Mount Holyoke College

Mount Holyoke College is a college where the novelist John Irving later taught, part of a career that combined literary work with teaching at several institutions.

Irving’s Teaching Career

After earning an M.F.A. from the University of Iowa, where he studied with Kurt Vonnegut, Irving taught at Mount Holyoke College, the Writers’ Workshop in Iowa, and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. The evidence places Mount Holyoke among several teaching posts rather than describing his duties or the duration of his appointment.

Place in Irving’s Biography

Irving’s association with Mount Holyoke belongs to his professional life after his education at Phillips Exeter Academy, the University of Pittsburgh, the Institute for European Studies in Vienna, the University of New Hampshire, and the University of Iowa. The available account identifies the college as a workplace but provides no further details about its setting, programs, or influence on his writing.