Gabriel Ertsgaard, D.Litt

Author of A Fiction Writer's Guide to Peace: Crafting Nonviolent Heroism
Available in June, 2025 from Bloomsbury Academic

Interviews Editor for The Peace Chronicle
Copy Editor for Drifting Sands Haibun

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Brief Biographical Statement

Gabriel Ertsgaard is Interviews Editor for The Peace Chronicle and Copy Editor for the poetry journal Drifting Sands Haibun. He also serves on the board of directors for the Quaker magazine Western Friend. He has taught university English courses for the past decade, and is the author of numerous poems, short stories, and nonfiction articles. He holds a Doctor of Letters with a concentration in Global Studies from Drew University.

Teaching Experience

Back in my early twenties, shortly past
My college years, and recently returned
To my hometown, I substituted as
A teacher's aide—most days in special needs
Assignments. Later, I would live in South
Korea, teaching English at a small
Academy. And later yet I'd go
To Gori, Georgia (hometown of a man
Whose name still spreads a chill across the globe)
To bring a native speaker's voice to English
Classrooms in a public school—this sponsored through
A program of the Georgian ministry
That oversees science and education.

Just after my return from Eastern Europe
I took a three-day train ride to New Jersey
Where I would earn my doctorate, and teach
To eager (or beleaguered) undergrads
How to write a basic college essay,
To read with care a literary work.
But in this span I also taught one year
At the China campus of the same school
That six months past that sojourn hired me back
To teach for them full-time on their main campus.
And there I taught through early COVID months
Before returning home to Oregon.

As for the present, I wear several hats.
I offer courses on creative writing
For the senior center in my city.
I substitute again in local classrooms,
But this time as a teacher, not an aide.
I also teach an online college course
That tackles literary works that range
Across time, genres, and five continents.