Bret Lott
Professor
Office Hours: TR 12:15—1:30
E-mail: lottb@cofc.edu
Personal Website: https://www.facebook.com/bretlottauthor
Bret Lott is the author of fourteen books, most recently the essay collection Letters and Life: On Being a Writer, On Being a Christian (Crossway, 2013) and the novel Dead Low Tide (Random House, 2012). He received his MFA in fiction from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, in 1984, studying under Jay Neugeboren and James Baldwin.
From 1986 to 2004 he was writer-in-residence and professor of English at The College of Charleston, leaving to take the position of editor and director of the journal The Southern Review at Louisiana State University. Three years later, in the fall of 2007, he returned to The College of Charleston and the job he most loves: teaching.
He serves as Nonfiction Editor of Crazyhorse, has spoken on Flannery O'Connor at the White House, and served as Fulbright Senior American Scholar to Bar-llan University in Tel Aviv, Israel. From 2006 to 2013 he served as a member of the National Council on the Arts. He is also director of the Spoleto Summer Study Abroad program in English at the College.
*Photo Credit: Barry Moser
Education
M.F.A., Fiction, University of Massachusetts-Amherst
B.A., English, California State University-Long Beach
Research Interests
- Writing fiction
- Writing nonfiction
- Contemporary American fiction
- Literary publishing
Courses Taught
Fiction, creative nonfiction, writing the novel, experimental fiction; Director, Spoleto Summer Study Abroad Program in English.
Publications
RECENT BOOKS:
Letters and Life: On Being a Writer, On Being a Christian. Wheaton: Crossway Books. June 2013.
Dead Low Tide. Novel. New York: Random House, January 2012.
RECENT STORIES:
“Open House.” Hanatsubaki Magazine (Japanese translation). July 2015.
“Smoke.” Found Anew, ed. Mac Jones and Ray McManus. Forthcoming. University of South Carolina Press, 2015.
“Hell Hole.” The Gettysburg Review 26.2 (summer 2013)
RECENT ESSAYS:
“This Is My City On the News.” Vanity Fair Online. June 19 2015.
“On Posterity.” Kenyon Review Online. March 2015.
“The Importance of Story.” Family Resemblance: An Anthology and Exploration of Eight Hybrid Literary Genres. Forthcoming. Rose Metal Press, 2015.
“Against Technique.” Creating Nonfiction: Lessons from the Voice of the Genre. Creative Nonfiction, 2013. Kindle file.
“The Fixer: The Making of Frank Price.” Virginia Quarterly Review 89.1 (winter 2013).