writer and teacher
It’s been a busy summer and fall, blog friends! I’m more than halfway through my second fall semester at the College of Wooster and I’ve just finished a draft of Killingly, also known here as “the Mt. Holyoke novel.” It clocked in at more than 151,000 words, which officially makes it a Big Book. (Alcestis…
Year one of full-time teaching: complete! I taught five courses (three of which were new preps) and supervised four senior Independent Study projects. It was tiring, but I had a great time and got to read some really wonderful student writing. In the fall, I’ll be teaching my first year seminar “Coming of Age at…
First up, a link to a great post on the eternal MFA question. I’m directing four senior independent study projects this year, all in creative writing. None of my students will be going directly to graduate school for creative writing, though three of them are considering applying in the future. Their projects are due at…
I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to see the back of 2011. Really — I can’t. It was a year full of professional milestones, and I had a wonderful time teaching my first classes at Wooster this fall and getting to know the town and college, but it was harder on the personal…
Mid-semester update edition: Sitting in a room full of students who are working intently on a writing exercise. Some of them are usually frowning. But they’re all creating. Discussing writing ideas or revision plans with my senior Independent Study advisees, then having them return the next week with surprising, original, clever work inspired by our…
I’m now in Wooster, Ohio, and have finally just about finished unpacking. I would kill for a papas, egg, and cheese taco from Tacodeli right now, but I’m enjoying the cool Ohio mornings (and sometimes, entire cool days). Everyone here is complaining about the heat, but after a month of 100+ weather in Austin, it…
I spent most of Friday and Saturday at the third and final TILTS 2011 conference at UT. I’m not exactly a digital humanist by trade, though I’ve worked on digital humanities projects (like eComma). But I’m interested in humanities computing, to use the older phrase, and the breadth of this conference’s speakers was really wonderful…
So once again, here’s the current primary-source list for my post-apocalyptic and dystopian novels course (now titled “Coming of Age at the End of the World”). I dropped 1984, but reread The Giver this week — it really is the archetypal YA dystopian, Christ imagery and abrupt ending and all. The Giver, Lois Lowry Riddley…
I didn’t mean to disappear for quite so long. First I had to finish the last few line edits on my dissertation and file it, officially; and then I wrote more Killingly, worked on finding a place to live in Wooster (and I finally have, after the house I thought I’d secured fell through), worked…
Chronologically, as it seems easiest: Last Friday, I defended my dissertation in the Fleur Cowles Room at the Harry Ransom Center. (You want to follow that photo link, I promise.) Fleur Cowles was one of the sponsors of the internship I participated in at the Ransom Center, so it felt like a nice conclusion to…