BFA Faculty

Scott W Berg

Professor

Scott W. Berg is an author, journalist, and professor of nonfiction writing. He has published three books of narrative history--Grand Avenues: The Story of Pierre Charles L'Enfant, the French Visionary Who Designed Washington, D.C., and 38 Nooses: Lincoln, Little Crow, and the Beginning of the Frontier's End, and, most recently, The Burning of the World, about the aftermath of the Great Chicago Fire.

https://www.amazon.com/Burning-World-Great-Chicago-Citys/dp/0804197849/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0

The Burning of the World won the Midland Authors Award in Nonfiction and was longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction. 38 Nooses was named a Main Selection of the History Book Club and awarded the Library of Virginia Literary Award in nonfiction. In 2016 and 2017, Scott collaborated with producer Jonathan Prince (American Dreams) on a full treatment for an eight-episode miniseries of 38 Nooses, developing the project for executive producer Robert Redford, Sundance Productions, and MGM Studios. The project is currently being shopped to networks, and fingers are crossed.

Since 1994, Scott has taught nonfiction writing and research at Mason. His courses have included graduate- and undergraduate-level nonfiction literature and writing, literature pedagogy, professional and technical writing, science writing, and book production. Scott helped to found and acts as the editorial advisor for Stillhouse Press, a nonprofit small press staffed by GMU undergraduates, graduate students, and alumni. He also serves as the internship coordinator for English majors and others interested in work experience related to writing, editing, publication, and related research. (To read through the department's internships link, please go to english.gmu.edu/internships.)

Since 1999, Scott has been a regular contributor of feature articles and reviews to the Washington Post, and he has frequently given book talks and readings at such venues as the Smithsonian Institution, the Boston Athenaeum, Politics & Prose Bookstore, the National Building Museum, the Virginia Historical Society, the U.S. Treasury Executive Institute, and many others. Radio interviews in support of Scott's writing have included National Public Radio, Bloomberg Radio (New York), WNYC Radio (New York), and WAMU Radio (Washington, D.C.), and he has been a featured speaker on television shows produced by PBS, the National Geographic Society, and Twin Cities Public Television.

Scott is originally from St. Paul, Minnesota and studied at the University of Minnesota, Miami University of Ohio, and Mason. He lives with his wife, Cory, in Reston, Virginia. Their sons, Carter and Elliot, play collegiate soccer for the University of Mary Washington.

Tania Rachel James

Associate Professor

Tania James is the author of four works of fiction, all published by Knopf: Loot, which was nominated for 2023 National Book Award and the Carol Shields Prize; The Tusk That Did the Damage, which was a finalist for the International Dylan Thomas Prize; Aerogrammes and Other Stories, named a Best Book of 2012 by Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal, and The San Francisco Chronicle; and the novel Atlas of Unknowns, which was a New York Times Editor’s Choice and a finalist for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature. Her short stories have appeared in Freeman’s; Granta; The New Yorker; O, The Oprah Magazine; and One Story, among other places, and thrice featured on Symphony Space Selected Shorts. She has received fellowships from the Ragdale Foundation, the Macdowell Colony, the Sustainable Arts Foundation, and the Fulbright Program.

Helon Habila Ngalabak

Professor

Helon Habila's current book is The Chibok Girls: The Boko Haram Kidnappings and Islamist Militancy in Nigeria, a nonfiction investigation into the kidnapping of 276 girls in Nigeria by Islamist militants in 2014. His first novel, Waiting for an Angel, has been translated into many langauges including Dutch, Italian, Swedish, and French. His writing has won many prizes including the Caine Prize, 2001; the Commonweath Writers Prize, Africa region, 2003; the Emily Balch Prize, 2008, and the Windham-Campbell Prize for Fiction, 2015.

He is a contributing editor to the Virginia Quarterly Review. His second novel, Measuring Time, published in 2007, won the Virginia Library Foundation Fiction Award, 2008, and was shortlisted for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, 2008. His third novel, Oil on Water, was published in the U.S. in 2011. His stories, articles, reviews, and poems have appeared in various magazines and papers including Granta, AGNI, The Virginia Quarterly Review, Guernica, and the London Guardian. His short story, The Hotel Malogo, was selected for the Best American Non-required Reading Anthology. Habila is the editor of the Granta Book of African Short Story, 2011.

Kara Oakleaf

Director, Fall for the Book Festival

Kara Oakleaf is the director of Watershed Lit and the Fall for the Book festival, and teaches creative writing and literature in the English department. She received her M.F.A. at George Mason University and her work appears in Best Small Fictions 2020, Bloomsbury's Short-Form Creative Writing, and journals including Matchbook, Booth, Wigleaf and SmokeLong Quarterly.

Suzanne Rigdon

Manager, Fall for the Book Festival

Suzy Rigdon holds an M.F.A. in creative writing from George Mason University, and a BA in English and History from Hartwick College. She is the Festival Manager for Fall for the Book, co-hosts the Fall for the Book Podcast, and teaches Digital Creative Writing (ENGH377).

Laura Ellen Scott

Undergraduate Academic Advisor

Professor

Laura Scott received her MFA in Creative Writing from George Mason University in 1993. She teaches fiction writing and is the Department's Academic Coordinator and primary advisor to undergraduates in the Creative Writing and English majors.

Her debut novel, Death Wishing, was released in 2011. Her novels The Juliet and The Mean Bone in Her Body were released in 2016. The Mean Bone in Her Body is Book 1 of the New Royal Mysteries series. Book 2, Crybaby Lane, was released 2017. Book 3, Blue Billy was released in 2022.

Art Taylor

Assistant Director

Professor

Art Taylor teaches creative writing and literature, and for many years he helped to coordinate marketing for the annual Fall for the Book Festival.

Art is the author of two short story collections—The Adventure of the Castle Thief and Other Expeditions and Indiscretions and The Boy Detective & The Summer of '74 and Other Tales of Suspense—and of the novel in stories On the Road with Del & Louise, winner of the Agatha Award for Best First Novel. He has won three additional Agatha Awards, an Edgar Award, an Anthony Award, four Macavity Awards, and four Derringer Awards for his short fiction. His work has also appeared in Best American Mystery Stories, and he edited Murder Under the Oaks: Bouchercon Anthology 2015, winner of the Anthony Award for Best Anthology or Collection; California Schemin': Bouchercon Anthology 2020; Lawyers, Guns, and Money: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Warren Zevon; and School of Hard Knox; the latter three have all been finalists for the Anthony Award for Best Anthology or Collection.

His short fiction has appeared in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and in various other journals and anthologies. He contributes frequently to the Washington Post, Washington Independent Review of Books, and Mystery Scene.

For more information, visit his website at http://www.arttaylorwriter.com or like his author page at Facebook here.

Gregg Wilhelm

Director

Associate Professor

Gregg Wilhelm became Director of Mason Creative Writing in Spring 2018. His expertise covers book publishing, arts administration, and higher education. He started his career at Johns Hopkins University Press, launched three imprints including one with a major independent bookseller, founded nonprofit literary arts organization CityLit Project and launched its CityLit Press imprint, and held adjunct and leadership positions at several institutions. Prior to joining the English Department at Mason, Gregg served as Director of Marketing and Enrollment Development for the Open Studies unit at the Maryland Institute College of Art. He has sat on grant review panels for the National Endowment for the Arts (FY2014 and FY2019), the Maryland State Arts Council, and the RUBYs Artist Grants. In fall 2020, he co-founded Watershed Lit: Center for Literary Engagement and Publishing Practice, a center chartered by the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at George Mason University.