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Jack WangAssistant ProfessorWriting
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She need not judge. There did not have to be a moral. She need only show separate minds, as alive as her own, struggling with the idea that other minds were equally alive. It wasn't only wickedness and scheming that made people unhappy, it was confusion and misunderstanding; above all, it was the failure to grasp the simple truth that other people are as real as you. And only in a story could you enter these different minds and show how they had an equal value. That was the only moral a story need have.
—Ian McEwan
Atonement
I hail from the fair city of Vancouver, British Columbia. After earning a Bachelor of Science from the University of Toronto and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Arizona, I spent four years teaching composition, literature, and creative writing at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota. In 2006, I received a Ph.D. in English (Creative Writing) from Florida State University. I admire writers who capture reality as “a fabric of microscopic accuracies,” to borrow a phrase from John Updike. Three of my favorite novels are Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates, White Teeth by Zadie Smith, and Atonement by Ian McEwan. When I’m not reading and writing, I enjoy cheering for the Vancouver Canucks, ballroom dancing with my wife, Angelina, and playing fetch with our dog, Pie.
