Office: Keezell 209
Spring 2024 Office Hours: T/Th 2:00 - 3:30pm (on Zoom)
Phone: (540) 568-6130

Website: http://www.gregwrenn.com

Areas of Specialization
Poetry; Poetry Writing; Creative Nonfiction; Environmental Writing; Memoir; LGBT Literature

Education

• Wallace Stegner Fellowship in Poetry (Non-Degree Study), Stanford University
• M.F.A., Writing (Poetry), Washington University in St. Louis
• B.A., English and American Literature and Language, Harvard University, Magna Cum Laude with Highest Honors in Field

Bio

A former Stegner Fellow and Jones Lecturer at Stanford University, Greg Wrenn is the author of the forthcoming Mothership: A Memoir of Wonder and Crisis, an evidence-based account of his turning to endangered coral reefs and a psychedelic rainforest tea called ayahuasca to heal from childhood trauma, and Centaur (U of Wisconsin Press 2013), which National Book Award-winning poet Terrance Hayes awarded the Brittingham Prize. 

​Greg's work has appeared in The New Republic, Al Jazeera, The Rumpus, The Georgia Review, Kenyon Review, New England Review, The Iowa Review, and elsewhere. He has received awards and fellowships from the James Merrill House, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Vermont Studio Center, the Poetry Society of America, the Hermitage Artist Retreat, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the Spiro Arts Center.
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As an associate English professor, he teaches environmental literature and creative writing at James Madison University, where he weaves climate change science into literary studies. He also teaches poetry writing through Stanford Continuing Studies. He was educated at Harvard University and Washington University in St. Louis.

Greg is currently working on Homesick, his second poetry collection. He is a trained yoga teacher and a PADI Advanced Open Water diver, having explored coral reefs around the world for over 25 years. He lives in the mountains of Virginia with his husband and their growing family of trees.

Books

• Mothership: A Memior of Wonder and Crisis (Regalo Press, 2024)
• Centaur (University of Wisconsin Press, 2013)
• Off the Fire Road (Green Tower Press, 2009)
• Homesick (Poetry collection submitted to publishers)

• Artist Residency, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Amherst, Virginia, 2021
• Writer-in-Residence, James Merrill House, Stonington, CT, 2021
• Six-Week Residency Award, Hermitage Artist Retreat, Englewood, Florida, 2019-2020
• Drew Darrow Memorial Poet, Stadler Center Writers Series, Bucknell University, 2015
• Visiting Writer, Emerging Poets Festival, Franklin & Marshall College, 2014
• Debut Poets Roundup, Poets & Writers, January/February 2014
• Axton Visiting Writer, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, 2013
• The Writer Magazine/Emily Dickinson Award, Poetry Society of America, 2013
• Margaret Bridgman Scholar at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, 2012
• Lyric Poetry Award, Poetry Society of America, 2012
• Brittingham Prize for Poetry, University of Wisconsin Press, 2012
• Wallace Stegner Fellowship in Poetry, Stanford University, 2010-2012
• Full Fellowship and Artist-in-Residence, Spiro Arts, 2010
• Artist’s Grant and Residency, Vermont Studio Center, 2009
• Full Scholarships, Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, 2007-2009
• Third-Year Writing Fellowship for Poetry, Washington University in St. Louis, 2008