Columbia University Beginning Nonfiction Workshop: An undergraduate creative nonfiction workshop with a short seminar component to introduce students to the genre.
TUMO Creative Writing Lab: A two-semester creative writing workshop and seminar at the TUMO Center for Creative Technologies. This course was taught through Columbia University’s Columbia Artists/Teachers program entirely via video in fall 2019 and spring 2020.
Writing Funny: A two-week intensive workshop and seminar focused on humor writing at the TUMO Center. This course was taught in-person in Yerevan, Armenia in January 2020.
Happy, Mad, Sad, Glad: A six-week seminar on writing emotions in prose. This course was originally designed to be taught in-person for Columbia University students, staff, and faculty and pivoted to video after COVID-19 hit in spring 2020.
CW Multi-Genre Seminar: A creative writing seminar in Columbia University’s Pre-College Summer Program.
CW Multi-Genre Craft: An exercise-intensive craft class in Columbia University’s Pre-College Summer Program.
CW Multi-Genre Workshop: A creative writing workshop in Columbia University’s SPS Pre-College Program.
CW Advanced Workshop: An advanced creative writing workshop in Columbia University’s SPS Pre-College Program.
Creative Writing Pedagogy: I led a professional development session on creative writing pedagogy for graduate instructors in the Columbia Artists/Teachers program.
“Honestly one of the best professors I have had in my time at Columbia. Cares for her students, wants us to succeed and goes above and beyond in time, help and resources. Genuinely an incredible professor that I am lucky to have met during my time here. Would highly highly highly recommend Rachel to anyone who is interested in writing. She has helped me grow so much as a writer / student / human and is just so so awesome!!”
— Course Evaluation Feedback, Beginning Nonfiction Workshop, Columbia University
“Professor Keranen was one of the best, most knowledgeable, and most helpful teachers I have ever had the pleasure of working with. I was lucky enough to have her for Conference as well as Craft, and she always gave helpful and in-depth feedback on assignments, responded to questions promptly and thoroughly, and was understanding and kind with all of the students in her class. Her skill in creative writing came through in her lectures, she selected wonderful samples for discussion, and was overall an amazing instructor that made this course all the better.”
— Course Evaluation Feedback, Creative Writing Craft Class, Columbia Pre-College Summer Program
“This was the best workshop I have ever had. You are a great example of a teacher that many of our teachers should follow :)”
— TUMO Center student, Writing Funny seminar and workshop
“Great class & prompts are so generative…actually a relaxed environment.”
— Columbia University MFA student; Writing Emotions seminar
“Working with Rachel is a privilege. As a teacher, she is invested in her students’ work and success. She is dedicated to bringing out the best in young peoples’ work. Rachel applies her unfaltering work ethic to creating challenging, focused, and inspiring exercises that lead to more nuanced, detailed writing that is both personal to the author, and relatable for the reader. She consistently brainstorms how to do more for her students, whether that be curating readings by Armenian authors for our Yerevan-based students, or creating a digital literary magazine of edited student writing and visual work.”
— Brooke Davis, TUMO creative writing teacher, 2019–2020
Download my CV and a summary of my teaching evaluations here.