About
Sejal Shah is the author of the debut essay collection, This Is One Way to Dance (University of Georgia Press). Her essay collection explores race, place, belonging, and South Asian American identity.
Her writing appear widely in print and online—including Brevity; Conjunctions; Kenyon Review; The Literary Review; The Margins; The Rumpus; Under Her Skin: How Girls Experience Race in America (Seal Press); and others.
She is the recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) Fellowship in Fiction; other awards include fellowships and residencies from Blue Mountain Center, the Kenyon Review Writers Workshop, Kundiman, the Millay Colony for the Arts, New York University, the Ragdale Foundation, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.
Sejal holds a BA in English from Wellesley College and an MFA in English / Creative Writing from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She has taught creative writing at the University of Rochester, Mount Holyoke College, Marymount Manhattan College (New York City), and Luther College (Iowa). She teaches creative writing privately and in community-based workshops.
The daughter of Gujarati parents who immigrated to the United States from India and Kenya, Sejal lives in Rochester, New York.
Speaking
Sejal Shah is the author of the debut memoir in essays, This Is One Way to Dance (University of Georgia Press, forthcoming June 2020—available for pre-order now). Her essay collection explores race, place, belonging, and South Asian American identity.
Her writing appear widely in print and online—including Brevity; Conjunctions; Kenyon Review; The Literary Review; The Margins; The Rumpus; Under Her Skin: How Girls Experience Race in America (Seal Press); and others.
She is the recipient of a 2018 New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) Fellowship in Fiction; other awards include fellowships and residencies from Blue Mountain Center, the Kenyon Review Writers Workshop, Kundiman, the Millay Colony for the Arts, New York University, the Ragdale Foundation, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.
Sejal holds a BA in English from Wellesley College and an MFA in English / Creative Writing from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She has taught creative writing at the University of Rochester, Mount Holyoke College, Marymount Manhattan College (New York City), and Luther College (Iowa). She teaches creative writing privately and in community-based workshops.
The daughter of Gujarati parents who immigrated to the United States from India and Kenya, Sejal lives in her hometown of Rochester, New York.
Teaching
Writing Workshops
I teach writing workshops at Writers & Books (a community-based literary center in Rochester); and literary nonfiction / memoir workshops privately. Previously, I was Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Marymount Manhattan College (New York City), and held writer-in-residence / visiting faculty positions at Mount Holyoke College (MA) and Luther College (Iowa). I have also taught creative writing at the University of Rochester as an adjunct assistant professor. Students call my teaching—developed through years of designing university and community-based workshops—creative and supportive as well as rigorous. I hold degrees in English from Wellesley College (BA) and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst (MFA).
My pedagogy is also informed by mindfulness and meditative practices—Vipassana meditation; a 200-hour Iyengar-based yoga teacher training; and many years of dance and movement study and classes. Writing is a physical act and these experiences and practices fundamentally altered my approach to writing and teaching. For more on my movement and mindfulness background scroll down to the end of this page.
College Essay Coaching
In my other previous life as a high school English teacher, I taught at The Harley School and Brighton High School, both in Rochester, New York, and at Northfield Mount Hermon, a boarding school in Western Massachusetts. I continue to work with high school students each fall through focused tutoring on college application essays.
Consulting
I work with adult writers in small workshops, offering more instruction and feedback than is possible in a standard class. I currently focus on creative nonfiction essays, memoir, and autobiographical fiction. To discuss your project and individual needs, please email me or contact me through the link below.