Department of English

Academic Specialities: 
Creative Writing, Digital Composition 

Education: 
MFA in Creative Writing, Georgia College and State University
MA English Education, University of North Carolina Charlotte

Select Publications: 

“How Christopher Mello Sows Peace and Community in his West Asheville Garden.” MountainXpress. June 30, 2016. Online and Print. 

“The Mushroom Hunter: A Son’s Story About His Father’s Passion.” Limestone. Summer, 2015. Online. 

The Coach’s Wife, a novel. February, 2015. Cherokee McGhee Press. Williamsburg, Virginia. Digital and Print. 

“It’s All Public to Me,” a vignette. December, 2014 issue of College Composition and Communication. Print. 

“Banks, Adam. Digital Griots: African American Rhetoric in a Multimedia Age.” Book Review. Journal of Teaching Writing. Fall, 2012. Print. 

Horseshoe, a novel in stories. Cherokee McGhee Press. 2012. Print.

“Twilight,” a short story published in an anthology titled Suicidally Beautiful. Main Street Rag. 2012. 208-23. Print.

“Learning to Surf the Sea of Conversation: A Way Into Meaningful Research,” an article. Journal of Teaching Writing. 26.2  (2011): 85-104. Print.

Love on the Big Screen, a novel. Cherokee McGhee Press. 2011. Print.

Select Awards: 

Love on the Big Screen. Grand Prize. Rhode Island International Film Festival Screenplay Competition. 2011.

A Viking on the Subway, a screenplay. Honorable Mention. Metropolitan Film Festival of New York. December 10, 2011. Script also awarded Honorable Mention in the Los Angeles Script and Film Festival Competition. October 10, 2011. 

Select Conference Presentations: 

“The World Inside Our Classrooms: What a Diverse Student Body Can Teach Its Faculty about Global Learning.” Global Learning in College: Asking Big Questions, Engaging in Urgent Challenges. Association of American Colleges and Universities Conference. October 2-5, 2013. Providence, Rhode Island.

“Twitter and Social Media for Igniting Professional Learning Connections.” Leader of Roundtable Discussion. National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). Las Vegas, Nevada. November 17, 2013.

“Creative Writing Pedagogy Courses in the MFA.”  Association of Writers and Writing Programs. Chicago, Illinois. International. March 2, 2012. New Jersey Council for Teachers of English. Montclair State University. 

“Every Story Has a Story: William Torgerson’s Love on the Big Screen.” March 26, 2011.  

National Council for Teachers of English. Philadelphia. “How Did ‘I’ Get Into This Research Paper?” November 20, 2009. 

Association of Literacy Educators and Researchers. Charlotte, North Carolina. “Where Did That Question Come From?: Using Reading to Teach Inquiry-Driven Research Projects.” November 11, 2009. 

New Jersey Council for Teachers of English. Montclair State University. “Need a New Angle for Teaching Research? The Scholarly Personal Narrative.” October 25, 2009. 

Connecticut Writing Project Saturday Seminar. Storrs, Connecticut. “Liven Up the Stack: Using Lists and Conversation as a Way Into Meaningful Research Writing.” October 3, 2009. 

 Association of Writers and Writing Programs. Atlanta, GA. Pedagogy Forum. “Revision Lessons from Mentor Texts.” February 28, 2007.

Association of Writers and Writing Programs. Austin, TX.  Pedagogy Forum. “Using Collaborative Lists and ‘What if?’ Questions to Write Fiction.” March 8, 2006.

Filmmaking:

On the French Broad River, a 75-minute documentary film. Official Selection for the Queens World Film Festival. New York City, New York. Screened at Astoria Kaufman Studios March, 2017. Director. 

“Yes You May: The Story of Christopher’s Garden,” a short documentary film. Best Family Friendly Film. Marietta International Film Festival. May, 2015. Director.

“The Mushroom Hunter,” a documentary film. Official Selection. Indianapolis International Film Festival and awarded “Best Documentary” at the Phenom International Film Festival in Shreveport, Louisiana. 2013. Director.

Currently in his third year as a lecturer in the English Department at Appalachian State University, Bill Torgerson has taught for over twenty years as a public school teacher in Indiana and North Carolina as well as an eleven year stint as a professor at St. John's University in New York City where he earned tenure. Writer Pat Conroy described Bill's novel The Coach’s Wife as “One of the best books about basketball and coaching I’ve ever read with a love story so complicated book groups will be talking about it for years.” Bill's adaptation of his first novel, Love on the Big Screen, won the grand prize of the Rhode Island International Film Festival Screenplay Competition. His articles and essays have appeared in numerous journals including The Journal of Teaching Writing, Limestone, and College Composition and Communication. 

"Torg" to his students, Bill enjoys helping to coach the basketball teams his daughters play on, hiking, and exploring the backroads of the High Country in the family Jeep. One can read more about Bill on his website, TheTorg.com.