Colin Bassett

Colin Bassett

Senior Lecturer in College Writing
Pronouns: he/him
MFA, Washington University in St. Louis
research interests:
  • Writing Studies
  • Anti-Oppressive Pedagogy

contact info:

mailing address:

  • College Writing Program

    MSC 1096-153-122

    Washington University

    1 Brookings Drive

    St. Louis, MO 63130-4899

Colin Bassett received his MFA in writing from Washington University in St. Louis where he has taught since 2009. Bassett’s short stories have been published in literary journals such as Fence and the Mississippi Review and in two small press chapbooks. He is the recipient of the Carrie Scott Galt Writer’s Award and studied as a fiction fellow with Washington University’s MFA program. He taught creative nonfiction with the Department of English from 2012-2016. His most recent course offering is a fiction workshop called Moral of the Story, which explores the formation of meaning and ideas in contemporary fiction. In 2020, he founded REMAKE, Washington University’s interdisciplinary first-year publication, which features art, literature, and research by first-year undergraduate students. He co-chairs the Writing Identity theme in College Writing and the College Writing Program's Committee on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. He also teaches fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction for University College. He lives in Maplewood, MO, with his partner and two children.

Featured Courses

College Writing: Writing Identity

What defines who we are and who we may become? How do class, gender, race, sexuality, and other social forces shape our identities? In what ways are our identities inherent or constructed, claimed or ascribed? In this course, we explore these and similar questions through the work of creative and critical writers, artists, and thinkers.

Fiction Writing: Moral of the Story

Why do stories matter? How do stories help us grow? How do they challenge us? And how do they help us explore issues and ideas both new and old? This course is a fiction writing workshop with a focus on stories that deal in complex and meaningful ways with the world we live in. We read, write, and discuss stories that complicate the way we think and open new doors for considering what we believe, value, desire, and fear. In addition to reading a diverse group of authors with varying perspectives and styles, including queer writers, Latinx writers, and writers of color, our main goals are to write and share new original fiction writing and to discuss how elements of craft can help reveal the issues and ideas that our stories explore.