Jason Goldsmith

Jason Goldsmith is a writer, artist, and educator whose work traces the vexed relationship between art and place from the19th-century Picturesque tradition through today’s twinned unravelling of ecological and social networks. He has published numerous scholarly articles on place-based writing, and his creative nonfiction and art have appeared in River Teeth, Humana Obscura, Grasmere, Indiana Waterways:The Art of Conservation, and on the cover of publications from the University of Iowa Press. 

His sense of place sharpened by figures such as Jamaica Kincaid, bell hooks, James Baldwin, and Ross Gay, Goldsmith introduces students to a range of diverse voices to interrogate the limits inherent in literary traditions and to cultivate an inclusive and equitable classroom. He teaches courses on art, literature, and the environment, from Romanticism to 19th-Century British Women Writers, from Jane Austen to Video Game Narrative, from Contemporary Writers to Creative Non-Fiction, and from Urban Sketching to Wilderness Literature. 

He is a member of the Etheridge Knight advisory group, sits on the education subcommittee of the Task Force for Indigenous Inclusion and Engagement, is faculty advisor for the undergraduate journal Manuscripts and an editor of The Hopper, an environmental literary magazine.

When not teaching, he enjoys hiking, sitting by a river while sketching, and spending time outdoors with his wife and children.