Gretchen teaches on faculty at UT-Austin, along with community-based seasonal workshops at the Oak Spring Garden Foundation, University of Arizona Poetry Center, &c. She is also part of the editorial collective of Randolph Lundine, where her online courses include the Seasonal Oasis Sabbatical and Seed Retreats (Seed Reading & Seed Writing).
From students' perspectives
(college & university courses):
"This course was incredible. Professor Henderson challenged me to think about the world and writing in a completely different way than I ever have." ~ Student evaluation from The University of Texas at Austin
"I gave Professor Henderson all high overall ratings, but she truly deserves amazing, incredible or a box to check to say that she is the most phenomenal professor at this university." ~ Student evaluation from Georgetown University
"Without a doubt the best teacher I've ever had, and I mean that most sincerely." ~ Student evaluation from the University of Utah
"This class was incredibly effective at introducing me to a realm of learning at MIT that I had no idea existed. REALLY wonderful class!" ~ Student evaluation from Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Community-based courses:
"What an amazing teacher Gretchen is. I don’t know how she does what she does ... She taught me more about writing in five days than I’ve learned in a life time." ~ Student evaluation from the Oak Spring Garden Foundation
"Gretchen's inspiring course was more than a workshop. It was a whole stimulus package!" ~ Student at the University of Arizona Poetry Center
"Gretchen’s gentle guiding hand, superb exercises and choice words of wisdom are something I would like to cast into gold and wear around my neck like a talisman.”
~ Student from Seasonal Oasis Sabbatical
"Gretchen’s breadth of knowledge, enthusiasm, professional supportiveness very much appreciated—Amazing in all categories." ~ Student evaluation from the Kenyon Review Writers Workshop
Teaching
Gretchen has taught at the graduate and undergraduate levels for two decades. With writing at the heart of her practice, she has taught in departments of English, Creative Writing, Environmental Humanities, Comparative Media, Art History and Museum Studies, and currently is Senior Lecturer in Social Work at The University of Texas at Austin. She has served on faculty at Georgetown, University of Utah, MIT, Knox College, Barnard College's Center for Research on Women, along with community-based courses through the Oak Spring Garden Foundation, University of Arizona Poetry Center, Kenyon Review Writers Workshop, and elsewhere, also frequently invited as a visiting writer/artist/scholar.
With a commitment to public humanities, her classes often go beyond the classroom, from special collections to landscape art and architecture to environmental and health sciences. Field trips have ranged from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and curated spaces around Boston, to the Smithsonian Museums and National Press Club in Washington, DC, to the Utah Museum of Fine Arts (including Nancy Holt’s remote Sun Tunnels) to state parks in the Sierra Nevada of California, and countries internationally engaging exhibits, performances, and cultural arts.
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In 2023-2024, find Gretchen's public workshops at the University of Arizona Poetry Center on Relational Ecologies: Writing with a More than Human World (including "Writing with Water," "Writing with Fire," "Writing with Earth," and "Writing with Air") and at the Oak Spring Garden Foundation (former Mellon estate in Virginia) on "Writing the Landscape" (October 7-11, 2024 and April 28-May 2, 2025) and "Literary Ecologies: Reading to Reinhabit the World" (May 20-24, 2024) along with offerings through the writing-editorial collective Randolph Lundine.
