Writing at Loomis Chaffee

Kate Saxton joined the English department at Loomis Chaffee in 2014. She teaches freshman English, senior electives such as CL Creative Writing and The Literature of Scientific Discovery, and Writing Workshop. Before landing on the Island, Kate taught at The Ethel Walker School in Simsbury, CT, and at Oakham School in the United Kingdom, where she also served as an advisor for students hoping to attend U.S. universities. She holds a BA in English from Yale University and has completed graduate level coursework in both literature and creative writing at Yale University and Wesleyan University.

Outside of her responsibilities as Director of Writing Initiatives, Kate serves as faculty advisor for The Loom, Loomis Chaffee’s student-run literary magazine. She is the assistant director for the winter musical, and she is a proud affiliate of Palmer dormitory. Writing is Kate’s personal passion as well as her professional passion. Her creative projects include two novels for children and short fiction for readers of all ages.

Karen Parsons is a history teacher and Loomis' archivist. She graduated from Amherst College and completed a master’s degree in the Winterthur Program in Early American Culture at the Winterthur Museum and the University of Delaware. Her essays and articles on material culture, art, and other historical topics have appeared in anthologies published by the University of Virginia Press and the University of Massachusetts Press, various journals, and the Loomis Chaffee Magazine. With former headmaster John Ratte, Karen co-authored and co-edited the publication Cherished Hopes and Honorable Ambitions: A Centennial History of the Loomis Chaffee School. Her Loomis career spans more than twenty years and includes teaching a range of American history courses, coaching varsity softball teams to two Western New England championships, working for five years in the College Guidance Office, and co-chairing the school’s 2014 Centennial celebration. This past summer, she joined Writing Studio and Writing Initiative colleagues at Bard College’s summer Institute on Writing and Thinking.

Jessica Hsieh graduated from Loomis in 2008 and returned in 2015 to teach English. In between, she earned a B.A. from Yale University before moving to Singapore, where she taught critical thinking and writing for the GCE A-Level examinations. Now back on the Island, she lives in Palmer Hall and teaches sophomore English, junior English, and Writing Workshop. Jessica also serves as the faculty adviser to The Log, Loomis' student newspaper. Apart from her work on campus, she is currently pursuing an M.A. from Middlebury's Bread Loaf School of English. Her experience as a peer reader in the Ken Macrorie Writing Center at Bread Loaf has informed and inspired her work in Loomis' own Writing Studio.

The Loomis Writing Studio offers inspiration and support for Loomis writers — students and faculty alike — across the curriculum as they work to communicate their ideas, arguments, discoveries, and voices. Believing that engaging an audience of readers during the writing process promotes “skilled and discerning minds,” the trained staff members of the Writing Studio offer non-evaluative feedback and guidance to writers in any stage of work. Staff members support writers as they craft works that evince not only robust writing skills, but also robust thinking skills. The Writing Studio staff serve not in lieu of, but in addition to, students’ own teachers as resources, with the students setting their agendas for their Studio sessions, and holding sole command of the pen.

Agenda items might include, but are not limited to, the generating of ideas, sharing of drafts, expansion of critical thinking, and review of relevant writing skills.

Students may sign up for a Writing Studio session.