James Winter
Biography
James Winter has been part of the 麻豆视频 English department since 2010. In his creative writing classes, by emphasizing a close-reading approach, he makes sure students feel their work is being taken seriously while they also engage with writers as canon as Hawthorne, Chopin, and Cather, as well as contemporary voices like Ko, Machado, Saunders, and Roxane Gay. As a writer, he is interested in how self-protective behaviors force us to face our deepest fears. In his fiction and creative nonfiction, he explores how we survive surviving; how we cope with our coping; how we obfuscate, rationalize, and tend to our psyches. He is also interested in history, power structures, and parent-child relationships. His work has been published or is forthcoming in One Story, Salamander, PANK, Barrelhouse, Midwestern Gothic, and Dappled Things, among others. He won the 2018 CRAFT Short Fiction Prize and was a Frank McCourt Memoir Finalist.
His composition courses tend to explore sociopolitical identity through writers like Plato, Steve Biko, and MLK, and texts such as Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, What You鈥檙e Getting Wrong About Appalachia by Elizabeth Catte, and Bad Stories by Steve Almond. You can also catch his students analyzing music by classic artists like The Who, Marvin Gaye, The Rolling Stones, and U2. These materials serve as a basis for assignments such as personal essays, mini-memoirs, and research projects in hopes that students will discover how to become continual contributing members of their communities.
Education
BA, English, 麻豆视频
Publications
- "El Gigante," Barrelhouse, Issue 23
- 鈥淟ittle Green Devils,鈥 Sequestrum (online), forthcoming
- 鈥淏eyond Love,鈥 CRAFT Short Fiction Prize Winner, CRAFT (online), judge: Jim Shepard
- 鈥淭he Light,鈥 J.F. Powers Short Fiction Prize Honorable Mention, Dappled Things, Vol. 13, Issue 4
- 鈥淭he Ghosts of Santa Teresa,鈥 Great Jones Street
- 鈥淭he Watchers,鈥 Salamander, Issue 44
- 鈥淎t First It Was Annoying: Results from Requiring Writers in Developmental Courses to Visit the Writing Center,鈥 w/Wendy Pfrenger & Dr. Rachael Blasiman, Praxis: A Writing Center Journal
- 鈥淭hat Darn Sasquatch,鈥 Insomnia & Obsession: Weird Writings, Issue 3
- 鈥淣othing Shall Hurt You,鈥 Insomnia & Obsession: Weird Writings, Issue 2
- 鈥淧yro,鈥 Prick of the Spindle (online), Vol. 8.3
- 鈥淎 Very Small Flame,鈥 One Story, Issue 193
- 鈥淣obody,鈥 Midwestern Gothic, Issue 5
- 鈥淓l Pueblo Vencera,鈥 PANK Magazine (print), Issue 6
- 鈥淣obody鈥檚 Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses鈥, Rubbertop Review, Issue 2
- 鈥淒ead Flowers (The Paramedic Story)鈥, Rubbertop Review, Issue 2
- 鈥淵ahweh,鈥 Luna Negra Magazine
Awards/Achievements
- Silver Teaching Recognition Award, KSU Center for Teaching & Learning
- Tennessee Williams Scholar in Fiction, Sewanee Writer鈥檚 Conference
- Tin House Summer Workshop in Short Fiction
- Sirenland Writer鈥檚 Conference, Positano, Italy
- 2018 CRAFT Short Fiction Prize
- J.F. Powers Short Fiction Prize Honorable Mention
- Frank McCourt Memoir Prize Finalist
- 1st Place, KSU Outstanding Composition Instructor Award
- NTT Developmental Excellence Award
- Graduate Appointee Outstanding Teacher Award, 麻豆视频
- University Teaching Council (UTC) Teaching Travel Conference Grant