Writing Center

Overview

Writing Center tutors are available in person and online to help students achieve their writing goals at any stage of their writing process. All currently enrolled degree-seeking students are welcome, and they can work on essays, artist statements, application materials, presentation texts, theses, proposals, creative writing, or social media posts. Our tutors are kind, encouraging, and interested!

Though drop-ins are welcome, the best way to guarantee an appointment is to schedule one in Navigate. Once you create an appointment, you will be emailed instructions with directions for working with your tutor online or in person.

If you have any questions, or need help making an appointment, stop by the Writing Center on the 10th floor of Lakeview, call us at 312-499-4138, or email wcenter@saic.edu. A front desk assistant will be happy to assist you during our open hours.

Make an Appointment

Making Appointments
You are able to make one appointment per day and no more than two appointments per week.

Cancelling Appointments in Advance
If you can't make your appointment, please cancel your appointment as soon as possible. Do so by logging into Navigate, selecting your appointment, and then deleting it.

No-Shows
A "no-show" is when you do not cancel your appointment in advance and miss it. If you miss two appointments in any given term, you will be blocked from making additional appointments for the rest of that term.

Last-Minute Cancellations
A last-minute cancellation is when you cancel your appointment within twelve hours of your appointment. It will be counted as half of a no-show. Two last-minute cancellations count as one no-show.

Late Arrivals
If you are ten or more minutes late for your appointment, it will be offered to another student and counted as a no-show.
The Writing Center is now using Navigate to schedule appointments with tutors.
Visit saic.navigate.eab.com.
Click "Login with your school account."
Enter the credentials you use to access your SAIC Gmail account.
Click "Schedule an Appointment."
Select "Writing Center" as the department.
Select "Online Appointment" as the appointment type.
Pick a date to see time slots in a 30-day range from that date.
Click "Find Available Time."
Use the arrows to switch between days and look for a time that works for you.
Click a time slot to schedule an appointment!
For more help with scheduling an appointment through Navigate, please watch the appointment scheduling tutorial.
For more information about Navigate and additional tutorials, please visit SAIC's Navigate webpage.

The Writing Center serves all currently enrolled degree-seeking students.

All Writing Center Tutors are equipped to work with students on many different forms of writing, and everyone can help you with your writing goals! Take a look at the bios of our Writing Center Tutors & Staff, and if you would like to schedule an appointment with a specific tutor, email wcenter@saic.edu.

Writing Tutorials

The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) offers free, fifty-minute writing tutorials through the Writing Center. Tutors are available to assist all currently enrolled students with any stage of the writing process.

Students may work with tutors on the following:

Interpreting writing prompts, essay questions, & application leads
Brainstorming & getting started
Creating artist statements
Making claims & arguments
Developing ideas
Strengthening organization
Improving writing style
Clarifying language
Addressing Chicago Manual of Style (CMS), American Psychological Association (APA) style, & Modern Language Association (MLA) style questions
Citing references
Correcting basic grammar, spelling, & punctuation

Mission Statement

At the Writing Center, our work is individualized, while our scope is global. Everyone is welcome.

We use close observation, careful listening, and honest response while we encourage impassioned engagement, deliberate language, and thoughtful action. Students' ideas hold sway.

We embrace works in progress and what they demand from us: that we must allow false starts, address our biases, research facts, bring evidence to light, and hear alternate arguments before we make claims. Messiness is essential.

We encourage striving beyond safe conclusions, and we accept that discomfort is necessary to reach meaningful understanding. Openness is key.

We believe that relationships—between individuals listening to and asking hard questions of each other—form the basis of personal transformations and meaningful social change. Learning happens together.

Staff

Evan Wood

Tutor

I am a second-year student in the MFAW program where I mostly write fiction. Before school I worked for for eight years as a journalist, copywriter, and editor, and I believe that writing almost always benefits from collaboration. I look forward to collaborating with you. (If you just want to come by and talk about trees, I'd be happy to do that, too)!

Specialities: Journalistic writing, Chicago/AP Style, fiction and creative nonfiction, and literary analysis.

Pronouns: he/him/his

Glenn B. Rust

Front Desk Assistant

Glenn B. Rust has spent the last five years living in Chicago, first receiving his Bachelor's of Arts in Playwriting from Columbia College Chicago, then working as the Technical Director for the longstanding playwrights' theatre Chicago Dramatists. He also worked as a high school English teacher for two years. Glenn has dedicated his career to the development of new work--whether it be his own or his peers'--by creating multiple new play festivals both in college and the professional theatre world. His reading series Playwrights Aloud has continued its work at Columbia College Chicago following his graduation and at Chicago Dramatists after he left the organization.

Pronouns: he/they

Nadya Kelly

Tutor

I am a second-year New Arts Journalism MFA student who loves writing about music, entertainment, and pop culture. As an undergraduate, I studied music performance as an oboist. Right now I'm working on my own narrative journalism podcast but in my free time I like to read, hang out at the lakefront beach, and teach myself how to cook new recipes.

Specialities: Essays (personal, argumentative, cultural, etc.), reviews, research papers, creative nonfiction, and art/music analysis.

