Jim Ellefson
Professor; Poet-in-Residence
Degree Program:
Professional Writing
Champlain Poet-in-Residence Jim C. Ellefson helps his students find their voices.
Raising their voices
"Teaching for me is the genuine article," says Jim. "Since I'm involved with writing and literature, I love it when students engage, when they go public, which I see as the last act of writing. At Champlain, our young writers can go public by publishing in our national/international literary magazine, Willard & Maple, or when they present their own work in a public setting, like the Intercollegiate Writers' Exchange. Both the magazine and the writers' exchange are formidable rites of passage for our students, and I see both as highlights of our program."
As Jim sees it, it's all about voice. "If students can leave this college with a sense of their individuality and uniqueness in this world, and if they can translate that sense of self into their voice, their fingerprint as a writer, I'll feel like we've done our job. If this ride isn't exciting, I don't know what is."
Jim has had poetry published throughout the United States, Canada, Great Britain, France and Japan, and has taught writing and literature at Shanghai University and the Universidade Dos Acores. He holds a BA from Penn State University and an MFA from Norwich University.
Broadcast and Streaming Media work by student Kaitlyn Emmons