Coordinator, Creative Writing Minor & Associate Professor
wrenngj@jmu.edu
Contact Info
Website: https://www.gregwrenn.com/
Fall 2026 Office Hours
TT 3:45 - 5:00PM
Office: Keezell 209
Specialization
Creative Nonfiction and Memoir; Poetry Writing; Environmental Literature and Writing; LGBTQ+ Literature
Education
Wallace Stegner Fellowship in Poetry, Stanford University (Non-Degree Study), 2010-2012
M.F.A., Creative Writing (Poetry), Washington University in St. Louis, 2008
B.A., English and American Literature and Language, Harvard University, Magna Cum Laude with Highest Honors in Field, 2003
Books
Mothership: A Memoir of Wonder and Crisis. Regalo Press, 2024. Distributed by Simon & Schuster.
Centaur. University of Wisconsin Press, 2013. Winner of the Brittingham Prize in Poetry.
Off the Fire Road. Green Tower Press, 2009. Winner of the Midwest Chapbook Series Award.
Selected Publications
“I Moved In With The Man Of My Dreams After Our Second Date. Then He Made A Request That Had Me Packing My Bags.” BuzzFeed, March 28, 2026. Reprint.
“I Moved In With The Man Of My Dreams After Our Second Date. Then He Made A Request That Had Me Packing My Bags.” HuffPost, June 21, 2024. Selected for “Best of HuffPost Personal” and republished March 21, 2026.
“Tahuayo.” Terrain.org, May 17, 2024.
“Earth, Head, and Heart: Six Deeply Researched Eco-Memoirs.” Literary Hub, March 27, 2024.
“How to Write a Memoir That’s Personal—and Deeply Researched.” Writer’s Digest, March 25, 2024.
“What Would E.T. Do?” The Rumpus, March 22, 2024.
“My Undergrads Struggle to Read—I Think I Know Why.” Al Jazeera, April 6, 2023.
“Orbit.” Seneca Review 51.2, Fall 2021: 54.
“Elegy with Horse and Nest.” Terrain.org, June 18, 2021.
“The Lantern.” The Iowa Review 51.1, Spring 2021: 66–74.
“Origin.” Southern Indiana Review 28.1, Spring 2021.
“Ode without Coordinates.” Poetry Northwest 15.2, Winter/Spring 2021.
“Childlessness.” Poetry Northwest 15.2, Winter/Spring 2021.
“Paddle.” The Georgia Review 74.2, Summer 2020: 350–364.
“Purple.” Kenyon Review Online, July 2019.
“Signal.” The Cincinnati Review 16.1, 2018: 127–130.
“The Pieces.” The Cincinnati Review 16.1, 2018: 127–130.
“Trees.” The Southeast Review 36.2, Fall 2018: 113–116.
“Seas of Change.” The American Scholar, Spring 2018: 6–11.
“Tower.” New England Review 38.3, 2017: 161–162.
“Otter.” The Rumpus, February 1, 2017.
“Ice.” The Southern Review 53.1, Winter 2017: 28–31.
Selected Awards, Fellowships & Residencies
Artist Residency, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, 2021
Writer-in-Residence, James Merrill House, 2021
Residency Award, Hermitage Artist Retreat, 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
Brittingham Prize for Poetry, University of Wisconsin Press, 2012
Lyric Poetry Award, Poetry Society of America, 2012
Margaret Bridgman Scholar, Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, 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
Midwest Chapbook Series Award, 2008
