Cornell College is hiring: Distinguished Visiting Writer in Mount Vernon

The Center for the Literary Arts at Cornell College invites applications for a Distinguished Visiting Writer to teach a 3 ½-week seminar during the 2025-2026 academic year (term negotiable). Teaching responsibilities will include one course in one of these areas: screenwriting, graphic novel, or editing & publishing. The visitor will also give a public reading or presentation. Required qualifications: graduate degree, teaching experience at the undergraduate level and professional experience in the relevant field. On-campus housing can be provided.

The Center seeks individuals committed to excellence and innovation in undergraduate education and eager to contribute to our literary community on campus.

Because Cornell College values diversity and strives to create a welcoming community in which all individuals are respected and included, the entire campus community engages in dialogue around issues of difference, identity, and ideology. The college is committed to fostering a faculty and staff community that reflects our diverse student body. We encourage applications from candidates who share our vision for a campus that embraces differing backgrounds, viewpoints, and identities, and who will excel at teaching and mentoring a student body that is broadly diverse. (See our diversity and inclusion statement.)

Cornell’s One Course At A Time academic calendar is divided into eight 3½-week blocks in which students take and faculty teach a single course. The college encourages interdisciplinary interests among its faculty and the development of teaching strategies that capitalize on our distinctive academic calendar. One Course At A Time allows us the freedom to take students off-campus without impinging on other course commitments. In addition, class size is limited to 25 students, and upper-level courses are often smaller.

About Cornell College

Cornell College is a national liberal arts college committed to excellence in teaching and the creation of a welcoming community in which all individuals are respected and included. Our innovative curriculum includes a focus on the essential abilities of writing, quantitative reasoning, and intercultural literacy as well as experiential learning. The One Course At A Time approach fosters strong student engagement and close faculty-student relationships while allowing faculty freedom to design and carry out their classes, on campus or off.

Founded in 1853, Cornell’ was the first college west of the Mississippi to graduate both men and women. Academic immersion, real world experience requirements through Ingenuity in Action, and unparalleled flexibility attract an ambitious student body from around the world. Seventy percent of our students are from outside Iowa, representing nearly 50 states and 26 foreign countries. Students of color comprise one-fourth of the student body.

Cornell’s picturesque hilltop campus is a National Historic District and was the first campus listed in its entirety on the National Register of Historic Places. Mount Vernon is a small, college-centered town in the Cedar Rapids-Iowa City corridor, home to nearly half a million people. It has two additional National Historic Districts and a classic Main Street a short walk from campus. Mount Vernon attractions include an array of restaurants; boutique shopping; walking paths; a dedicated sledding hill; and 14 annual festivals and events including Chalk the Walk, Chocolate Stroll, Chili Cookoff, and Magical Night.

Interested applicants should submit the following materials through Cornell College’s online application system:

• A letter of application/cover letter, which includes relevant teaching and professional experience, a description of any experience working with individuals from historically marginalized or underserved groups, and proposed course topic(s). (A list of previous topics is available on the Center’s website.)
• Current Curriculum Vitae
• Graduate transcript(s) may be requested at a later date.

Applications will be reviewed beginning January 10th and continue until the position is filled. Video interviews with finalists will be held during the week of January 20th.

For more information about the Center, please visit the center’s website.

Any questions can be directed to Rebecca Entel, Professor of English and Creative Writing and Robert P. Dana Director of the Center for the Literary Arts, at rentel@cornellcollege.edu.

Cornell is an equal opportunity employer and encourages applications from underrepresented groups. Cornell complies with Iowa's Smoke-free Air Act. Cornell utilizes E-Verify and requires the satisfactory completion of a background check.