Instructor: Greg Lyons

Biography: Greg Lyons earned his Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Composition from the University of Texas at Austin. For twenty years, he served as Professor of English at COCC. In that time, he designed and taught a 4-credit Creative Nonfiction course several times, as well as technical writing, newswriting and six Humanities courses in popular culture: Detective Stories, American Western, Science Fiction, Spy Thriller, Travel Literature and Film Noir. For six years, he coordinated a college study-abroad program with sites in Mexico, Costa Rica, London, Barcelona and Florence, where he taught for two quarters. In addition, he studied for a month at the British Film Institute in London and presented conference papers on such topics as "Mildred Pierce: From Novel to Film," "Production Process in The Third Man," "Desert Noir" and "The Moral Women in Film Noir." His publications include Literature of the American West and Body and Culture (both with Longman) and the creative nonfiction story "Roughneck Holiday." Finally, he has completed a memoir, Shape Up or Ship Out: An Army Childhood, partly based on his father's letters home.

Classes by this instructor

WR 240: Creative Writing: Nonfiction

This course introduces the many forms and purposes of creative nonfiction such as science or nature writing, travel writing, memoir, biography and journalistic essay. Requires individual and collaborative workshop activities to develop skills in drafting and revision. Examines topics, purposes for writing and elements of craft, including voice, scene, description and structure. Requires creation of a portfolio of works reflecting various stages of their writing process. This is a non-credit Community Education course, taken with credit students. You will not receive college credit.
January 9, 2026 to March 21, 2026 | 1:00pm-2:50pm PST | Redmond