UNH Today

The founder of the UNH MFA’s Writers in Schools program is celebrating a double personal success in bringing poetry to schools in Maine.  

Brian Evans-Jones, MFA candidate in Poetry, started the MFA Writers in Schools program in 2014, sending students from all MFA genres to teach creative writing to students in local public schools. Now Brian has been awarded a $4,000 grant by the Marshwood Education Foundation to teach a second-grade poetry residency at Central School in South Berwick, as well as being awarded a contract by the Maine Arts Commission to help high school students in Washington County learn how to excel in the Poetry Out Loud competition.

Brian is a former Poet Laureate of Hampshire, England, who moved with his family to the Seacoast in 2014 to start his MFA at UNH. Brian has taught poetry and creative writing in schools, prison, summer camps, historic houses, and many other venues. He also works for the Telling Room nonprofit in Portland, ME, and was recently juried onto the Artists in Education rosters of both New Hampshire and Maine. In 2014 Brian started the MFA Writers-in-Schools program, which has sent MFA students from all genres to teach creative writing to students in public schools close to Durham. To date, the program has reached over 150 students and given around 15 MFA students an experience of teaching creative writing to children and young people.

Brian said, “I’m delighted to have these two chances to share the power and joy of poetry with more young people, and I’m grateful to UNH for allowing me to set up the Writers in Schools program. Running the program gave me more credibility as a teaching artist, and I believe that has helped me to access these opportunities. I hope that many more MFA students will benefit from the program.” Ethan Leonard, the current administrator of the MFA Writers in Schools project, said, “It’s a really remarkable opportunity, both for the MFA students as well as the high school students. The work these students put forward is always surprising, and full of energy and eagerness, and having a program like Writers in the Schools for these students to showcase that is invaluable.”

Brian Evans-Jones can be contacted at brian@brianevansjones.com. For more information about the UNH MFA Writers in Schools project, please contact Ethan Leonard at eltehoannard@gmail.com.