Jaed Coffin

Jaed Coffin

Associate Professor
Office: English, Hamilton Smith Hall Rm 301F, Durham, NH 03824

Jaed Coffin is an assistant professor of creative writing (nonfiction/fiction) in the English department and M.F.A. program. Coffin joined the UNH faculty as a lecturer, in fall 2014. He earned his B.A. in philosophy from Middlebury College and his M.F.A. in fiction from the Stonecoast M.F.A. at University of Southern Maine. His first book, A Chant to Soothe Wild Elephants (Da Capo/Perseus 2008), chronicles the summer he spent as a Buddhist monk in his mother's village in central Thailand. His forthcoming book, Roughhouse Friday (from Riverhead/Penguin), is about the year he won the middleweight title of a barroom boxing show in Juneau, Alaska. Coffin has lectured widely at over twenty colleges and universities, where he speaks on topics of multiculturalism, masculinity, and the environment. Prior to coming to UNH, Coffin served as a lecturer at Bowdoin College and as the artist in residence at the Telling Room, a nonprofit storytelling foundation that empowers refugee communities in Maine. He has published over forty articles and essays in a broad range of journals and magazines, and has also served as the Wilson Fellow in Creative Writing at Deerfield Academy, a Resident Fellow at the Island Institute in Sitka, Alaska, and the William Sloane Fellow at the Bread Loaf Writers Conference. In 2015, he was a featured storyteller on the MOTH Radio Hour.

Courses Taught

  • ENGL 526: Intro to Fiction Writing
  • ENGL 620: English Major Internship
  • ENGL 623: Creative Nonfiction
  • ENGL 703T: Travel Writing
  • ENGL 721: Advanced Reporting
  • ENGL 803T: Travel Writing
  • ENGL 804: Advanced Nonfiction Writing
  • ENGL 807: Topic/Fiction:Form & Technique
  • ENGL 808: Nonfiction: Form and Technique
  • ENGL 812: Nonfiction Book Writing
  • ENGL 920: Iss/The Story Instinct

Education

  • M.F.A., University of Southern Maine
  • B.A., Middlebury College

Research Interests

  • Digital memoir
  • Employment skills
  • Essay
  • Ethnicity
  • Longform
  • Memoir
  • Passing
  • Podcast
  • Risk
  • Storytelling

Selected Publications

  • Coffin, J. M. (2019). Roughhouse Friday. C. Dickerman (Ed.), New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux (FSG). Retrieved from https://us.macmillan.com/fsg

  • Coffin, J. M. (2018). "Painting the Town". Down East Magazine.

  • Coffin, J. M. (2017). "Forging Ahead". Down East Magazine.

  • Coffin, J. M. (2017). "The Hundred Thousand Foot Club". Down East Magazine.

  • Coffin, J. M. (2017). "Mystery of Maine Mystery Writers". Down East Magazine, (October 2017).

  • Coffin, J. M. (2017). "Show Time". Down East Magazine.

  • Coffin, J. M. (2017). "Bird Man". Down East Magazine.

  • Coffin, J. M. (2016). "Where's Wessie?". Down East Magazine. Retrieved from https://downeast.com/wheres-wessie/

  • Coffin, J. (2008). A Chant to Soothe Wild Elephants. Da Capo Press.