Snapshot

Assistant professor Rachel Faldet is particularly interested in helping people who don't consider themselves writers find their voice and confidence.  She teaches Introduction to College Writing and Effective Writing.  A Luther alum and an MA in Writing from the University of Iowa, she is an active creative nonfiction writer and an expert editor.  Her thoughtful essays on the details of individual lives, including her own, have found homes in regional and national journals.  Her book Our Stories of Miscarriage landed her two appearances on NBC's Today Show—the first department member to appear on national TV.  Like her husband David, she has an artist’s eye and she creates fine-art quality quilts.

Teaching and Research Interests

I teach "Introduction to College Writing" for first-year American and international students at Luther. In the course we work on informative, analytical, and argumentative writing. We approach writing as a process—focusing on developing strong content and surface-level features. I also teach Effective Writing, mainly for juniors and seniors. We work as a community of writers, following Anne Lamott's mantra, "Tell the truth as you understand it."

Besides being a writing teacher, I am also a freelance writer and editor. With Karen Fitton, I edited Our Stories of Miscarriage: Healing With Words (Fairview Press 1997). It is a collection of personal essays, journal excerpts, and poems written by fifty women and men who have lost a child—or children—through miscarriage. The book was featured on NBC's Today show, and has received good reviews in, for instance, Booklist, Library Journal and Mothering. The book offers comfort and hope to bereaved parents and is a resource for caregivers.

Some of my essays have appeared in Iowa Woman, Wapsipinicon Almanac, The Cedar Rapids Gazette, AAL's Correspondent, Tapestry, The Carolina Quarterly and The Christian Science Monitor.

Thoughts About Teaching

My goal for my students is for them to become more confident and effective writers—no matter where they see themselves when they begin the semester. My classes are kept small—around 15 students—so that the classroom becomes a community of writers working together. I meet with each student individually several times throughout the semester, and enjoy getting to know them as writers and as individuals.