I have written for The Associated Press, Family Circle, Woman’s Day, New Woman, American Writer, Crain’s New York Business, and other publications. I have an MFA in Writing from Sarah Lawrence College and have taught English and Creative Writing at several colleges, including Hofstra University and Marymount Manhattan College. Currently, I am an Adjunct Professor of Liberal Arts at Farmingdale State College, Farmingdale, Long Island.
Zelda’s Daughters: A novel mirroring a life story
Zelda’s Daughters tells the story of Ms. Brett’s life with two heroin addicts and her adoption by her aunt. She found she had a handicapped twin sister who grew up in the home with her drug addicted parents, and the chaos that ensued to rescue her sister from that setting
Blog
If you want to learn the process of writing, go no further than here. Ms. Brett writes about the process of writing and the specific of editing. She occasionally brings in outside authors to clarify and make idea stand out more for you. This is the place to go for learning to be an excellent writer in you own time.
Teacher’s Pets
Over the past twenty-eight years, the number of students I’ve taught would literally fill an arena. Since I’m not cut out to be a rock star or athlete, it’s wonderful that I’ve had the privilege and pleasure to teach thousands of students English; I’ve been passionate about it ever since I was in sixth grade, …
A Special Reunion and Writing as Catharsis
On June 25, 1990, I met my twin sister Alison Rae Schlesinger for the first time in 24 years. We were 27 years old, and we hadn’t seen each other since we were three. For most of our lives, we’d lived 60 miles apart from each other, she in New York City and I on …
Continue reading “A Special Reunion and Writing as Catharsis”
Persnickety Punctuation
For those of us who love sentences, for those who roll words on our tongues like cherry Lifesavers (and who doesn’t?), punctuating sentences often comes naturally, like breathing. However, for many students—even my college students—punctuation’s a guessing game, a boring quest to place a comma, apostrophe, semi-colon, or period precisely where it belongs. A surprising …
Author
Sample Writings
A Reading of Recent Poems Published in European Anthology
by H. S. Brett
Professor
There are few pleasures in this world like working with college freshmen and sophomores and getting them interested in the written word. To be able to explore with them the joys of writing and the specifics of language excites their souls as well as their academic interests in writing. People say that writing is dying off these days, but you wouldn’t know that if you saw the classes by Professor Brett. Yes, the are some kids that do not work hard, but the excitation of the kids that want to learn well overwhelms the minimalist student that only want to get by. Ms. Brett has spent her years teaching at colleges across New York City and Long Island to find the pleasure of the good students of writing and many have gone on to her about their success in diverse careers where writing is important to them in their success.
List of Colleges Where HS BRETT Has Taught
Hofstra University
Queensboro Community College
LaGuardia College
SUNY Farmingdale State College
Suffolk Community College