The first time Bill Carpenter taught creative writing at COA, one of his students told him, "That was a good course, but it would have been better if it had been taught by a real writer.” The force of that critique led Bill, who had been a literature professor at the University of Chicago before coming to COA, to start writing poetry. "It changed my life,” says Bill. It also made him a better writing teacher.

Bill describes his philosophy of teaching as "highly democratic.” He seeks to "give the power of the class to the students” and assumes that students and faculty members are equally capable of contributing to the learning process. When he and his students get down to business in a writing workshop, he has the sense that "we're all in the same boat as writers…we all face difficulties.” If a student is having a problem, chances are that Bill - who has published two novels and three volumes of poetry - has been there, too.

In Bill's mind, the academic philosophy of human ecology is about understanding, articulating, and solving human problems. Citing Oedipus Rex as an example, he says that writing has been the primary expression of human ecology for thousands of years. "At the beginning of the play, the country is a wasteland, but the problem is a human problem. There's a problem with the king, but no one knows what it is.” Bill believes that writing is uniquely suited to express the complexity of human ecology. He says, "Literature speaks in metaphor, which is a complex, multi-layered way of understanding a problem and an important tool for human ecologists.”

A member of the founding COA faculty, Bill describes COA's early days as filled with "glorious idealism.” He was attracted to the college's democratic ideals and the opportunity to be part of the beginning of a new kind of educational institution. Having grown tired of the hierarchy of the traditional university system, he wanted to help create an institution where students and faculty had an equal voice. About four weeks into the college's first term, he had his first opportunity to experience the practical application of these ideals. The students, wanting an opportunity to participate in the creation of COA's curriculum, "revolted” against the curriculum he and the college's three other faculty members had developed the previous summer. The result was a series of long and intense All College Meetings in which faculty and students worked together to shape the college's academic program and philosophy. In Bill Carpenter and his classes, the spirit of those early meetings remains alive and well at COA.

If interested, read some of Bill Carpenter's work.  His novels include The Wooden Nickel, featured in the New York Times and praised with this comparison: "Melville would have approved of this novel's oily, splintered texture and boisterous dialogue" and A Keeper of Sheep, "a seriocomic coming-of-age story. [Protagonist] Penny (Penguin) Solstice contrasts the concerns of spoiled summer residents who battle over whether or not to spray for mosquitoes with the seemingly more crucial ideals that led to her expulsion from Dartmouth. But everything comes to a halt when a long-time resident brings in his love, who is dying of AIDS." (Library Journal)  Rain, The Hours of Morning, and Speaking Fire at Stones are among the titles of his books of poetry.