Erik Esckilsen has been a Champlain College instructor since 1997, teaching such courses as Creative Writing, Digital Storytelling, Interactive Storytelling, Media Writing, Print Journalism, Rhetoric, and Screenwriting, as well as courses on the novel and on the intersection of history, politics, and film culture in China and the Middle East. He is the author of three novels for young-adult readers, all published by Houghton Mifflin/Walter Lorraine Books: The Last Mall Rat(2003), Offsides (2004), and The Outside Groove (2006).
Prior to becoming an educator, Erik worked as a journalist, both as an editor and as a reporter, publishing articles on art and culture in the Boston Globe, Entertainment Weekly, Seven Days, and other periodicals. Recently he served as the faculty liaison to the narrative development team on the electronic game project Breakaway, produced in conjunction with the United Nations Population Fund and Population Media Center.
He holds a BA in Writing and Government from St. Lawrence University, an MA in English Composition from San Francisco State University, and an MFA in Creative Writing from Bowling Green State University.
Mitch Grant just wanted a job, and maybe a little respect, but at fifteen, he found both just beyond his reach. Too young to be legally employed, he knew that the only cash likely to come his way would have to pass “under the table”—through some discreet, off-the-books business arrangement.ISBN: 9780618668540Availability: Out of PrintPublished: HMH Books for Young Readers - May 8th, 2006Casey LaPlante wanted nothing to do with racecar driving. What was so impressive about making a bunch of left turns, one after another? But from what she had seen as the sister of Fliverton’s newest stock-car hero, Wade “the Blade” LaPlante, her whole town was interested in little else. Next to her brother, she felt invisible.ISBN: 9780618462841Availability: Hard to FindPublished: HMH Books for Young Readers - October 25th, 2004To Coach Dempsey, the Warriors teams and their Indian mascot symbolize the honor and glory of the Southwind High School athletic tradition. But soccer star Tom Gray sees little more than a denigrating cultural stereotype in the team’s mascot and the stern, war-painted Indian-head profile.
