INSTRUCTORS

INSTRUCTOR BIO

James Cole is an author, poet, scientist, and filmmaker based out of Charlottesville, VA. He is currently working on his Ph.D. in neuroscience at the University of Virginia Medical School, where he studies degenerative retinal diseases. In 2016 he won The Gallery Poetry Prize and in 2017 he was a Semi-Finalist for the VWC Golden Nib Award. He is the founder of the Charlottesville Poetry Critique Circle, a community organizer for the Live Poets Society, and a regular instructor at the VWC Annual Symposium. His first collection, Crow, come home, was released by VerbalEyze Press in November of 2019. 

WHAT WRITERHOUSE STUDENTS ARE SAYING ABOUT JAMES

“James handled the class very well with recaps, presentations, examples, and critiques. He was fair to all and always allowed time for poetry feedbacks and discussion. Well prepared and managed!”

“James is an excellent instructor! He is warm and welcoming to all, deeply knowledgeable, and provides great feedback. He was great at powering through even when there were some technical difficulties with Zoom. I really appreciate the time and effort he put into this class.”

“Very Innovative prompts – I saw every poet grow and risk in new ways because of the prompts. To be shown poetry from the beginning of history was a new kind of discovery.”

“The course went above and beyond my expectations! It delved deeply into the subject while exploring poetic movements more broadly, and having to write two poems a week was a great routine and motivation.”

“I would definitely recommend this class to someone looking to refine their own work and gain a greater understanding of their process/what they’re interested in creating.” 

“James is very knowledgeable about writing poetry and publishing poetry.”