David Lerner Schwartz

Department of English

Assistant Professor

View CV

david.schwartz@ucf.edu

Campus Location

Trevor Colbourn Hall 256B

Website

View Personal Website

Biography

David Lerner Schwartz is a writer with work in Ecotone, Michigan Quarterly Review, New Ohio Review, Witness, Literary Hub, New York magazine, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. Schwartz received the New Letters Robert Day Award for Fiction and was a finalist for The Florida Review Leiby Chapbook Award, The Masters Review Chapbook Open, and the Nimrod Katherine Anne Porter Prize. He has received support from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, The Niehoff Center for Film & Media Studies, and St. Albans School, where he served as the writer in residence. Schwartz holds a PhD from the University of Cincinnati and an MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars and teaches in the MFA program at the University of Central Florida.

Education

Ph.D. in Creative Writing & Literature from University of Cincinnati
M.F.A. in Creative Writing & Literature from Bennington Writing Seminars
B.A. in English & International Relations from Tufts University

Research Interests

Contemporary Fiction, Aesthetics, Strangeness & Near-Realism, The Sublime, Literary Theory, Creative Writing Pedagogy, Narrative Medicine, Cultural Studies, Judaic Studies & Mysticism

Professional Activities

Invited Lecturer, Emerson College MFA, 2025
Interviewer of Erik Larson, Miami Book Fair, 2025
Presenter, "The Anodime: A Digital Sociolect of the Age of the Algorithm," Postcolonial Society of the Global South, 2024
Panelist and Reader, "Creative Writing in the Age of GenAI," South Atlantic Modern Language Association, 2024
Invited Lecturer, University of North Carolina Wilmington MFA, 2024
Invited Lecturer, Bethel College, 2024
Workshop Leader, Cincinnati Parks, 2023
Presenter, "Quantifying the Taboo in Erotic Thrillers," University of Wisconsin-Madison
Interviewer of Percival Everett, Miami Book Fair, 2022
Reader, Conference on Literature & Culture, University of Louisville, 2022
Panelist, "Lit Mag Editors & Submissions," Bennington Writing Seminars, 2022
Invited Lecturer, Art Academy of Cincinnati, 2022
Faculty, South Carolina Writers Association, 2022
Presenter, "The Poetry of Retrospect," West Chester University, 2021

Publications

Articles/Essays

“The New Narrative Medicine: The Ethical Implications of Artificial Intelligence on Healthcare Narratives,” Monash Bioethics Review, 2025 (Co-authored with Elizabeth Lanphier)
“‘Harv Is Plowing Now’: Absence is a Form of Structure,” The John Updike Review, 2021
“Possibility is Spellbinding: The Lightness by Emily Temple,” The Rumpus, 2021
“I’m Spilling the Tea on My ‘Groundbreaking’ Kettle,” New York Magazine, 2020
“Percival Everett’s Almost Secret Experiment in a Novel in Threes,” Literary Hub, 2020
“How Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Shows Up in Literary Fiction,” Literary Hub, 2020
“The Philosophy That Explains Why Social Media Fuels Our ‘Techxistential Crisis,’” Quartz, 2019
“Our Expanded Vocabulary: Talking on the Phone, Revisited,” The Startup, 2018

Creative Publications

"Cypher Series," Michigan Quarterly Review, University of Michigan, 2025
“We Can Voyage There,” Nimrod International Journal, 2025
“Love Was This Alone,” New Orleans Review, 2024
“The Binding Thing,” New Letters, 2024
“Men Who Become Verbs,” The Masters Review, 2023
“I Am Born Before the Written Word,” Quarter After Eight, 2023
“My Father’s Remedy,” Ecotone, 2023
“The Truest Thing is an Open Mouth;” “Two High Schoolers Hold Me Down as I Drown;” “Prayer to Bouncer;” “Wound Healing;” “The Stars, Oh The Stars;” “First Things First,” The Florida Review, 2023
“We Can Voyage There,” dir. Tedra Millan, Floor 1 Productions.
“Before He Made Love He Made Light,” New Ohio Review, 2021
“A Hundred Ways to Die,” Los Angeles Review, 2021
“Nineteen Twenty-Six,” Red Bull Shorts vol. 5, Stage Rights, 2021
“The Worst Kind of Faith,” Witness, 2020
“Safe,” SmokeLong Quarterly, 2018

