Darren DeFrain's Teaching

DeFrain began teaching college as a graduate teaching assistant at Kansas State in the fall of 1989 as he was pursuing his M.A. degree. He continued work as a GTA while at Texas State for his MFA, and then at Western Michigan while he pursued his Ph.D.

DeFrain’s first job was as a Visiting Professor of Creative Writing at Waynesburg College.

From there he went to the University of Wisconsin – Fox Valley for five years as Assistant Professor of Creative Writing. At UW-Fox DeFrain was named Teacher of the Year and received a Kaplan Teaching Grant.

Since 2005 he has run the Writing Program at Wichita State University where he is an Associate Professor of English. DeFrain was named the Barrier Award Winner (Teacher of the Year) at WSU. DeFrain has also received WSU awards for Creative Works, Accessibility, Innovation, and several Research Awards.

While at WSU DeFrain has taught 23 different courses from freshman composition to graduate courses on composition theory, fiction, graphic novels, and creative writing.