Gary Dop – poet, playwright, and performer – began teaching at Randolph in 2013, when he moved from Minneapolis with his wife and three daughters. His first collection of poems Father, Child, Water (Red Hen Press 2015), sold out of its first print run of 1000 copies in only two months, and Gary enjoys regularly presenting his work throughout the country.

Gary’s writing has appeared in many national literary journals, including Prairie Schooner, New Letters, Agni, North American Review, Blackbird, Rattle, Poetry Northwest, and the Poetry Foundation’s column American Life in Poetry. His essays and poems have been heard on public radio’s All Things Considered through American Public Media. He has written, directed, and consulted for video and film projects, and his plays have been produced in small venues around the country.

In 2013, Gary was awarded the Great Plains Emerging Writer Award, and in 2011 The Pushcart Prize Anthology highlighted his poetry with a Special Mention. In 2009, Dop was one of five poets to qualify for the top rated performance poetry team in the country.

Before coming to Randolph, Gary was the writer in residence at North Central University, and he taught screenwriting in the University of Minnesota’s MFA program.

Gary is on the editorial board of Spark Wheel Press, and prior to moving to Lynchburg, he served on the board of Rain Taxi Review of Books, an organization he still helps each year with the Twin Cities Book Festival. For fun, he leads workshops for schools and community organizations, and he enjoys acting, emceeing, and comedy.