Concentrations

Katherine Zlabek earned her MFA from Western Michigan University and her PhD from the University of Cincinnati, where she was a Taft Dissertation Fellow and a recipient of an AWP Intro Journals Award. Her story collection, When, winner of The Journal’s 2018 Non/Fiction Collection Prize, is available from The Ohio State University Press. Her stories and essays have appeared in Boulevard, The Kenyon Review, Ninth Letter, and other journals. Ricochet Editions published her chapbook, Let the Rivers Clap Their Hands, in 2015.

Her writing is situated primarily in the Midwest and investigates working-class identity and spirituality; her scholarship is focused both in the History of the Novel and in 20^th Century American Gothic Fiction. Her specializations provide a useful backdrop for conversations that are essential within a writing curriculum—conversations about the effects of lifestyle and the moral questions present in day-to-day life. She regards her students as writers and citizens. As she builds her courses, she considers, What will this class offer to a serious writer? And, How can this class positively affect an interested citizen? Each individual is bringing a diverse set of interests and goals into the classroom, and one of her aims is that students are able to establish a working concept of these goals. She views the classroom, and the writing workshop in particular, as a community that works together to advance each individual.

Education

BA, Augustana College
MFA, Western Michigan University
PhD, University of Cincinnati

Courses Taught

Foundations in Rhetoric
Crafting the Short Story

Publications

When, The Ohio State University Press. Winner of the Non/Fiction Collection Prize (2019)
Let the Rivers Clap Their Hands (chapbook), Ricochet Editions, USC Dornslife. (2015)