Mindy Williams
PhD in Literature

Where did you get your undergraduate degree? What was your major? Where did you get your MA and PhD? What were they in? Why did you choose DU?
I got my BA in English and Biblical Studies at a small Christian college in Southern California, Hope International University. The last thing I wanted to do when I graduated was teach, so I worked in marketing at an audio-visual peripheral manufacturer for almost two years; I realized, however, that the business world wasn’t for me, so I decided to go to graduate school. I got my Master’s in English at California State University, Chico, and did my PhD work in literary studies right here at DU where I’ve stayed on to work in the Writing Program.

Describe your writing process.
I love planning and brainstorming and researching and reading and revising and polishing, but I HATE actually sitting down and putting words to paper, the actual composing stage. Like many writers, it’s a very painful process. To alleviate the pain, I write very detailed outlines so that, when I do compose, it just feels like I’m “filling in” the outline. But that only works for certain kinds of writing.

What do you enjoy most about writing?
If the writing is academic in nature, I enjoy the end result—producing a text I can be proud of that demonstrates what I know and contributes to what others can know. But I also write in my journal a lot, and I use that writing to figure out things that are going on in my life. I enjoy the catharsis there. And if it’s something creative, which I don’t write as often as I’d like to, I enjoy when I stumble upon a nice turn of phrase or a good metaphor that isn’t too cheesy.

What drew you to become a writing teacher?
I think initially I was more drawn to the life of an academic than to teaching itself. I decided to go to graduate school because I wanted to be in a stimulating environment where things changed all the time and where the work I did seemed to mean something. But when I started to teach, I realized it was something that I was good at and that I really enjoyed.

What do you enjoy most about teaching writing?
Even if students don’t see it right away, what they learn about writing will serve them very well in the future, so I enjoy the usefulness of what I teach. My favorite moments in teaching are seeing students improve over the course of a quarter and putting what they learn into practice. And I love seeing those students years later and having them tell me about how they’ve applied what they learned in my class to other projects, whether academic or professional. Basically, I most enjoy seeing my students succeed.

What are your hobbies and outside interests, or guilty pleasures?
I love to travel, play board games and cards, watch movies, watch basketball and college football, and read (of course).

Name an unusual or little-known fact about yourself.
I’m not sure how little known this is at this point, but I’m a big coupon and rebate shopper, and each week I seem to pick up at least one thing at either Walgreens or Rite-Aid that I actually make money from (if it’s free after rebate and I use a coupon in addition to the rebate). Just this past week I got a free bottle of nail polish.

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