Hi! I'm Mr. Chris Nelson, and I teach in and chair the English department here at HCAM. I look forward to working with you!

A native of Lenoir, NC, I hold my MFA in Creative Writing from North Carolina State University, and prior to joining HCAM I served as faculty in the Department of English at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas, teaching English and fiction writing. I'm exceptionally grateful to be among the faculty at HCAM, and I'm exceptionally excited about the brilliant community of young scholars and writers we're building here. 

To me, the study of English is indispensable for future success. Language skills, those skills that give us the ability to interpret and create informational and argumentative texts, are the route to empowerment and self-expression. Literature is a lens into an aspect of the human condition as it is experienced, what Faulkner called a work's "universal bones." And, creative writing is a means of adding to the great human song of existence, if you'll forgive the sentimental language. All of these follow various conventions and rules, and these rules are important and will be studied, but they are only means to an end. The end (hopefully) is a more critically thoughtful, engaged, and empowered world citizen; one with greater curiosity and empathy; one fully prepared to face the challenges of their future. That is my goal in teaching English, and I hope you'll join along.