Ralph Sneeden
ENGLISH
A poet who challenges students to "emerge from discussion proud of themselves."
B.A. University of Massachusetts at Amherst; M.A. Middlebury College; M.F.A. Warren Wilson College. Appointed in 1995.
Why Exeter: "I came because of the Harkness table. I prepare for class by reading, not by putting together a lesson plan. It puts me on the edge of the cliff right next to my students."
Favorite lesson: "I love to teach any work that challenges the students, where they emerge from the discussion proud of themselves. We read books you don't normally see in a high school English curriculum. I've had great experiences with Middlemarch, by George Eliot, and Wordsworth's ‘Prelude.’ You have to challenge the mastery of your subject to help your students go where they want to go."
Favorite books: Middlemarch by George Eliot, The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald, Collected Poems by Donald Justice, The Gift by Vladimir Nabokov, The Prelude by William Wordsworth, The Odyssey by Homer, Men’s Lives by Peter Matthiessen, Cider With Rose by Laurie Lee, The Haw Lantern by Seamus Heaney, The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt, and King Lear by Shakespeare.
Passions: Sneeden’s first book of poetry, Evidence of the Journey, was published in 2007. When he is not busy writing, Sneeden plays guitar and surfs. "The New Hampshire coast is small but gets some great swell, and the surf culture is about 40 years old. We get excited when we hear about storms off the west coast of Africa."
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