WALKING INTO STUART ALBRIGHT’S
classroom at Jordan High School, the first thing you notice are the book jackets covering the wall. This is not surprising, given that Stuart is an English and writing teacher. Up close, the book jackets – from “Officer Love’s Jurisdiction” to “Lyrical Gold” to “Sing Me This Song” – look like any books you would find at Barnes
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June/July 2017
& Noble, professionally typeset and beautifully designed. But each novel, memoir and anthology on the wall was authored by one of Stuart’s students. Stuart started McKinnon Press in 2005 as a vehicle for his own debut book, “Blessed Returns,” a memoir of his post-graduate summer spent teaching at a rough inner-city school in Camden, New Jersey. He was amazed at how easy it was to self-publish an extremely professional product, and as a teacher, his immediate reaction was to share what he had learned with his class. “I was blown away by how excited they were,” Stuart says about introducing the concept for the first time. The result was a collection of the students’ best stories, “Unlocking Room 413: A Creative Writing Class Discovers the Power of Words.” Since that first collection, Stuart has made publishing his students’ work the hallmark of his lauded teaching career. He was a Durham Public Schools Teacher of the Year in 2006, a recipient of a 2008 national Milken Educator Award, which called his work “pioneering,” and the recipient of a UNC Distinguished Young Alumni Award in 2013. The impact of his work on a wide range of students at Jordan is clear. He has encouraged hesitant writers; allowed students to take ownership of a serious, in-depth project; and he has provided a safe space for students to share personal stories. “He was the reason I went to Jordan,” says Emily Palmer, a former student who switched out of her districted school in order to take Stuart’s novel-writing class. “I had always loved writing,” says Emily, who is currently a reporter for The New York Times, “but I had no discipline. I just wrote when inspiration struck. Mr. A had us working like disciplined athletes. He suggested putting aside certain hours and