Hello, I am Dr. Bruce Ballenger, an Emeritus Professor of English and former Chair at Boise State University. My academic interests include writing and inquiry, narrative thinking, the research essay, and creative nonfiction. This work focuses on these key concepts: 

• Teaching college research as a process of learning and discovery, one that begins with questions that make student writers curious.

• Promoting story--and especially narrative thinking--as an intellectually rigorous alternative to argument, which is the dominant form of student writing in college.

• Celebrating the personal essay as a genre that is ideally suited to the age of generative AI. A chatbot cannot write a personal essay because it doesn't know the writer or the writer's world.

• The importance of inquiry-based classrooms where students ask meaningful questions and solve problems that matter to them.

My two best-selling textbooks: The Curious Researcher 9e, and The Curious Writer, 6e, which  are used in classrooms across the country, embody these ideas about how writers can express themselves in a range of situations.

My creative nonfiction has appeared in publications such asThe Sun, River Teeth, The Fourth Genre, The Boston Globe, and more. One of these essays, “Return to the Typewriter, was nominated for a Pushcart Prize and was listed as a Notable Essay in the 2018 Best American Essays.