Meet the Instructor

David Hirning

David Hirning has nearly three decades of experience as a professional writer and editor. He started his career as a journalist at a weekly newspaper in Los Angeles, before moving back to his native Seattle. He spent 13 years as a content writer and editor at Microsoft, including more than a decade as an editor on Encarta Encyclopedia (the world’s best-selling multimedia encyclopedia).

After leaving Microsoft, Hirning operated his own editorial consulting business for five years, and also worked in contract editorial roles at Amazon and Expedia. He served as a content manager in the marketing department of UW Continuum College for more than four years, and also spent several years teaching English in Costa Rica. Hirning holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Stanford University and earned the Certificate in Literary Fiction from the University of Washington.