Natalie Neumann is Instructor of English.

What’s your area of expertise? What do you primarily research and/or teach? And what drew you to this field?

My area of expertise and what I got my graduate degree in is creative writing, short stories and poetry. Many years ago I got the opportunity to team-teach a creative writing class modeled after a writing group that I’ve been leading since 2000, and it was wonderful. However, to be honest, I have always loved teaching English 101. Watching students find their voice makes me smile.

What’s one of your favorite courses, topics, or specific texts to teach? Why?

Over the years, I’ve used many texts, essays, poems, and short stories, but one of my favorite essays of all time to use in English 101 is “Why Write?” by Paul Auster. It is timeless.

What’s something you’ve done that you’re really proud of?

I’m pretty proud of my writers group, High Plains Writers, especially the period when we were holding annual poetry slams with the public library, and later on at the Dahl and having annual poetry competitions. The reason why was the people I would meet from all over South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana, people who have been marginalized, forgotten about, but who wanted to share their voice, their vision. I met Vietnam vets, traditional grandmothers from the reservation, elderly ranchers, and they all had amazing stories to tell. Seeing them have a venue, be it a performance in a space or a published and printed work was rewarding.

What is your favorite book, movie, or other work of art or media? Why?

My favorite book is an old book that is held together with duct tape and has writing and scribbling on almost every page. It’s A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson. I’ve taken it camping/backpacking/traveling with me all over the country and have read it dozens of times cramped in my tent. I still laugh out loud at his advice for what do when a bear enters your camp, and yes, I’ve had that happen, and while my story isn’t as funny as Bill’s, it’s still pretty funny.

Tell us something about yourself outside of work. What do you enjoy doing? What’s a detail about you that your students might not already know?

I love touring the country looking for ghost towns to research and photograph while camping BLM land and any land that’s free. My goal is to cycle-camp across the west in a homemade cycle trailer that I’m in the process of developing. Ghost towns are one of the most fascinating things to me, and I love to document their decay, then research the stories that were behind them when they were thriving.