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Department of English Language and Literature

Directory

Elise Blackwell

Title: Professor
Department: English Language and Literature
College of Arts and Sciences
Email: eliseblackwell@outlook.com
Office: HUO, Room 604
Resources: Curriculum Vitae [pdf]
English Language and Literature
profile

Education

MFA, University of California, Irvine

Specialization

Creative Writing
Contemporary Fiction

Courses

ENGL 610    Writing the Novel
ENGL 602    Seminar in Prose Composition
ENGL 492    Advanced Fiction Writing
ENGL 465    Fiction Workshop
ENGL 360    Introduction to Creative Writing
ENGL 282    Fiction (large lecture)
SCHC 354    Travel Writing (Honors College)

Accolades

Teaching Awards
    Michael J. Mungo Undergraduate Teaching Award
    Department of English Excellence in Teaching Award
    Nominee, Michael A. Hill Outstanding Honors College Faculty Teaching Award

Literary Recognition
Elise Blackwell's novels have been translated into several languages and named to various best-of-the-year lists, including those of the Los Angeles Times, Sydney Morning Herald, Kirkus, and Book Sense Annual Highlights. For more details or to read review excerpts, please visit eliseblackwell.com.

Current Positions
    Host, The Open Book
    Thomas Cooper Society Board

Current Research Projects

    A novel set in 19th-century new Orleans
    Lumber Piles of Love (series of 100 pieces of flash fiction triggered by Pablo Neruda's love sonnets)

Selected Publications

Books
   • The Lower Quarter
   • An Unfinished Score
   • Grub
   • The Unnatural History of Cypress Parish
   • Hunger

Selected Short Fiction
   • "Before Texas" A Shared Voice: a Conversation in Narrative by Twenty-four of the Finest Fiction Writers in America, edited by Tom Mack and Andrew Geyer, Lamar University Press
   • "Warehouse" Flash: The International Short-Short Story Magazine
   • "Necrotic" The Newport Review
   • "Polk County" Five Chapters
   • "Closed World" Coal City Review

Selected Nonfiction
   • "Sense of an Ending" Brick
   • "Carolina Dog" Carolina Writers and their Literary Dogs, edited by John Lane and Betsy Teter, Hub City Press
   • Regular column on fiction and the academy, The Chronicle of Higher Education (2010-2012)
   • "In Situ" The Atlantic (online edition)
   • "W.G. Sebald's Austerlitz" The Millions
   • Reports on the 2009 PEN World Voices Festival, PEN website
   • "Sixth of Seven." Topic

Recent Presentations

University Readings
   • Dartmouth College
   • Johns Hopkins University
   • Louisiana State University
   • University of Denver
   • Georgia State University
   • Widener University
   • Medaille College
   • Southern Connecticut State University
   • University of Central Arkansas
   • University of South Carolina-Aiken (James and Mary Oswald Distinguished Writers Series)
   • University of California-Irvine
   • Redlands University
   • University of Vermont

Book Festival Appearances
   • West Cork Literary Festival (Bantry, Ireland)
   • Alabama Book Festival
   • Virginia Festival of the Book
   • New York is Book Country
   • Literary Orange (Irvine, California)
   • Louisiana Book Festival, Words & Music Festival (New Orleans)
   • Printers Row Festival (Chicago)
   • Decatur Book Festival
   • Fall for the Book (Virginia)
   • Southern Festival of Books (Nashville).

Other Talks and Readings
   Institute on Contemporary Literature
   Faulkner Society (State Museum, New Orleans)
   Squaw Valley Community of Writers
   The Gathering (Keystone College)
   Cell Theatre (New York City)
   The Tank (New York City)
   KGB Bar (New York City)
   Georgia Center for the Book
   Lifeline Theatre (Chicago)
   Log Cabin Literary Center (Boise, Idaho)
   and dozens of bookstores

Panel Presentations
   Squaw Valley Community of Writers, AWP Conference, The Gathering, Words & Music Festival


Challenge the conventional. Create the exceptional. No Limits.

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