putney’s Writing in Prague and Ireland programs, taught writing for National Geographic Student Expeditions in Peru and Spain, and has led Putney programs in Ecuador, Argentina, Costa Rica, Prague, and Ireland. Brenna is fluent in Spanish.

VERONICA FITZPATRICK

Michigan State University, B.A., English, Women’s Studies; University of Notre Dame, M.F.A., Creative Writing; University of Pittsburgh, Ph.D., English and Film Studies (candidate)

During her undergraduate studies, Veronica was a University Distinguished Scholar and recipient of the Louis Sudler Prize in the Arts. Veronica then received her M.F.A. in Creative Writing at the University of Notre Dame, where she later taught in the Department of Film, Television, and Theatre. Veronica currently holds a Carol Kay dissertation writing fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh, and is a featured blogger for Ploughshares. Veronica has taught with the Young Writers Workshop, a residential arts immersion program for gifted high school students, and for a nonprofit community arts organization in Pittsburgh. She has studied contemporary Irish literature and film in Dublin and Galway, Ireland, and spent time in the rural Philippines, where her maternal family resides. Veronica has led Putney’s Writing in Ireland program three times. She is proficient in Tagalog and French.