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 fiction writer, Dr. Sachar is the author of the Regal Summit Book Award-winning dark suspense novel Darkness There but Something More (Wicked House Publishing, 2024), the short horror story collections Keeper of Corpses and Other Dark Tales (Velox Books, 2024) and Prepare the Coffin: Tales of the Macabre (Screaming Scorpion Press, 2025), the middle-grade mystery The Hidden Diary (Baynam Books Press, 2024), the horror novella Close the Door (Baynam Books Press, 2025), and the YA mystery Lake of Secrets (Horrorsmith Publishing, 2025). Her shorter creative work has appeared in more than sixty literary journals, magazines, and anthologies including The Horror Zine, Tales from the Moonlit Path, Corvus Review, and Quagmire Literary Magazine.

Dr. Sachar is the co-editor-in chief as well as creative prose editor of Pennsylvania English, and she has served as the fiction editor of River & South Review. She curated and edited the fiction anthologies Wicked Universe: A Wicked House Publishing Anthology (Wicked House Publishing, 2024) and Dark and Dreary: A Basement Horror Anthology (Screaming Scorpion Press, 2025).  Read more of her work at cassandraosullivansachar.com. 

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 Bram Stoker Award-nominated multi-author volume of horror scholarship No More Haunted Dolls: Horror Fiction that Transcend the Tropes (Vernon Press, 2024). 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
• ENGL300 - Fiction Workshop
• ENGL309 – Practices of Creative Writing
• ENGL371 - Composition Theory
• ENGL440 - Independent Study
• HONR222 - Writing Horror Fiction
• WRIT101/102 - Foundations in Composition/Lab
• WRIT103 - Foundations in Composition