A poetic leader for woman’s liberation and a true believer in that old saying “do what you love,” Chella Courington may not boast about her writing recognition on campus, but ultimately fame found her.

Known to the majority of her creative writing and English students only as the tremendously eccentric anything-goes ‘Doc,’ few come to realize the professional background Courington possesses.

“Google her,” said Patty Morrill, City College English instructor and close colleague to Courington. “When I am lucky enough to substitute for her courses it’s always…a joy for me to…Google Chella Courington.”

Once ‘Googled’ you’ll find more than 150 published pieces in magazines and anthologies and two published chapbooks, named “Southern Girl Gone Wrong” and “Paper Covers Rock.” Her third “Girls and Women” will be released in spring 2011.

“Courington is one of the very few widely published poets and authors who also teaches at City College,” Morrill said. “However, she’s very humble about this.”

Her experimentation with the English language began in eighth grade in the Northern Appalachians in politically turbulent Alabama when her teacher asked all students to write a piece of poetry for the class.

“My teacher read the best piece of poetry to the class,” Courington said. “The girl who won wrote in a gothic Edgar Allan Poe style. I wanted to write like that, too.”

Poetry found her and she stuck with it for most of her young life.

Courington switched her focus to American literature and graduated from the University of South Carolina with a Doctorate in literature. Later she received her Master’s at New England College in 2009.

Courington speaks like she writes – moving imagery, limitless, one thought directing the other down unexpected turns.

She plucks from the torrents of thoughts as she speaks of poetic heroes like e.e. cummings and her favorite, Virginia Woolf.

“My style is very moment to moment like Woolf’s,” Courington said. A journalistic gypsy, her stream of consciousness style switches mediums frequently.

The focal point of her work is usually from a girl or woman’s perspective like her poem “13” in which two girls go skinny-dipping together.

Courington’s classes comprise a more intensive look into poetry, making the students better understand and appreciate the value of the written word.

Last year she ignited a campus poetry club for students to join.

“Inspiring is a shortcoming of a word [for Chella],” said Martin Salter, president of the poetry club and one of Courington’s former creative writing students. “She’s a bubbling well of inspiration.”

Her method for class participation is shaping the class in a group environment. She asks all the students to form a circle with their desks making group discussions interpersonal and involved.

“She makes the class environment more of a community,” Salter said. “It’s easier to share your opinion.”

This past year Courington’s writing took what she feels as a “therapeutic” outlet for her personal grievances.

Courington may constantly change her work subjects but her love of writing may never.

“I just love to write,” she said.