Monica Ali on teaching creative writing

I once taught undergraduate creative writing at Sheffield Hallam University in the UK. I was 22 years old and had no experience whatsoever, apart from being a writer myself. It didn’t help that my first class was to be my students’ first class. At University. Ever.

Anyway, I was so nervous that I started to sweat. A lot. It was horrid. After half an hour I decided to take them all outside and finish the seminar on the lawn, thus fulfilling cool-young-tutor criteria number one. Gah. Embarassing.

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