John Verlenden is a writing Instructor in the Department of Rhetoric and Composition at the American University in Cairo. John Verlenden has also taught at University of New Orleans, Xavier College (New Orleans), Louisiana State University, Jordan University of Science and Technology and University of Jordan.  His degrees are from Rhodes College (B.A., English Lit. 1986) and Louisiana State University (M.F.A., Creative Writing, Fiction, 1988). 
 
John Verlenden has been an active, publishing writer before and throughout his teaching career.  Twice he was chosen to attend Squaw Valley Conference for Writers, winning one of eight national tuition waivers in his second year.  His publications run the gamut of fiction, nonfiction, poems, reviews, and translations with appearances in many journals.  In 1997 he and AUC professor Dr. Ferial Ghazoul won the Arabic Translation Prize given through Univ. of Arkansas for Mohamed Afifi Matar's Quartet of Joy, a booklength poem.  Later he and Dr. Ghazoul translated Rama and the Dragon by Edwar el-Kharrat as part of AUC Press's Naguib Mahfouz Award series.  As a story writer he has been anthologized.  His nonfiction, including travel narratives, has been published throughout the years in Exquisite Corpse edited by American poet-NPR commentator Andrei Codrescu.  A google search for john verlenden writer turns up approximately half his recent work, with the other half appearing in paper journals.
 
As a teacher, Mr. Verlenden helped introduce the workshop method on the university level in Jordan, part of his Fulbright Fellowship work in 1999-2000.
 
At University of New Orleans, he taught all levels of fiction and non-fiction, including the M.F.A. online workshop in fiction.  At AUC, he has taught primarily 101, 102, 201, as well as leading one storywriting workshop.   He has given many readings of his work, including several at AUC and as an invited panel guest at the Associated Writing Programs convention in 2003, Baltimore.
 
A recent break from teaching allowed Mr. Verlenden to finish a novel, The Disparities.