Ross Angelella
Director, Jimenez-Porter Writers' House
Education
B.A., English Literature, Ithaca College
M.F.A., Creative Writing and Literature, Bennington College
Research Expertise
Creative Writing
Media Studies
Ross Angelella is the director of the Jiménez-Porter Writers’ House and principal lecturer in the College of Arts & Humanities, where he's taught writing since 2014. An award-winning teacher and writer, his areas of discipline are in screenwriting and fiction with emphases in crime, horror, science fiction, young adult, literary, historical, as well as nonfiction narratives. He is the author of the coming-of-age novel “Zombie” (2012). His short fiction has been anthologized in the short story collection Eight Very Bad Nights (2024) and has appeared in various journals, including Hunger Mountain, Sou’wester, The Literary Review, Southampton Review, and Coachella Review. His original screenplays are currently in development with a number of production companies and have won numerous awards, most recently “Best Comedy Short Script” at the Houston Comedy Film Festival (2020) and “Best Characters in a Screenplay” at the Baltimore Next Media Web Fest (2022). In recognition of his teaching, he was the recipient of the Professional Track Faculty Teaching Award in 2019 and received the 2024-2025 Philip Merrill Presidential Scholars Faculty Mentor Award. He is an active member of the University Film & Video Association, where he recently presented a paper on “Negotiating Gun Violence in Student Screenplays: How to Fight ‘Cool Characters Wielding Weapons’ with Empathy and Understanding." He earned a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing and literature from Bennington College.
Courses
ARHU275/ENGL275 - Writing to Be Seen: Introduction to Scriptwriting
ARHU320 - Writing for Publication
ARHU309 - Writers' House Colloquium: Creative Writing in Community
ARHU375 - Writing the TV Pilot
ARHU376 - Writing the Feature FIlm
ENGL272 - Fiction Writing: A Beginning Workshop
ENGL393 - Technical Writing
ENGL394 - Business Writing
ENGL395 - Writing for the Health Professions
ENGL398R - Writing Nonfiction Narratives
Creative
“Light Like Gunshots.”
The cops release me after they review the surveillance footage. I sign a paper that says I was treated with respect and dignity while incarcerated.
Author/Lead: Ross AngelellaAnnie picks me up from the police station. Jack and Nicole are both asleep in the back seat of the car. Annie turns the key in the engine.
“A Good Hour.”
While later in the day he’ll be let go from his job as a copywriter at an online men’s zine, Ransom spent his lunch break watching the destruction of a church.
Author/Lead: Ross AngelellaZombie: A Novel
High school may be hell. But for fourteen-year-old Jeremy Barker, hell doesn’t end when the bell rings.
Author/Lead: Ross Angelella"Horse and His Fishermen."
Horse and his fishermen lean arms into the worn wood of the bar, sucking juice from boysenberries.
Author/Lead: Ross AngelellaHorse and his fishermen sip water and smoke cigarettes, faces salt stained and cracked raw. Their fishy eyes fall on girls.
"The Hammer and the Flame."
My father complained of having flame-shaped hands.
Author/Lead: Ross AngelellaHe hated that he didn't have hands like his father, my grandfather, which were, according to my father, hammer hands. But, unfortunately, he, my father, had flame-shaped hands and would often wear gloves to hide them away.
"The Room of Ransom Black."
He stood in his hotel room, counting coins on the dresser next to his typewriter.
Author/Lead: Ross AngelellaThe sun slept under morning clouds, giving off a bluish light through the dark buildings of the city.
"Wheelwoman."
Molly Blaze left the marriage with the only thing she brought into it—her 1987 Buick Regal Limited T–Type Turbo.
Author/Lead: Ross AngelellaFuneral black. Chrome bumpers and trim. Blood red velour pillow seats and paneling. The first thing she bought herself after college. An investment in her future. And Ritch stole it.
