Remembering Louise DeSalvo
In November 2018 we lost our beloved former faculty member Louise DeSalvo, who was the founding head of our Memoir program (now Creative Nonfiction). The New York Times wrote about her life here, and tributes from some of her former students may be found below:
I am deeply saddened by the loss of this extraordinary woman. I am still processing the news of her passing. Louise DeSalvo inspired me at a time of my life when I needed it most and she will continue to inspire me. I feel so very lucky to have known her and to have been in her classes. Her incredible, generous spirit will live on in all of her work. Louise DeSalvo will be terribly missed. --Angela Luongo
Louise DeSalvo’s impact reached far beyond the classroom. Those of us who were lucky to spend two hours, twice a week for two years with Louise on the 12thfloor of Hunter College, know that she was not preparing us for an MFA, but rather a writing life. These were her guiding principles: honor your writing, call it work, and know your story is necessary. Louise described herself as continually “in process,” which was a beautiful example for all of us. As a scholar, biographer, memoirist, teacher, reader, friend, mentor, and more, Louise demonstrated a hard-earned life that was generous, full and possible. Louise wanted to us to “pan for possibility not criticism,” when we examined our own work, and by doing so we learned to seek ways to expand rather than reduce our writing. “Memoir is a corrective to history,” Louise would profess. She knew our individual stories were part of a larger vital collective conversation. She believed that writing leads to a shift in perspective, which was necessary to change our lives and to change the world. I am grateful to be in process, still guided by Louise’s wisdom and words. I look forward to the ways the Hunter MFA community can continue to honor, celebrate and recognize the tremendous gifts Louise DeSalvo has given us all. --Sangamithra Iyer
Louise DeSalvo taught me and so many others how to be a working writer. In demystifying the process by which one gets to the desk and the page and from the page to the draft, the revision, the finished project, she pointed us each to the path for our life's work. There can be no greater gift. She did so while also cooking, parenting, reading voraciously and writing breathtakingly across genres. She lived life so very well and she is with us all, every day, at the desk and on the page. --Emily Bass
Louise meant the world to me. When I entered the Memoir MFA program, I’d been successfully writing for many years but had reached a dead end. I required a new genre and, as it turned out, an inspiring teacher. I found those things working with Dr. Louise DeSalvo. Her workshops were imbued with an atmosphere of profound trust while remaining rigorous. She modeled collegiality while creating optimum conditions for creativity. Having her as my thesis advisor was a great gift. After acquiring my MFA, I returned to my writing career with a new set of tools along with renewed confidence. Because of Louise, I have a greater dedication to writing the truth, even when that truth is embedded in fiction. She became a dear friend. I will miss her and never forget her. Sharon Dennis Wyeth
Louise was not only an incredible writer, she was the most wonderful mentor. She did everything she could for her students, and never expected anything in return. For Louise, the teaching mattered as much as the writing. My final year at Hunter, she showed our thesis pages on her kindle, scrolling with her finger and stating: "I'm reading your books." To even hear these words shaped my entire life. -- Jessie Male
I am forever grateful for the impact Louise has left upon my life. I will never forget when she reached out to me letting me know I was being considered for Hunter's MFA Program. She wanted to speak to each person she accepted herself before granting them admission; she cared so deeply about the program, the work, and the process that she went of her way to ensure the best experience for all the writers she would nurture in this special community. I remember that day I only had a small window I could speak with her; she called me back right away and I knew immediately that Hunter was the right place for me just by hearing her voice and the way she spoke about my work. It is one of my happiest memories. I fell in love with Louise before the program even began, reading her book Writing as a Way of Healing the summer before we started class. Her words about process, about reflection, were some of the things I loved most about writing, too. Her passion poured out of the page, and I couldn't wait to start this journey with her. When she became ill after our first semester, I was devastated. I am so glad I got the chance to work with her again during my second year. Her impact on my work and my life is a great gift. Even though we all miss her dearly, she lives on in the countless lives she's touched through her teaching and her writing. -- Bridget Cullings
We often don’t think of the moments that shape the course of our lives until we have the hindsight to imagine alternate scenarios. When my phone rang in the spring semester of my senior year of college, I was babysitting a toddler in a small apartment in the Bronx. I was struggling to write the story our family trauma in the wake of September 11th, where my father worked in the recovery effort for nine months searching for bodies and carried his experiences home to us with the dust on his clothes. The head of the memoir MFA program at Hunter was calling to invite me to study with her. In that moment, I was keenly aware that I—the young woman answering—would be changed. This is a perfect metaphor for the essence of Louise DeSalvo; a prominent scholar, prolific writer of memoir, process, and craft, but pragmatic, deeply personal, and ready to cut through to the elemental fact of the matter. Why send a letter when you can call and give a deadline to the students you want most in your class? I am not sure I will ever experience that gift she gave me again, the act of making me feel uniquely seen and understood even though we were miles away. In my time with Louise that spanned almost a decade, most of which we spent outside the classroom visiting her home, dining at her choice restaurants, driving past her favorite foliage, or wandering the halls of a museum she had to share with us, she often spoke of writing about loved ones. It may take years to bring the people most precious to us alive on the page, she said. I’m employing that advice now. Louise, I hear you in my head daily. You were not just my professor, my mentor, or my friend. You are my True North, guiding me just as you began to on that phone call when I was twenty-two years old. I try not to think of what I have lost as we are again “miles away,” but what I’ve gained from you through the years. There’s just not enough space, or time, here to sum that up yet. I hope to honor your legacy by sharing your gift with everyone I encounter. Thank you. I miss you. I will see you soon. Big hugs always, Sam. --Samantha K. Smith
Louise DeSalvo was iconic and a ball-buster and one of the truest hearts I’ve ever known. She was my writing mentor, my teacher, and my very beloved friend. Sharing a room with her was better than being in the presence of greatness. She made everyone around her touch greatness as well. It was like being with a seer. She knew the worst and best of you, how paper thin the difference between them. She knew all you could be, especially when you didn’t. She spoke it into being. She will be deeply, unforgettably, irrevocably missed. I love you, Louise. --Amy Jo Burns
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