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Instructor Highlights - Patrick Ryan Frank
In his classes, Patrick Ryan Frank teaches that creative expression is both an end in itself and a vehicle for exploring one's potential, something that he has learned through experience. This term Patrick is teaching Evening Poetry Writing Workshop and An Introduction to Playwriting: The 10-Minute Play.
Growing up in rural Michigan, he realized early that he wasn't suited for farm life; immediately after high school, he moved to the Chicago area to study acting at Northwestern University. There, he discovered that he loved to write the lines even more than he liked to say them. He received his bachelor's degree in theatre and creative writing.
Committed to a writer's career, Patrick relocated again, this time to Boston, one of the most literary cities in the country. There, he was a student in the poetry program at Boston University, where he received his master's degree in creative writing. After graduate school, Patrick took a variety of day jobs to support his creative work. In 2005, he was awarded a prestigious Writing Fellowship from the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Mass., providing him with support and the opportunity to live and write without distraction in an artists' colony at the tip of Cape Cod. The poet Carl Phillips selected Patrick's poems for the highly competitive Second-Year Fellowship at the Work Center. During his two winters there, Patrick received an Artist's Grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Upon returning to Boston, he took a job with the editorial department of a textbook company, while continuing to publish poems in a variety of literary journals, including Poetry, The North American Review, and Carolina Quarterly,
Over the past few years, Patrick has parlayed his range of interests and experiences into a variety of courses for Brookline Adult & Community Education. He has taught writing techniques, playwriting, acting courses, even test preparation. In each of those classes, Patrick has stressed that eloquent expression is a key element of personal growth.
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