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Amizade Faculty Instructors

Name: Eric Schwerer

Faculty Biography: Eric Schwerer (Ph.D.) is the Co-Coordinator of the Program in Creative and Professional Writing for the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop (MFA), he has been teaching creative writing for over 10 years and is the author of two books of poetry (The Saint of Withdrawal and Whittling Lessons).

Working with Habitat for Humanity and other not-for-profit organizations, Eric has spent several summers living in the villages of Uganda, Madagascar, Zambia, and Tanzania.

His interests in social justice, oral history, and literary ethnography began in the mountains of central Appalachia, volunteering for a grassroots organization whose mission was to build safe, affordable homes for low-income families and to fight for safe drinking water and fair coal mining methods.

Eric is eager to travel with students to Tanzania and share with them the joys, challenges, and reflection that both writing about another culture and service-learning can provide.

Prior to becoming a professor, he was—at one time or another—a carpenter, an organic gardener, an instructor for people recovering from mental illness, and an assembly line crewman for Coca-Cola Bottling.