Curriculum

Highlights

Each of the four resident instructors and the two visiting instructors have strengths and will teach to those. Visiting teacher Pat McManus is the best-selling author of many humor books and for many years has been a humor columnist for both Field and Stream and Outdoor Life magazines. Pat will work on humor writing and the personal column.

Bill Schneider founded Falcon Press in 1979 and subsequently published more than 700 titles. Falcon Press' line of guidebooks is perhaps the best known of any in the country. He will talk about book publishing in all of its aspects, all of which he knows intimately - from writing them to the finished product and subsequent marketing.
  
The four resident instructors have an equally varied background. Ted Gup, currently head of the journalism program at Emerson College in Boston, has been an investigative reporter for both Time and The Washington Post. He has sold to "Smithsonian" and many other elite magazines, and his book about the CIA, "Wall of Honor," was a New York Times best-seller. He is highly experienced both as a teacher and practitioner of good writing and concentrates on elevating the skill level of his students, as well as sharpening their investigative abilities.
   
Lisa Densmore is an award-winning photo-journalist who will offer a variety of skills, ranging from developing a text-photo package to writing a personal profile. She will work with students on the backbone of much outdoor, environmental and nature writing, the how-to story. She will spend one session in field photography work, based on student assignments. Students will learn digital camera operation and photo processing. All should have a camera whether a basic point-and-shoot or a more sophisticated one.
   
Alan Liere has written back page columns for many years, both for magazines and newspapers, and also is a book author. Along with Pat McManus, he is among the top outdoor humorists.  Of his approach to teaching, he says, "What I'd like to cover is 'writing small' - economizing words, writing the personal column or essay to an editor's word specifications. I feel no piece of writing is so wonderful it can't be done in half as many words. Along with this, I'd like to emphasize the art of creating a lovable protagonist and a despicable antagonist in as few words as possible. I don't do novels - I do short stories and turn them into books."
   
Holly Endersby, a former schoolteacher, gives a Western flavor to the faculty. Along with husband Scott Stouder she owns an Idaho ranch and guides fishing and hunting trips into the backcountry. Both are ardent conservationists (Scott is a staff member of Trout Unlimited). Holly has won writing awards and her writing covers the field from magazines and newspapers to television. A member of 10 conservation organizations, she not only brings writing and teaching skills to her class, but also the knowledge of how to be an environmental activist through communication.