let’s work together
I am the spring 2026 Mark & Melody Teppola Presidential Distinguished Visiting Professor at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, and was a Visiting Distinguished Professor at the University of North Carolina in Wilmington in fall 2025. I have been an Associate Fellow at the Attic Institute for Arts and Letters, and have taught writing to teenagers and adults at Oxford Academia, the New York Times Student Journeys, Literary Arts, the Portland Writers-in-the-Schools, the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology, the National Writers Series of Traverse City, and the Anna Tasca Lanza Cooking School in Sicily, among others.
I’ve also lectured, visited courses, and led workshops at Willamette University, the University of North Carolina, the University of Oregon, Bryant University, Vermont State University, Ithaca College, Bowdoin College, Portland State University, University of Michigan, University of Washington, and others.
Workshops and Lectures
Available to visit your class/school/office/library, virtually or in-person.
Topics: literary nonfiction; environmental writing; researched memoir; writing across genre; science-writing; journalism; “creative research”; building writing habits; freelance writing.
To request an in-person or virtual speaking engagement with me, please contact Authors Unbound, or view my speaking profile.
Freelance Editing/Brainstorming/Structure
Looking for an extra set of eyes on an in-progress work of fiction, memoir, or research, or for help getting a project off the ground? Whether you’re hoping for written feedback or a 1x1 conference, let’s chat, I’d love to help you accomplish your goal. Drop me a line with a few sentences about who you are and what you are hoping to gain working with me.
Andrea Lonas, 2022
Upcoming Classes
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Writing Through the Tides of Life: A Restorative Writing Retreat
Join The Writers Guild on the Washington coast, where the land, sea, and seasonal rhythms invite us to slow down and listen.
Together we’ll explore what it means to write through the changing tides of our lives—honoring transitions, embracing uncertainty, and discovering new clarity in the movement between ebb and flow.
Guided writing practices will help us reconnect with our creative spirit and open our senses to the world around us.
Mornings will be spent walking, reading, and writing with prompts designed to surface insight and nurture courage; afternoons offer spacious time to rest, write, or wander; evenings are reserved for sharing, reflection, and gentle community.
Small-group sessions will explore tending a sustainable writing life; making space for your creative practice amid shifting demands; writing from your whole, resilient self; and moving through fears and doubts to fully claim your voice.
All levels and genres are welcome.
Dates: April 30 to May 3, 2026
Location: Sou’wester Lodge, Seaview, Washington
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Orion Environmental Writers' Workshop
Join a community of writers, improve your craft, and reimagine how you think about nature. Guided by award-winning instructors, the Orion Environmental Writers’ Workshop provides an intimate space to connect with writers, artists, and editors, spark creativity, and renew, illuminate, and deepen your relationship with place. This week-long workshop is cosponsored by the Omega Center for Sustainable Living.
Whether your passion is nonfiction, fiction, or poetry, the Orion Environmental Writers’ Workshop is a creative laboratory for anyone seeking to reflect their environments through their work. The course features breakout sessions dedicated to intensive craft practice, faculty readings and lectures, student readings, and panels on publishing.
Dates: June 14 to 19, 2026
Location: Omega Center for Sustainable Living, Rhinebeck, New York
Jere Grimm, Visual Artist
“Working with an editor was a first for me, and Erica made it feel like the exact right thing for me to be doing at that exact moment in the development of my essay. Erica seemed to intuit the necessary and gently probing questions. It was a crucial and helpful step for which I was so very grateful.”
Agueda Pacheco Flores, Freelance Journalist
“Erica Berry’s class helped me regain that pure form of confidence one feels when they first realize writing is their “thing”…it was the push I needed to redirect my writing goals back to their roots, one where I saw writing not as a means to an end, but a passion that gives my life meaning.”
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Teaching Professor Andrea Otáñez, Communication, University of Washington, Seattle
“Many descriptors come to mind when I think of Erica Berry: wise, incisive, generous…she creates a warm, encouraging environment while offering accessible tools to express our truths or explore what those truths may be. I always emerge so much smarter when I read ERica’s work or sit in the classroom with her.”
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Testimonials
Professor Deirdre Mahoney, Ph. D, Communications, Northwest Michigan College