Awards

Finalist, Katherine Anne Porter Prize, 2024
Robert Day Award for Fiction, 2023
Finalist, Masters Review Chapbook Open, 2023
William C. Boyce Award for Outstanding Teaching, 2023
Awardee, Taft Faculty Research Group Grant, 2023
Finalist, Jeanne Leiby Memorial Chapbook Award, 2022
Second Place, Hatfield/Westheimer Short Story Contest, 2022
Scholarship, Bread Loaf Writers’ Workshop, 2021
The Niehoff Center for Film, Media Studies Fellowship, 2021
Outstanding Educator Award, The Alliance for Young Artists & Writers (Scholastic), 2020
Winner, Red Bull Theater's Short New Play Festival, 2019

Course #	Course	Title	Mode	Days/Times	Syllabus
83174	CRW3013	Creative Writing for English M	Web-Based (W)	7:00 PM - 7:00 PM	Unavailable
This course introduces students to the practice of writing creatively across three literary genres: fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Together, we will study the craft elements that shape each genre, examining published works as models and inspiration. Students will draft and revise original pieces in all three forms, sharing their work in workshop for constructive feedback. By the end of the semester, each student will complete a short story, a creative nonfiction essay, and a small portfolio of poems, gaining both a foundation in craft and confidence as a writer.
83002	CRW4122	Fiction Writing Workshop Ⅱ	Web-Based (W)	7:00 PM - 7:00 PM	Unavailable
Students will undertake an advanced study and practice of contemporary fiction writing through the reading, creation, and revision of short stories. This course will require students to write often, read deeply, and revise radically. By developing skills in craft analysis, generative writing, manuscript revision, and peer review, students will build upon concepts from CRW 3120 to become more successful with their artistry. At the end of the course, students will have a better sense of the craft techniques required for evocative and engaging literary fiction; better understand their inspirations, processes, and needs for successful artistic output; connect with a community of fellow writers with whom to collaborate; and assemble a portfolio of creative writing.
83352	CRW6920	Fiction Workshop	In Person (P)	W 6:00 PM - 8:50 PM	Unavailable
Students in this graduate-level workshop will write, critique, and revise literary short fiction. Students will deeply analyze published works for craft techniques in addition to reading craft essays and process interviews from contemporary authors. Ultimately, this course aims to improve student drafts; bolster writing skillsets; diversify interests and aesthetic preferences; fine-tune artistic practices; enhance editorial eye and ear; and practice radical revision strategies in a supportive community intent on producing meaningful art.

Course #	Course	Title	Mode	Days/Times	Syllabus
19815	CRW4114	History of Prose Style	Web-Based (W)	7:00 PM - 7:00 PM	Unavailable
In this online course, students will examine the role of style as it relates to the construction, purpose, meaning, and reception of literary fiction. Why and how do authors stylize their writing, and how might we break down the components of style to better understand authorial intention, artistic craft, and our own creative processes? This themed class may include both contemporary and historical texts, literary analysis, and creative writing.
12843	CRW4122	Fiction Writing Workshop Ⅱ	In Person (P)	Tu,Th 12:00 PM - 1:15 PM	Unavailable
Students will undertake an advanced study and practice of contemporary fiction writing as an art form through the reading, creation, and revision of short stories. This course requires students to write often, read deeply, and revise radically. By developing skills in craft analysis, generative writing, manuscript revision, and peer review, students will build upon concepts from CRW 3120 to become more successful writers. At the end of the course, students will have a more informed sense of craft techniques required for evocative and engaging literary fiction; better understand their inspirations, processes, and needs for successful artistic output; connect with a community of fellow writers with whom to collaborate; and assemble a portfolio of creative writing.