Ian Schimmel teaches at the intersection of creative writing, media, and technology, with a focus on student-led experimentation and critical engagement. At Rice University, he offers courses in fiction writing and podcasting and leads the university’s digital literary editing and publishing lab, housed under The Rice Review (r2), where students work at the convergence of text, image, and emerging media.

At Rice, Schimmel has been an early and active contributor to conversations on generative AI in the creative writing classroom. He has presented university talks and colloquia on the subject and offers a new undergraduate course, AI Resistance Storytelling, which invites students to misuse, parody, and write against algorithmic output as a method of artistic inquiry and media literacy.

In addition to his teaching and media work, Schimmel’s fiction has appeared in The Chicago Tribune, North American Review, The Antioch Review, and Glimmer Train. He is the recipient of a Donald Barthelme Award from the University of Houston, a Hobby–Inprint Fellowship, and was named a finalist for The Chicago Tribune’s Nelson Algren Award.

At Rice, he has received multiple teaching and advising honors, particularly for his work with The Rice Review, which has twice been recognized by the Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) as one of the nation’s top undergraduate journals. He is also the founding editor of the student-produced podcast series What Did You Eat for Breakfast? (whatdidyoueatforbreakfast.com).