People

Director

Emma Hudelson directs the Creative Writing for Wellness initiative at Butler. She has led Writing for Wellness workshops at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Community Health, IPS, Fairbanks Addiction Treatment Center, Hope Academy, Eskenazi Hospital, and Butler University. Emma writes about women, animals, and finding wellness. Her first book, Sky Watch: Chasing an American Saddlebred Story was published in 2024 with the University Press of Kentucky. She holds a PhD in creative writing from the University of Cincinnati, where her research focused on Creative Writing for Wellness, and she is a graduate of the Butler MFA program.

Founder

Hilene Flanzbaum is a Professor of English and the former Director of the MFA Program in Creative Writing.  She founded the Creative Writing for Wellness program at Butler, and has conducted Writing for Wellness groups for breast cancer survivors, employees of Eskenazi Hospital, incarcerated women, and Butler faculty and staff. She holds the Allegra Stewart Chair in Modern Literature.  Her specialties include Modern and American Poetry, Jewish-American Literature, Twentieth-Century Literature and creative writing.

Past Facilitators

Dominique Weldon graduated from the Butler MFA Creative Writing program, specializing in fiction. She has led or co-facilitated Creative Writing for Wellness Workshops at Eskenazi Health, American Senior Village, at Butler, and she leads a monthly Writing for Wellness workshop at the Indiana Writers Center. Her work appears or is forthcoming in Lover’s Eye Press, DarkWinter Literary Magazine, and Erato Magazine.She currently teaches in the Butler University First Year Seminar and is working on her first novel and a graphic novel.

 Andrea Boucher has facilitated W4W workshops at Women’s Prison, Indiana Youth Group, Eskenazi, IU Health for Breast Cancer Support, Gigi’s Playhouse, Butler University for employees and several other locations. She also has won multiple contests including the Redivider Blurred Genre Contest judged by Jerald Walker and the Redivider Beacon Street Prize in Nonfiction judged by Ned Stuckey-French. She has taught as an adjunct instructor at Butler for FYS, English 101, Intro to Creative Writing, and Intro to Book Design. Additionally, she has developed and taught an extended workshop writing class called, “The Women’s Room” for the Indiana Writer’s Center.

Bailey Merlin graduated with an MFA in fiction from Butler University in 2017. She was among one of the first participants in the Writing for Wellness Initiative, and it is still dear to her heart. During her time in the MFA program, she facilitated writing for wellness sessions at the Indiana Women’s Prison, Eskenazi Hospital, and Butler University, and designed writing for wellness programming for the Riley Hospital for Children and HOPE Academy. It was her experience in the wellness initiative that led her to Harvard Medical School’s Department of Global Health and Social Medicine where she now works. In her spare time, she still facilitates writing sessions for friends, students, and colleagues.

Karin Salisbury (MFA) has most recently worked as an adjunct instructor at Butler University and is a mom of six. She enjoys writing fiction and poetry; her current project is a novel. She was the recipient of the Writers in Paradise McCartt Fellowship in 2019. Karin has a passion for Writing for Wellness since she began to work in American Village Senior Center in 2015. Karin has since worked in settings such as IU Health for Breast Cancer Support, Indiana Women’s Prison, Butler University for faculty and staff workshops, and through the pandemic has hosted two Zoom sessions a week for participants across the United States. She enjoys cooking, baking, traveling, painting, swimming, and spending time with her kiddos.

Maggie Sweeney graduated with an MFA in fiction from Butler University in 2018. She has led W4W workshops all over Indianapolis, including Butler University, Indiana Youth Group, Indiana Women’s Prison, American Village, and Gigi’s Playhouse. She also writes plays for People Like Us, a theater for people of all abilities. She loves to write and read other people’s stories and believes that through stories, we can express love, tragedy, humor, and experience. She believes stories are what brings people together.

Samantha Vorwald graduated from the MFA program at Butler University with a focus in fiction. She was a born and raised on a dairy farm in Iowa, and before moving out to Indianapolis, she had graduated with degrees in communication studies and English from Upper Iowa University. She previously facilitated a writing for wellness group for the seniors at the American Senior Village in Indianapolis.

Marla Berggoetz is a graduate student in the Butler University MFA Creative Writing program, specializing in non-fiction. She holds an undergraduate degree in Deaf Education from Ball State University. Marla is a nationally certified American Sign Language interpreter and has worked as a staff interpreter for a community mental health center for 15 years. She is currently a non-fiction reader for Booth: A Literary Journal. 

Matthew Early is a soon-to-be graduate of the Butler University MFA program in Creative Writing, specializing in poetry. He is a graduate teaching fellow through the university, and is also a graduate assistant and tutor for Butler’s Writing in the Schools program, run through Shortridge High School. Both of these experiences have allowed him to facilitate numerous creative writing workshops and craft discussions for teens and young adults. He holds an undergraduate degree in English and Communication from Muskingum University in New Concord, Ohio. He has won several literary contests, including the 2018 Beulah Brooks Brown Award in Poetry, run by the Academy of American Poets. His work can be found or is forthcoming in Whiskey Island Magazine, The Flying Island, Barren Magazine, Ghost City Press, and others.

Rosemary Freedman is a graduate student in the Butler University MFA Creative Writing Program, specializing in poetry. She is a poet, a gardener, an artist and a nurse practitioner. Rosemary has a Bachelor of Arts degree in creative writing and literature, a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing, a Masters’s degree in nursing education, and Post-Master’s Certificates as a psychiatric clinical nurse specialist and nurse practitioner. She works at Community Health Network in the Palliative Care unit, serving as their primary outpatient provider.  She has led group therapy for breast cancer patients and for children who have experienced the death of a parent. She was nominated for the Pushcart poetry prize in 2019. She is married with 7 grown children.

Jacob Gambino is a graduate student in the Butler University MFA Creative Writing program, specializing in fiction. He holds an undergraduate degree in English and Sociology from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, with a certificate in Creative Writing. He is currently a fiction reader for Booth: A Literary Journal.

Melody Groothuis is a graduate student focusing on poetry in Butler’s MFA program.  She currently works at Shortridge High School in the media center, where she manages the technology, textbooks and library collection.  Melody holds a B.A. in archaeology from Columbia University in NY and once spent a lovely summer digging for “old stuff” in Peru.  Melody strongly believes in the magic of voice and story to help people navigate this strange and beautiful human existence.  In her free time, she enjoys hanging out with her family (husband, 2 kids, 4 cats and 6 chickens), gardening, bird gazing, hiking, coaching XC and swimming, reading all the things and writing.

Lisa Rieck is currently a grad student in Butler University’s MFA program, specializing in poetry. She worked for a number of years in publishing and communications, serving as a writer, copyeditor, and proofreader. Hearing other people’s stories continually amazes and inspires her, and she would love to teach writing to first-generation college students in the future. In her spare time, Lisa loves spending time with family and friends, reading books that open her eyes to new places and cultures, drinking tea, taking walks, and, of course, writing.