Hali Felt is the author of the acclaimed biography Soundings, which tells the story, as its subtitle suggests of “the remarkable woman who mapped the ocean floor.”  Hailed by Scientific American, Bookforum, Nature, and the New York Times, the book’s been credited with not only detailing “its subject’s monumental work and entanglements with gender bias but also [exerting] thoughtful pressure on the boundaries and biases of this literary genre.”  Hali teaches creative writing in the MFA program at the University of Alabama.

“Three things: time, eyes, and focus.  The best thing that grad school can do is give you luxurious amounts of time to devote yourself to the work of writing and research.  While at the Nonfiction Writing Program, I had the time to let a project evolve—from a children’s book to an essay and, eventually, a several hundred-page biography.  My peers put their eyes on my pages, and my thesis advisor taught me to how to use reader feedback to focus intensely on revision and structure.  I still use her advice in the classroom today, asking my students to think about why each word, sentence, and paragraph is present in their work.  By the time I graduated, I’d learned the art of revision and how to teach writing, my agent had sold my book, and my schedule was filled with visits to artists’ residencies.“