Kathleen Ellis

Office Telephone: 207.581.3845

E-mail: kathleen.ellis@maine.edu

Office Hours – by appointment

Courses Taught:

ENG 101: College Composition
ENG 131: The Nature of Story
ENG 205: Introduction to Creative Writing
ENG 212: Persuasive and Analytical Writing
ENG 222: Reading Poems
ENG 246: American Women’s Literature
ENG 317: Business and Technical Writing

Research and Creative Work

Primary areas of creative work and study include creative writing; American women’s literature; poetry translation (Spanish and Portuguese); 20th and 21st c. U.S. poetry; Latin American poetry.

Secondary areas: environmental literature; literature of exile; women and war in fiction and poetry.

Publications

Books (published under Kathleen Lignell until 1995)

Vanishing Act. Berkeley, CA: CC Marimbo, 2007.
Entering Earthquake Country. Berkeley, CA: CC Marimbo, 2001.
Red Horses. Orono, ME: Northern Lights, 1991.
The Calamity Jane Poems. Berkeley, CA: Rosebud Press, 1978.

Translation

I have translated the work of Latin American women poets, most recently poems by Nancy Cerda of Ecuador. I have also translated Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa and Afro-Brazilian poets.

Hilos Invisibles/Invisible Threads, poems by Nancy Cerda, trans., Kathleen Ellis. Bristol, ME: Snow Drift Press, 2008.

Anthologies

2008. A Coastal Companion (poem in). Hallowell, ME: Tilbury House Press, Hallowell, Maine.

1999. Orpheus & Company: Contemporary Poems on Greek Mythology (poem in). University Press of New England.

1997. Poets of New England, inCzech. (poems in). Petr Mikes, ed. Olomouc, Czech Republic: Votobia Publishing House.

1995. Untidy Candles, An Anthology of Contemporary Maine Poets (essay in). ME: Biddle Press.

1989. The Eloquent Edge: 15 Maine Women Writers. Co-edited with Margery Wilson [Irvine]. Bar Harbor, ME: Acadia Press.

1989. Maine Speaks! (poem in). Brunswick, ME: Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance.

1981. Woman Poet: The East (poem in). Reno, NV: Women-in-Literature Press.
Recordings

2008. Included in Words from the Frontier: Poetry in Maine (CD). Produced for WMPG-FM, Greater Portland Community Radio, Univ. of Southern Maine. Interview excerpts and poems by 15 Maine poets. www.poetryinmaine.org

1999. An Evening with Gerard Manley Hopkins; Nancy Ogle, singer, Ginger Hwalek, pianist, narrative written by Kathleen Ellis, Capstone Records, Brooklyn, NY. CPS-8666.

1992. Renascence: Edna St. Vincent Millay, Poet; scriptwriter, Kathleen Lignell [Ellis], Cyclops Video Production, 1992. Distributed by Films for the Humanities & Sciences, Princeton, NJ.

Teaching

Honors 111/112 & 211/212. Civilizations.
I’ve been teaching in the UMaine Honors College since 2002. “Civilizations”
is a 4-semester course where students read the foundational literary and philosophical works of Western culture.

In addition to leading two small (15 students) preceptorials each week, in spring 2007 and 2008, I have also given the lecture on Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway to the entire 2nd-year class. Visit the Honors College at: http://www.umehon.maine.edu/

HONORS 180. A Cultural Odyssey.
In spring semesters 2007 and 2008, I coordinated speakers and performing arts events for this required Honors College course.

HONORS 310. Junior Tutorial.
I have taught junior tutorials since the early 1990s. My seminar topics have included Experimental Women Writers; John Cage & the American Avant- Garde; The American River as Text, Myth, & Symbol; Dance as Discourse: Latin-American Dance as Art & Cultural Identity; and Feast or Famine: Food in Literature.

Related Activities

• Since 2002, I have co-coordinated the “Works in Progress” series at Fogler Library on campus, where faculty and others read from recent work or work in progress.

• Since 2003, I have coordinated the annual POETS/SPEAK! reading at Bangor Public Library, which brings together the university’s literary community and students with the Bangor Area community. A major focus: community members and students reading poems in their native languages.

• Since 1996, I have led the week-long August Poetry Writing Workshop at the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, Maine.

Current Projects

• Narrow River to the North Woods, a project, partly funded by Maine Arts Commission Good-Idea Grant, which involves photography of Penobscot Watershed and writing poems based on these photos.

• Collaboration: writing poems in response to the work of artist Susan Groce.

• Completing full-length poetry manuscript, The Wide Disturbances of Water.

• Completing poetry manuscript, Splitting Atoms with Edward Teller.

• Seeking agent/publisher for novel manuscript, Mina Bravo and
the Mexican Cha-Cha.

• Translating Latin American and Portuguese poets.

Honors and Awards

2000s
• Good-Idea Grant, Maine Arts Commission (2007)
• Maine Poet Laureate Nominee (2006)

1990s
• Poet-in-Residence, Biblioteca, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico (1997)
• Individual Artist Fellowship, poetry, Maine Arts Commission (1995)
• Artist Residency, Djerassi Resident Artists Program (1994)
• Grant, Maine Humanities Council, poet/scholar for video project:
“Renascence: Edna St. Vincent Millay at 100” (1992-93)
• Payson Grant to co-host radio interviews with Maine Writers,
WERU-FM, Blue Hill, Maine (1990-91)

1980s
• Artist Residency, Yaddo (1989)
• Pablo Neruda Poetry Prize, Nimrod (1986)
• Individual Artist Fellowship, poetry, National Endowment for Arts (1985)
• Stover Poetry Award, Southwest Review (1983)
• Grant, Maine Humanities Council: “Spirit of Place: 200 Years of Maine
Poetry” (1982)

1970s
• Poetry Award, Carolina Quarterly (1978)
• National University Extension Association Creative Programming Award
for “Music of the California Missions” (1976)