Jaimien Delp
Founder of The Dreamer's Desk
Award-Winning Author & Educator
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Jaimien is an award-winning educator with over 15 years of experience guiding young writers in the development of their craft, the discovery of their authentic voice, and encouraging their love of language. She frequently serves on the Creative Writing Faculty at the internationally-acclaimed Interlochen Arts Camp in Northern Michigan, and currently holds an appointment in the English Department Writing Program at the University of Michigan, where she earned her M.F.A. in Poetry from the Helen Zell Writer's Program. She is the recipient of a BEN Prize for Excellence In Teaching Writing (a student-nominated and faculty-selected award at the University of Michigan), and has also been honored to teach creative writing courses at The Leelanau School, Interlochen College for Creative Arts, and has volunteered with elementary-aged writers at 826 Ann Arbor.
WRITING AWARDS & PUBLICATIONS
Jaimien's work has appeared in both national and international publications such as Orion, Mid-American Review, Dunes Review, Bridge Magazine and Traverse Magazine, among others. Her personal essay, "Purely Water" was featured in ELEMENTAL: A Collection of Michigan Nonfiction, winner of a Michigan Notable Book Award (2019, Wayne State University Press), and a finalist in the anthologies category for the Forward INDIES book award. Her collection of poems, Point of Sand, earned the Michigan Writers Chapbook Award, and she recently served as a Writer in Residence for The Long Memory Project. She has appeared on panels, given readings and been interviewed on IPR (Interlochen Public Radio), at Interlochen Center for the Arts, the Glen Arbor Art Center, Grow Benzie, the University of Michigan Museum of Art, and many other beautiful places throughout the Midwest.
A NOTE FROM JAIMIEN
Before anything else, I am a mom. For parents reading this, you know the depth of that love, and the depth of that work. For me, The Dreamer's Desk is part of this love and this work. I am deeply committed to the belief that words can inspire wonderful things in the world. I wish for a future that values equity, imagination, empathy, vibrant creativity, playfulness, inclusivity and confident, kind thinkers and doers. This is the world I want for my child, for ALL children, and writing - and teaching writing - is one of the ways I know how to help create this future. Lucky for me, it also brings me great joy, and a true sense of purpose.
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I love the outdoors, water, summer, animals (our rescue Golden Retriever, Bayla, enjoys making appearances during classes, though she is notorious for putting her face too close to the camera...), and time shared with friends and family. Though infrequent, I am a huge lover of naps... (is there a mother on earth who does not love naps?). I also enjoy a wide range of art and literature, from the lighthearted and humorous to those works that explore some of the deep struggles we face as a society. Balance is key -- balance in what we consume, what we prioritize, and how we spend our waking hours. And balance guides my teaching as well.
So yes, The Dreamer's Desk offers online creative writing classes, but it is my hope that by doing so, it offers so much more. When we discover the words for our dreams, they become that much more possible.
Let's be dedicated to our passions, let's listen carefully to one another and to ourselves, let's try hard, and let's also laugh and play. Let's wander and wonder and create the world together, as we dream it to life through the awe-inspiring channels of the written word.
Emily Jace McLaughlin
Our Visiting Editor
Award-Winning Fiction Writer, Screenwriter & Educator
Emily is an award-winning fiction writer, screenwriter, educator and editor, extending her editorial services to interested Literary Journaling students during our Summer 2021 sessions.
She is a graduate of the Zell Writers’ Program at the University of Michigan, where she was the post-graduate Meijer fellow and won seven Hopwood awards for her short fiction, essays, novel, and play. Her short stories have appeared in Catapult, VICE, Quarter After Eight: A Journal of Innovative Writing, Fiction, Cutbank, and LCRW among other journals and magazines. Emily has worked in New York for script development for ABC Daytime Television and in Los Angeles for a variety of production companies and shows, spending the most time with the writing staff of Supernatural, produced by Warner Brothers Television. Her work has received funding and fellowships from VCCA, Tin House, Sewanee Writers Conference, UCLA, the University of Miami, Key West Writers, Featherstone Center for the Arts, and Wesleyan Writers Conference where she taught as a fiction and screenwriting fellow. She resides in Ann Arbor where she raises her family (including her golden retriever) and teaches writing at the University of Michigan while she continues to work as a freelance script consultant and editor.
To learn more about her editing services and fees, she can be contacted at emilyjacemclaughlin.com