I am a writer of poetry, essays, memoirs, and short stories. I've filled journals, notebooks, and multiple odd scraps of paper with my poetry and prose throughout my life. I'm still trying to type it all into my laptop! I am also a teacher of English grammar, literature, and composition for twenty-three years now. I guide students in the study, appreciation, and creation of various literary genres, including poetry, essays, short story, and flash fiction--just to name a few.  Dance, choreography, and the overall creative process are dear to me, for long before I held a magnetic marker to a flat-panel screen in front of a classroom I'd gripped the ballet barre and called out, "...a 5,6,7,8!" in countless dance studios.  First and foremost, however, I write. I think it's time to shine some light on it.  I want to share ideas, hone my skills, inspire, and be inspired. I want to write.

I've been doing Wild Writing with Laurie Wagner since May 2020 and I became a teacher of this beautiful and deep modality. I'm looking for like-minded writers who love to put a lot of ink on the page, openly and unapologetically. 

Denise R. Ervin is a creative writer hewn from the streets, classrooms, and boardrooms of the city of Detroit. Formally educated in both literature and business, she has served in corporate America by day and as an adjunct college professor by night. Her work focuses on the experiences of those who look, live, and love like her. As a teaching artist, she has spent nearly two decades performing around the country, publishing in online and print journals, crafting full-length novel projects, and leading online workshops. Most recently, Denise won a United States of Writing Grant from Poets & Writers and was selected as a Writing Fellow by The Watering Hole. Her work is forthcoming in The Fire Inside 2, an anthology from Zora's Den.

My writing is mosaic-multi-hybrid, with visual images and elements. I engage with text and page visually too. Now 3 years into working on, an off-road, life-based manuscript.  My words are sound driven, hrybridized prose and poetry, echoing & inspired by many global-majority culture forms. My characters and terrain are painted in fairy tale tones. I've workshopped with prose writers and poets, benefitting from both. I look for others who are dedicated to their creative endeavors, and believe that hybridity has a valuable voice and its forms need daylight. 

I write about high end food, wine, and travel and my writing is published on a James Beard Award winning site. My work has been published abroad as well. I have completed a humorous travel and memoir set in 1990. I hold a MFA and I am a VONA alumn.

I am looking to connect with fun writers who wish to publish and who enjoy what we get to do.