Pronouns: she/her/hers

Claire Lobenfeld

Tutor

I'm a first-year MFAW candidate working on short fiction. My professional background is in music, arts, and culture criticism as both a writer and editor as well as editorial consulting on creative manuscripts, artist bios, and a variety of public-facing content for small businesses and nonprofits. In my spare time, I volunteer with the creative writing organization WriteGirl; take care of plants, a cat, and a human man; and think too deeply about the Real Housewives franchises. Please come find me if you're looking to make your creative writing weirder!

Specialities: Literary and critical analysis, reviews, fiction (including speculative, surrealist, and general strangeness), creative nonfiction, poetry, artist statements and other professional writing.

Pronouns: she/her/hers

Ashley Collins

Front Desk Assistant

I am a first-year MFA student in the Writing Department. I specialize in fiction writing but have some experience with poetry. I've written mostly realistic fiction. I want to explore more in terms of black authors and black fiction. I'm also interested in consuming a lot of fantasy/horror stories and incorporating that into my writing as well.

Pronouns: she/her/hers

Ben Bellwoar

Tutor

I am a first-year graduate student in the FVNMA department, and my creative background includes poetry, comics, and animation. I have a deep interest in auto-theoretical writing, which is--loosely--the use of autobiography to deliver or build upon critical theory. My goal as a tutor is to help you find and strengthen your voice as a writer, no matter what kind of work you make!

Specialities: Artist statements, autotheory, personal essays, critical theory

Pronouns: they/them

John W. Bateman

Front Desk Assistant

I'm a second-year MFA Writing student from the Deep South. I wrote a novel about a ghost and a drag queen in Mississippi, and am happy that my mother isn't the only person who bought copies. I love coffee, glitter, my bike, and sunshine.

Pronouns: he/him/his

Jourdain Barton

Tutor and Front Desk Assistant

Howdy! I am a poet and conceptual artist with academic backgrounds in performance studies and art history. My creative work has been rationalized as poetry, performance, punk rock, and Duchampian investigation, while my academic specialities are centered in conceptual art histories, Islamic visual cultures, and curatorial/museum studies. I am looking forward to assisting students with projects both creative and academic.

Specialities: Art history, formal analysis, research papers, poetry, literary analysis, art theory, conceptual writing, artists statements, performance, anthropology, and continental philosophy.

Pronouns: she/her/hers

Mira Koster

Tutor and Front Desk Assistant

I'm a second-year graduate student in the Historic Preservation program. I'm from Minneapolis but have lived in Chicago for several years and love both cities (almost) equally. My favorite things are books and birds.

Specialties: academic essays, literary and visual analysis, architecture, and philosophy.

Pronouns: she, her, hers

Myle Yan Tay

Tutor and Front Desk Assistant

I'm a second-year in the MFAW program, working primarily in plays and novels. For my undergrad in Singapore, my major was Global Affairs, so I'm always interested in writing about politics. I've also been writing theatre and movie reviews for a while, so I'm happy to talk about that too.

Specialities: playwriting, fiction, creative non-fiction, reviews.

Pronouns: he, him, his

Gordon Fung

Tutor

FVNMA 24'. What do I make? Experimental video, multimedia installations/performance, noise music, glitch art, DIY electronic synths, and new media works. What do I like? Cats, nature, cooking. What do I listen to? Black metal, power metal, folk metal, deathcore, harsh noise wall, etc. What are my artistic research interests? Blending analog and digital techniques, exploiting (and misusing) soft- and hardwares.

Specialities: Academic research, music/sound, visual analysis, artist's statement, modern arts history.

Joshua C. Craig

Tutor and Front Desk Assistant

I am an MFA Writing candidate here at SAIC. I completed my undergraduate studies at Evergreen State College, where I studied neuroscience, writing, and literature. I am a reader for A Public Space and have words published in Alternative Minds, Inkwell, and Book Riot.

Specialities: fiction, poetry, non-fiction, academic essays, neuroscience, and design.

Pronouns: any

Lauren Woolf

Tutor

I am a second-year graduate student in the dual degree Arts Administration and Art History program. In my work, I am particularly interested in the contemporary museum and its controversial past, as well as the applied arts of 20th century Eastern and Central Europe. In my free time, I love to cook and bake, listen to history and true crime podcasts, and watch documentaries and the Great British Bake Off. I hope I can serve as an effective sounding board for all your ideas, projects, and processes!

Specialities: Visual analysis, primary source and archival research, art historical and historical writing

Pronouns: she, her, hers

Geoffrey Billetter

Tutor and Front Desk Assistant

I'm a poet from South Carolina, born at the dawn of the 90s. I enjoy riding my bike through parks and eating on the curb beside food trucks.

Specialities: poetry, creative writing, surrealism, essays.

Pronouns: he, him, his

Natalie Wright Holtzmann

Head Tutor

I'm a Writing MFA student focusing on hybrid fiction. I have an education background, including TEFL certification, and I love supporting fellow artists in expressing themselves authentically. I'm excited to work with you all.

Specialities: Literary criticism, personal essays, application and artist statements, creative writing.

Pronouns: she/her/hers