Stan Sanvel Rubin

Founding Director

Stan Sanvel Rubin
  • Biography

Biography

Stan Sanvel Rubin is founding director of the Rainier Writing Workshop at PLU.  He served for over twenty years as Director of the Brockport Writers Forum and Videotape Library (SUNY), a multi-faceted literary arts program.  He holds the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching.  His most recent book of poetry is There. Here. (Lost Horse Press, 2013).  Other books include The Post-Confessionals, a collection of his interviews with contemporary American poets, published by Associated University Presses; Hidden Sequel, winner of the Barrow Street Book Award for 2005; Lost and Midnight, both from State Street Press; On the Coast, a chapbook (Pudding House, 2002); and Five Colors, from CustomWords (WordTech).  His poems have appeared in such magazines as The Kenyon Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, Poetry Northwest, The Georgia Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, Chelsea, Iowa Review and several anthologies.  He was awarded a 2002 Constance J. Saltonstall Foundation Grant in poetry.  He regularly writes essay-reviews of contemporary poetry for the journal, Water-Stone Review.

Founding director. Mentor. Workshops and classes in poetry.

Statement: “This is a small, very selective program for motivated and experienced adults. There are high standards, but no condescension. No enforcing an aesthetic as if it were the aesthetic. Instead, individual choices, individual challenges, individual achievement-all of which it’s our job to support.  As a writer, I know writing is a way of being. There’s a time for community, and a time for solitude. When we’re together, sparks will fly, and there will be high spirits as well as intelligent conversation with people who care about writing. (Bring your passion to residency.) When you’re working at home, you will have new voices, new skills, and a new vision working for you. The process matters as much as a credential. The purpose? What you make it.”