Alice
Pettway


Alice Pettway is the author of four collections of poetry: Dawn Chorus (2023), Station Lights (2021), Moth (2019), and The Time of Hunger (2017). Her work, which spans poetry, non-fiction, and fiction, has appeared in AGNI, Learning for Justice magazine, Rattle, The Progressive, The Southern Review, The Threepenny Review and many other respected publications. She is a former Chulitna Artist Fellow and Art Omi: Writers resident. Currently, Pettway lives and writes near Seattle, Washington.

Articles by Alice

Teacher Fired over Trayvon Martin Fundraiser

What do you do with a teacher who provides students with authentic learning opportunities? A teacher who invests her own resources to support students? A teacher who was voted Teacher of the Year two of the last three years? If you’re Superintendent Jacqueline Cassell at the Pontiac Academy for Excellence Middle School in Pontiac, Mich., you fire her.

Will We Learn from Trayvon Martin’s Death?

The empty space left by the death of a young person seems somehow larger—perhaps because we sense not only the absence of who he was, but also of who he could have become. This emptiness can engulf an entire community, even a nation, when the death is unjust.

LGBT Students Are Still at Risk

On Monday, LGBT students’ rights were vindicated in a comprehensive settlement with Minnesota’s Anoka-Hennepin School District over its policies that hindered teachers from effectively responding to anti-gay bullying—policies that may have contributed to some of the district’s recent suicides. Then on Tuesday, in the afterglow of this historic victory, the Utah Senate passed its own discriminatory bill (HB 363) prohibiting educators from teaching about, or even talking about, homosexuality.

Dissent or Disruption?

Schools have a responsibility to maintain a safe learning environment for all students—this seems on first examination a simple enough statement. It isn’t. Two words are key—“learning” and “all.” A school that is inclusive of all its students but unable to nurture learning has failed in its responsibility. An academically successful school that only supports its majority students has equally neglected its obligation.

Can Student Activism Break Free from Facebook?

A group calling itself “Passive Activism” claims on Facebook that it’s dedicated to “spreading awareness about people who spread awareness, rather than actually do something for people who actually do things.” I admit, I laughed. But it’s really not funny.
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