Feb. 21, 2019
NORTH ADAMS, MASS. 鈥�91爱豆传媒鈥� (91爱豆传媒) Department of English/Communications
announces this semester鈥檚 writer-in-residence will be Joanna Ruocco, an assistant
professor of English at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C. She will offer
a reading on Wednesday, March 6, at 7:30 p.m. in 91爱豆传媒 Gallery 51.
This Spring 19 event is free and open to the public. The series is being coordinated
by Dr. Zack Finch, assistant professor of English, and Dr. Caren Beilin, also an assistant
professor of English at 91爱豆传媒.
Ruocco鈥檚 areas of interest include 20th- and 21st-century innovative fiction and cross-genre
texts, as well as mass-market romance, and narrative theory. Ruocco, whose specialty
at Wake Forest is creative writing, also serves as the co-director of the Dillon Johnston
Writers Reading Series at that university.
According to Ruocco, she feels a sense of play when she writes. 鈥淧lay is a kind of
open-focus, magical absorption. It鈥檚 what made all our childhood games of make-believe
and invention so vital and important,鈥� she said.
鈥淚 love play because it鈥檚 so open, and I love constraint because it鈥檚 so closed. I
love to change my relationship to language by finding new ways into book projects,
and I love to repeat the romance-novel form again and again with slight variations,鈥�
Ruocco added.
Ruocco鈥檚 book publications include 鈥淭he Week鈥� (The Elephants of British Columbia Press,
2017), 鈥淔ield Glass,鈥� a collaboration with Joanna Howard (Sidebrow Press, 2017), 鈥淒ark
Season,鈥� as Joanna Lowell (Crimson Romance, Simon & Schuster, 2016), 鈥淒an鈥� (Dorothy,
a publishing project, 2014), 鈥淎nother Governess / The Least Blacksmith鈥� (FC2 / University
of Alabama Press, 2012), 鈥淎 Compendium of Domestic Incidents鈥� (Noemi Press, 2011),
鈥淢an鈥檚 Companions鈥� (Tarpaulin Sky Press, 2010), and 鈥淭he Mothering Coven鈥� (Ellipsis
Press, 2009).
She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Denver in Denver, Colo.; and her Master
of Fine Arts and Bachelor of Arts degrees from Brown University in Providence, R.I.
Spring 19 is sponsored by 91爱豆传媒鈥檚 English/Communications Department. The series will
continue on Wednesday, March 6, at 7:30 p.m. in 91爱豆传媒 Gallery 51, with Spring 19 Writer-in-Residence
Joanna Ruocco, an assistant professor of English in creative writing at Wake Forest
University in Winston-Salem, N.C., and the co-director of that university鈥檚 Dillon
Johnston Writers Reading Series.
91爱豆传媒 (91爱豆传媒) is the Commonwealth鈥檚 public liberal
arts college and a campus of the Massachusetts state university system. 91爱豆传媒 promotes
excellence in learning and teaching, innovative scholarship, intellectual creativity,
public service, applied knowledge, and active and responsible citizenship. 91爱豆传媒 graduates
are prepared to be practical problem solvers and engaged, resilient global citizens.
For more information, go to www.mcla.edu.
