BRENNA CASEY
Boston College, B.A., English; University of Notre Dame, M.F.A., Creative Writing; Duke University, Ph.D., English (candidate).

Brenna teaches Creative Writing and Literature at Duke University where she is currently completing her doctoral dissertation in English and Women’s Studies. Her research investigates the intersections of literature, visual culture, and technology in the U.S. throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This academic year, Brenna was the recipient of the Stephen Horne Award, awarded to a graduate instructor who has been nominated by his or her students for their outstanding commitment and excellence in teaching. Brenna completed her M.F.A. in Creative Writing at the University of Notre Dame where she was awarded the Sparks Fellowship. While in South Bend, Brenna founded a weekly writing group for adults at South Bend’s Center for the Homeless, was recognized by the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) for outstanding non-fiction writing, and received the university’s Distinguished Graduate Student Award, in part for her teaching excellence. Brenna’s essays, poetry, and reviews have been published widely. She has managed communications for non-profit organizations in Seattle and Washington, D.C., and worked in the Putney Student Travel office where she specialized in new media outreach and Latin American programming. Brenna traveled to set up our Writing in Prague program and is looking forward to returning to the Czech Republic. She has previously led Putney Student Travel programs in Ecuador, Argentina, Costa Rica, and Ireland. She taught Creative Writing for National Geographic Student Expeditions in Peru and Spain.  Brenna is fluent in Spanish.

NATHAN MCNAMARA
Vassar College, B.A., English, B.A., Psychology; Johns Hopkins University, M.F.A., Fiction

While at Vassar, Nate was a teaching and research assistant for the English department and interned at the Poughkeepsie Farm Project as a community fellow. Nate currently teaches Creative Nonfiction, Fiction, and Poetry at Johns Hopkins University, and is finishing a novel about a boom town in northern Pennsylvania. In 2013, he was a finalist for the Johns Hopkins award for Excellence in Teaching. Nate is also the recipient of the 2014 Benjamin Sankey Award for his writing at Johns Hopkins, and the 2010 Anne E. Imbrie Prize for Excellence in Fiction Writing at Vassar College. Nate has published fiction and nonfiction with The Hopkins Review, The Carolina Quarterly, The Rumpus, Electric Literature, and The Millions. He is proficient in Spanish. Nate has led Foundations Costa Rica and Writing in Ireland.