What you can take from doing a creative writing class is a sense of the joy of creation, which often gets bred out of the education system. Even if students never go on to become writers, they will always need creative thinking in whatever field they go into.
With a flair for creative writing, Samantha Walsh was eager to enroll in an advanced fiction writing course. When she learned her professor would be a famous Canadian novelist, the experience became even more special.
“It’s pretty cool to have a well-known, published author come in and teach,” the early education and English major said of taking a class led by Nino Ricci. “He’s really good at giving constructive criticism.”
Ricci has won numerous Canadian and international literary awards including the prestigious Governor General's Award for Fiction twice. His debut novel, Lives of the Saints, was part of a trilogy adapted as a miniseries starring Sophia Loren.
Ricci first visited Bridgewater State in 2009 as the inaugural Killam Visiting Professor of Canadian Studies, a position endowed by the Constance Killam and Elizabeth Killam Rodgers Trust, the Government of Canada and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Impressed with the university and its students, Ricci applied for the position again this year.
“Bridgewater is the kind of institution I like because it seems so community based,” he said. “The students I came across here all struck me as very committed to what I was doing and down to earth. I was very happy to come back here.”
Amid the sometimes-solitary life of a writer, teaching reconnects him to the world and young people, Ricci said.
He runs his class as a workshop where several students share their creative writing each week. Students critique and discuss their peers’ work with the goal of finding ways to improve character development, dialogue, language and other literary features.
“What you can take from doing a creative writing class is a sense of the joy of creation, which often gets bred out of the education system,” he said. “Even if students never go on to become writers, they will always need creative thinking in whatever field they go into.”
Ricci’s parents immigrated from Italy to Canada. He is able to connect with BSU students, many of whom come from immigrant families, said Dr. Andy Holman, a history professor and director of BSU’s Canadian Studies program.
“Having a prominent, award-winning novelist to teach creative writing at our institution was an opportunity we couldn’t turn down,” Holman said.
Ricci’s students are embracing the unique opportunity and appreciative that BSU is committed to welcoming visiting instructors who enhance their learning experience.
“It’s very nice to have someone who gives you the freedom to write what you want and is not so set in what ought to be,” English major Ethan Murray, ’26, said of Ricci. “He’s very open to letting you explore new ways of writing.”
BSU is hosting a symposium on Ricci’s works from noon to 6 p.m. Oct. 19 in Dunn Conference Suite. The event will bring together literary writers, scholars and students from Canada, Italy and the United States.
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