Hayley Notter is an experienced writer and editor. Currently the Director of Curriculum for Academic Approach, cat mom to Comma and Dash, and working on a novel.

Hayley received her MFA in creative writing in 2014 and her BA in creative writing and sociology in 2012.

About Hayley Notter

Biographical Facts

  • Hayley grew up in the Chicago suburb of Wheaton, which boasts the most churches per capita of anywhere in the US. Her experiences in Wheaton inspired a continued interest in place-based writing.

  • While earning her MFA in Pittsburgh, Hayley learned about the underrepresented and still-evolving subgenre of Midwestern Literature, which became an intellectual fascination (re: obsession), and an important part of her thesis and own writing. Hayley will happily talk anyone’s ear off about Midwestern Literature.

  • Hayley earned her degrees from Beloit College and Chatham University. She studied abroad at Lancaster University in Lancaster, England. While earning her concentration in Travel Writing, her MFA program sent her on writing trips to both Iceland and Prince Edward Island, Canada.

Professional Experience

  • Director of Curriculum, Academic Approach

  • Curriculum Development Team Lead, Academic Approach

  • Adjunct Professor of Writing, Chatham University

  • Creative Writing Instructor, Allegheny County Jail

  • Writing Specialist & Tutor, Chatham University

  • Production Editor, Beloit Fiction Journal

  • Travel Blog Writer, www.XploreU.com

  • Scholastic Bowl Question Writer, Questions Galore

Favorites, Influences, & Recommendations

  • Favorite Books

    • White Bird in a Blizzard by Laura Kasischke

    • Ordinary Grace by William Kent Kruger

    • Dubliners by James Joyce

    • A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

    • Broken Vessels by Andre Dubus

    • Girl With Curious Hair by David Foster Wallace

    • Circus in Winter by Cathy Day

    • Feast of Love by Charles Baxter

    • Hunger by Lan Samantha Chang

    • Prairie Fires by Caroline Fraser

    • The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

    • Harvest Poems 1910-1960 by Carl Sandburg

    • The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

    • The Awakening by Kate Chopin

    • Tiny, Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed

    • Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell

    • Marriage: A History by Stephanie Coontz

    • Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery

    • Harry Potter series by JK Rowling

  • Influences

    • Carl Sandburg

    • Charles Baxter

    • Christina Schutt

    • Marilynne Robinson

    • Laura Kasischke

    • Bonnie Jo Campbell

    • Geraldine Brooks

    • Alice Munro

    • BK Loren

    • Gillian Flynn

    • George Saunders

    • Margaret Atwood

    • Mona Simpson

    • Raymond Carver

    • Joyce Carol Oates

    • Sherrie Flick

    • Elizabeth Gilbert

    • Chris Fink

    • Sherwood Anderson

    • F. Scott Fitzgerald

    • Willa Cather

    • Annie Proulx

    • Flannery O’Connor

    • William Faulkner

    • David Sedaris

    • James Joyce

  • Recommendations

    • “How to Eat Well at the End of the World” by Simon Han

    • “Steering into Winter” by Sarah Fawn Montgomery

    • “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway

    • “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver

    • Here is New York by E.B. White & “Goodbye to All That” by Joan Didion

    • Writing From the Center by Scott Russell Sanders

    • In the Middle of the Middle West: Literary Nonfiction from the Heartland edited by Becky Bradway

    • White Bird in a Blizzard by Laura Kasischke

    • Theft by BK Loren

    • Brokeback Mountain: Story to Screenplay by Annie Proulx and Larry McMurtry & Diana Ossana

    • On Writing by Stephen King

    • Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert