Kerry Folan

Kerry Folan serves as a Lecturer in the Department of English at George Mason University's College of Humanities and Social Sciences. She teaches composition, literature, and creative writing courses with a specialization in creative nonfiction, maintaining office hours in Horizon Hall 4212 on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 1:00-3:00 via Zoom.

Dr. Folan earned her BA in English from Dickinson College and her MFA in Creative Writing with a nonfiction concentration from George Mason University. Her academic excellence during her graduate studies was recognized with multiple awards including the 2015 Mary Roberts Rinehart Nonfiction Award, a 2016-17 Thesis Fellowship, and the 2017 Outstanding Graduate Student in Nonfiction Award.

Her research focuses on creative nonfiction as literature, with particular attention to distance teaching methodologies and effective feedback mechanisms in writing-intensive courses. Dr. Folan brings a practitioner's perspective to her teaching, having established herself as a published writer with work appearing in numerous prestigious publications including the Normal School, Baltimore Review, Ninth Letter, Los Angeles Review of Books, Southeast Review, Washington Post, Glamour.com, Hippocampus, The Toast, Literary Hub, and River Teeth.

• GMU's 2015 Mary Roberts Rinehart Nonfiction Award
• 2016-17 Thesis Fellowship
• 2017 Outstanding Graduate Student in Nonfiction Award

Prior to her academic career, Dr. Folan worked as an editor on Ralph Lauren's digital ecommerce team and served as editor-in-chief of Racked.com. She founded and directs Shore Lit, an organization that brings literary events to the rural Eastern Shore of Maryland where she resides, demonstrating her commitment to expanding literary access beyond traditional academic settings.