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Mary Cross

Associate Professor, Adjunct

Contact

Professional Site

Bio

Associate Professor, Adjunct (1999) Education: BA, 1981, Iowa State University; MFA, 1985, Iowa Writers' Workshop. Books: Rooms, Which Were People (Ohio State UP). Publications: Crazyhorse; Hotel Amerika; The Sun; Ploughshares; Southern Poetry Review; American Poetry Review, and others. Online: Center for Humans and Nature; Minding Nature; featherproof press mini-book Radio: Eight Forty-Eight program; WBEZ Chicago Matters Series. Anthologized Work: City of the Big Shoulders: An Anthology of Poems about Chicago (U of Iowa Press); City Creatures: Animal Encounters in the Chicago Wilderness (U of Chicago Press). Exhibitions: Faculty Projects, Sullivan Gallery, SAIC. Awards: Finalist in Mason Jar Press 1729 Book Prize in Prose; Finalist in Stillhouse Press Book-Length Fiction Contest; Helen Hooven Santmyer Poetry Fund.

Current Interests

Text and image. Hybrid forms. Video essay/motion poem.
My current project is a hybrid memoir.

Personal Statement

I am a poet and short prose writer. I have advised with writers and studio artists from many departments who use text as a component in their work. My approach is student-centered and built upon active listening, as well as formulating questions and responses that inspire an important ongoing conversation. I welcome students at any point in their creative process, from intuitive impulses toward generating new work to developing and refining work-in-progress. Together we explore ways to identify and discover work that is uniquely theirs.

Courses

Title Department Catalog Term

Description

This course concentrates on animal as character--either as narrator or designated subject--in nonfiction, fiction, poetry and hybrid forms. To provide a foundation for creative work we read from Lydia Davis, J.M. Coetze, Etgar Keret, John Berger, Paisley Rekdal and view visual art from Sue Coe, Paula Rego and Richard Barnes, among others. We do animal observations, create generative exercises, and take a field trip. We investigate: How does one?s identification of and curiosity about animals inform a text? How does one negotiate an anthropomorphic urge? What are the issues surrounding sentimentality and animals on and off the page? What kinds of constraints are apparent (or not) in animal characterizations? How do animals we read and see impact our culture? How do we impact theirs? Throughout the semester, students will have several opportunities to share and receive feedback on their work. This class is open to writers and artists across all disciplines.

Class Number

2118

Credits

3

Description

Taken every semester, the Graduate Projects courses allow students to focus in private sessions on the development of their work. Students register for 6 hours of Graduate Project credit in each semester of study.

Class Number

2364

Credits

3 - 6

Description

Taken every semester, the Graduate Projects courses allow students to focus in private sessions on the development of their work. Students register for 6 hours of Graduate Project credit in each semester of study.

Class Number

1949

Credits

3 - 6