Jeff Oaks

Education

Oaks graduated from the State University of New York Binghamton with a Bachelors degree in English Literature.

Career

Born in 1964, Oaks was raised in the Finger Lakes region of Upstate New New York According to Oaks, he started writing around age 17. Always fascinated by insects, Oaks originally planned to study entomology in college.

However, he soon became bored with his science classes and turned his focus to creative writing.

Oaks received a graduate degree in poetry at the University of Montana and his Master of Fine Arts degree in poetry at the University of Pittsburgh in 1990. Oaks is a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania resident.

Oaks has taught at the University of Pittsburgh, first as a teaching assistant, then as part-time faculty, then as a full-time, non-tenure stream lecturer. From 1999 to 2011, he managed the Pittsburgh Contemporary Writers Series, bringing from six to 13 well-known writers each year to campus for free readings and talks.

In 2011 Oaks was promoted to senior lecturer and became the assistant director of the University of Pittsburgh writing program

He specializes in teaching creative writing, but he has also taught in the composition and literature programs. Foreign many years, Oaks worked as a writer-in-residence for the Western Pennsylvania Writing Project at the School of Education, University of Pittsburgh. He partnered with local secondary school teachers in summer workshops as well as inventing stand alone visits to local schools.

Oaks has taught writing classes at the State Correctional Institution – Pittsburgh, The Ellis School in Pittsburgh, the Carnegie Museum School and the Carnegie Library.

Achievements

• In 2008, Oaks received the Tina and David Bellet Arts and Sciences Excellence Award for his university teaching.