A poet and a teacher

Brendan Allen 

Trine University - Jannen School of Arts & Sciences

M.A. Temple University in poetry, M.A. -  University of Maine in English

260.665.4342  |  email

As a poet and professor, I am perpetually curious about the ways in which social environments inform our rhetorical decisions. How and why do we choose to represent ourselves in language? Who de we hope will recognize our words? I believe that effective writing is always dependent on the context: the methods through which we competently write in one scenario- say, for example, in a biographical statement on a faculty webpage - can often look wildly out of place when applied to a different task. In the classroom, my students and I work together to untangle these complex webs of social influeve while develping flexible and adaptive writing strategies. 

Before joining Trine University as an assistant professor in 2021, I completed an MFA in poetry at Temple University, where I fell in love with Philadelphia's subways and developed a choose-your-own-adventure, poetry-generating video game titled Centoquest. Before that, I completed an MA in English at the University of Maine and co-founded The Happenings Series, an interdisciplinary performance series. I'm originally from Kansas - and, though I've traveled widely around the U.S., it's a warm pleasure to return to the Midwest.