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