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Department of English

Dr. Kirstin Zona

Professor
English
Office
STV Stevenson Hall 205
Office Hours
By appointment: 309-829-3222 205 Stevenson Hall
Office Phone
(309) 438-7986office
phone
Email
krhotel@ilstu.eduemail
Website
https://kirstinhotellingzona.comwebsite
  • About
  • Education
  • Awards & Honors
  • Research

Biography

My deepest intention is to wake myself and others into our capacity for collective thriving, a commitment I deem necessary if we are to create an equitable, compassionate, sustainable human existence on this planet.

Teaching Interests & Areas

I am currently teaching a large undergraduate lecture course called "Narratives of Potential," in which we explore what it means, via a wide variety of literary texts, to actualize one's potential as a human being in our current historical-cultural moment. This course draws upon the myriad research and teaching interests that I've been committed to over the years: poetry and poetics, literature, creative writing, literary theory, women's studies, sexuality and gender studies, ecocriticism, veganism, contemplative practice in higher education, pedagogies of liberation, and emergent strategy.

Research Interests & Areas

I am fascinated and compelled by the study of human potential, an avenue of inquiry that is inextricable from and begs consideration of the ecologies of which we're a part. It is impossible to pursue rigorous study of human potential without simultaneously looking at the ways we exist in relationship with non-human animals and the living earth. My current research project draws from a wide range of texts and expressive practices: poetry, theory, literature, philosophy, memoir, photography, drawing, and journals/letters/emails.

Ph D Poetry and Poetics

University of Rochester

BA English

Wesleyan University
Middletown, CT

Finishing Line Press Open Book Competition

FLP Press

Lexi Rudnitsky First Book Poetry Prize

Persea Books

Residency and Fellowship

Ragdale Foundation for the Arts
2012

Mississippi Review Poetry Prize

2011

Roque Bluff’s 7th Annual Poetry Festival

2011

Marsh Hawk Press Book Prize

2011

Georgetown Review Poetry Prize

2010

Grants & Contracts

Editor’s Subvention Grant. Illinois State University. Other.
Editor’s Subvention Grant. Illinois State University. Other.
Illinois Arts Council Grant. SRPR.
Illinois Arts Council Grant. SRPR.
Illinois Arts Council Grant. SRPR.

Performances and Exhibits

Illinois State University Faculty Reading
Kirstin Zona
Borders Books and Music. - March 2010
Roque Bluffs
Kirstin Zona
Roque Bluffs 7th Annual Poetry Festival. - August 2011
Roque Bluffs
Kirstin Zona
Roque Bluffs Poetry Festival. - August 1 2010

Book, Chapter

Zona, K. Drift. Finishing Line Press (2011)

Journal Article

Zona, K. The SRPR Interview: Arielle Greenberg. Spoon River Poetry Review. Spoon River Poetry Association 36.2 (2011)
Zona, K. The SRPR Interview: Austin Smith. Spoon River Poetry Review. Spoon River Poetry Association 36.1 (2011): 56-67.
Zona, K. ’An Attitude of Noticing’: Mary Oliver’s Ecological Ethic. Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and the Environment. Oxford University Press 18.1 (2011): 123-142.

Other

Zona, K. Fog. Columbia: A Journal of Literature and Art (2012)
Zona, K. Cherries. Georgetown Review 12.1 (2011): 107-110.
Zona, K. Spoon River Poetry Review. Kristin Zona (EDs). Spoon River Poetry Association 36.2 (2011): 128.
Zona, K. Spoon River Poetry Review. Kristin Zona (EDs). Spoon River Poetry Association 36.1 (2011): 128.
Zona, K. The Gut. Mississippi Review 38.3 (2011): 135-136.

Presentations

Featured Poet with Joanne Diaz. Illinois Wesleyan University’s Annual “Tributaries” Reading.. Illinois Wesleyan University. (2011)
The Contemplative Campus. Association for Contemplative Mind in Higher Education Annual Conference. ACMHE. (2011)
Workshop Leader and Featured Poet. 7th Annual Roque Bluffs Poetry Festival. (2011)
“Drift and the Rhetoric of Intentionality”. The Contemplative Campus. Association for Contemplative Mind in Higher Education Annual Conference (ACMHE). (2010)
The Impact of Contemplative Practice on Pedagogy, Scholarship, and Cross-Disciplinary Theory. The Association for Contemplative Mind in Academics Retreat. (2010)
Theorizing Contemplation/Contemplating Theory. The Contemplative Campus. Association for Contemplative Mind in Higher Education Annual Conference. (2010)
Drift. International Association for Research on Mothering. (2009)