Cassandra O’Sullivan Sachar

Education

Cassandra O’Sullivan Sachar received her Ed.D. in Educational Leadership with a Literacy Specialization from the University of Delaware and her MFA in Creative Writing with a focus on horror fiction from Wilkes University. She also holds a Master of Arts in Fiction from Wilkes University, a Master of Instruction from the University of Delaware, and a Bachelor of Arts in English with a Writing Concentration from York College of Pennsylvania. Furthermore, she was certified in Secondary Education English at York College of Pennsylvania and later attained National Board for Professional Teaching Standards certification for English Language Arts/Adolescence and Young Adulthood. Additionally, she earned a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion certificate from the University of South Florida Muma College of Business.

Teaching and Research Interests

Primarily a horror/suspense writer, Dr. Sachar has written fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry that has been published in over forty literary journals, anthologies, and magazines including Pennsylvania English, The Horror Zine, Lit Shark Magazine, The Dillydoun Review, and The Chamber Magazine. Her dark suspense novel, Darkness There but Something More, was published by Wicked House Publishing in 2024, and she has a short horror story collection, Keeper of Corpses and Other Dark Tales, forthcoming from Velox Books. She has presented her creative works at conferences including the Pennsylvania College English Association (PCEA) Conference and the English Association of Pennsylvania State Universities (EAPSU) Conference.

As a horror scholar, Dr. Sachar has published critical and craft essays in publications including The Angry Gable, Bewildering Stories, and HorrorAddicts.net. She is the editor of the multi-author volume of horror scholarship No More Haunted Dolls: Horror Fiction that Transcend the Tropes, which is forthcoming from Vernon Press. Additionally, she has chaired panels on and presented horror scholarship at the Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA) Convention and the Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference. 

Prior to her career at Commonwealth University-Bloomsburg, Dr. Sachar taught secondary English in underprivileged Delaware public schools for fifteen years. This experience contributed to her research interests centering around providing meaningful feedback, utilizing metacognitive revision to promote writing achievement, and working with at-promise students. Her research studies and practitioner pieces have appeared in over thirty publications including Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, Global Education Review, Faculty Focus, Inside Higher Ed, and The Teaching Professor. She has presented on the subjects of writing strategy instruction, literacy, and DEI at international, national, and regional conferences including the Writing Research Across Borders Conference, the World Literacy Summit, the National Organization for Student Success Conference, and the Lilly Conference.

Courses Taught

• ENGL204 - Introduction to Creative Writing
• ENGL371 - Composition Theory
• ENGL493 - Independent Study
• HONR222 - Writing Horror Fiction
• WRIT101/102 - Foundations in Composition/Lab
• WRIT103 - Foundations in Composition