Carolyn Holbrook is an adjunct professor of creative writing at Hamline University's College of Liberal Arts/Creative Writing Programs. She is a writer, educator, and long-time advocate for the healing power of the arts. Her passion for providing grassroots accessibility to the literary arts inspired her to create SASE: The Write Place in 1993, and to lead as its Artistic/Executive Director until 2006, when she spearheaded the organization’s merger with Intermedia Arts. She was awarded a St. Paul Companies Leadership Initiatives in Neighborhoods (LIN) grant in 1996 and published Ordinary People, Extraordinary Journeys: How the St. Paul Companies Changed Lives and Community (North Star Press of St. Cloud and the MN Council of Nonprofits). Other awards include the prestigious MN Book Awards Kay Sexton Award, 2010. In 2000, she was named one of “100 Rising Stars” by Minneapolis/St. Paul magazine. She earned an interdisciplinary doctorate in Creative Writing and Creative Arts Leadership in 2002 from Union Institute & University.
Students taking a class with Professor Holbrook will learn how to tap into their creative potential and develop the craft of writing. Lessons focus on a combination of in-class exercises, discussions, peer-review, presentations from guest writers, and other high-impact opportunities. Professor Holbrook believes in helping young authors achieve their potential and goes beyond the classroom to provide her students with a true mentor relationship.
"Art and writing have kept me alive. When a student leaves my class, I want them to know and believe that their voice is important. I want them to learn not only from me and the pieces we read, I also want them to learn from other writers. To do this, I bring writers into the classroom to talk with them about their writing and their writing practices.”
- Carolyn Holbrook
Publications
Tell Me Your Names and I Will Testify: Essays
University of Minnesota Press, 2020
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"This ultimately uplifting collection is candid, vibrant and powerful."—Ms. Magazine
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"The memoir of Twin Cities writer Carolyn Holbrook is one of fortitude and resilience. . . . During a time when this country seems to be in the midst of a historic reckoning, Holbrook’s story should be read as more than a memoir. She sets out to personalize and underscore the resilience that goes into surviving and thriving without resources."—Star Tribune
