R. Clifton Spargo – Novelist, Yale University Creative Writing Instructor and Co-Creator of The Stories We Tell

A novelist, short story writer and cultural critic, Clifton Spargo teaches creative writing at Yale University and is the co-creator of The Stories We Tell, the testimonial writing program at The Voices and Faces Project. 

Clifton’s award-winning short stories, essays and criticism have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Yale Review, Chicago Tribune and numerous other publications.  Pulitzer Prize-winner, Andrew Sean Greer, described Clifton’s critically praised debut novel, Beautiful Fools, as a “marvel of a book.” An alumnae of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Yale Divinity School and Yale University, Clifton is a former fellow at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and the author of two books on literature, philosophy and testimony. “Storytelling, as that fundamental activity through which we work out our humanity, is essential to human rights advocacy,” says Clifton. Clifton will teach the two part writing workshop “Personal, Powerful and Political: Crafting a personal essay that creates political change.”