Seth Michelson Associate Professor of Spanish, Head of Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Tucker Hall, Room 322
540-458-8818
michelsons@wlu.edu
Education
Ph.D., Comparative Literature, University of Southern California
M.A., Comparative Literature, University of Southern California
M.F.A., Writing (Poetry), Sarah Lawrence College
M.A. Equivalent Bilingual (Spanish) California Clear Teaching Credential, LAUSD's District Intern Program
B.A., Latin American Studies and Writing Seminars, Johns Hopkins University
Research
Latin American Poetry, Aesthetics, Translation Theory, Feminist Poetics, State Violence, Colonialism, Neoliberalism
Teaching
LACS 101 - Introduction to Latin-American and Caribbean Studies
LACS 396 - Capstone Seminar in Latin American and Caribbean Studies
LACS 423 - Interdisciplinary Research
LIT 295 - Poetry in Times of Crisis: Latin American Poetry in Translation
SPAN 161 - Intermediate Spanish I
SPAN 162 - Intermediate Spanish II
SPAN 164 - Advanced Intermediate Spanish
SPAN 204 - Conversational Skills
SPAN 205 - Spanish for Healthcare Professionals
SPAN 216 - Living on the Edge: Identities in Motion in Argentina and Uruguay
SPAN 217 - Somos Más: Poetry, Ecology, and Sovereignty in Puerto Rico
SPAN 240 - Introducción a la literatura hispanoamericana
SPAN 344 - Spanish-American Poetry
SPAN 347 - Poetry and Power
SPAN 391 - Poetry Workshop
SPAN 398 - Poetry and Politics of Immigration
Selected Publications
Sample Articles, Book Chapters, and Reviews:
“Becoming a Witness: Jimmy Santiago Baca.” The Cambridge Companion to American Prison Literature and Mass Incarceration. Cambridge University Press, 2024 (forthcoming).
“When Silenced Language Sings: Poetry, State Violence, and the Mapuche Memory-Making of Liliana Ancalao.” A Contracorriente: una revista de estudios latinoamericanos. (North Carolina State University), 2024 (forthcoming).
“Emplaced Poetry Writing as Counterfoundational Striving for Democratic Freedoms.” Letras Hispanas, 2023 (forthcoming).
“Poetic Difference: How Emplaced Writing Influences Lives in Prison.” Teaching Literature and Writing in Prisons. Eds. Patrick Elliot Alexander and Sheila Smith McCoy. Modern Language Association (MLA) Book Publications, 2023.
“Looking for Luz.” Voces detenidas/Detained Voices. Eds. Montserrat Feu-López and Amanda Venta. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2021.
“Rattling the Establishment: A Decolonial Reading of Katja Perat’s Poetry.” Slovenska poezija. (University of Ljubljana). Ed. Darja Pavlič. 40: 155-160, 2021.
“Radical Hospitality: Poetry and the Democratic Practice of Empathic Listening.” Cultivating the Globally Sustainable Self: How The Human Species Might Fulfill Its Potential. Ed. Craig Shealy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020.
“Wings to Soar High,” Verseville XXXI, Ed. Rui Cóias (Portugal), 2020.
“Soñando con América: Voces de niños indocumentados bajo detención de máxima seguridad en los Estados Unidos.” Altre Modernità (University of Milan). Special Issue: “Nuevas violencias, nuevas resistencias,” Eds. Laura Scarabelli and Nicoletta Vallorani, 2019.
“Waterlings Among Us: Poetry, Intractability, and the Possibilities of Democratic Politics.” Primerjalna književnost (“Comparative Literature,” Slovene Comparative Literature Association). Ed. Darja Pavlič. 42.3: 55-67, 2019.
Prólogo. Las manos resisten: diálogos con mis pinturas. Raquel Partnoy. Argentina: 7 Sellos Editorial, 2019.
“Exploding the Local: A Critical Reconfiguration of T.S. Eliot’s Baudelaire.” An Anthology of T.S. Eliot’s Critical Essays. Ed. Sarbojit Biswas. New Delhi: Alfa Publishing House, 2017.
"The Search for a Place to Stand: Jimmy Santiago Baca and the Forging of a Life of Letters." Western American Literature 52.3, 2017, 357-59.
"Jimmy Santiago Baca and New Prison Writing." American Literature. Ed. Mary Pat Brady, Cornell University. 2017.
"Seth Michelson on Alicia Partnoy." Innisfree Poetry Journal. 2016.
“The Place and Function of Dialogue in Contemporary Narrative: A Discussion Between Two American English Professors.” Images of Life: Creative and Other Forms of Writing. Ed. Saptarshi Mallick. Kolkata: The Book World, 2015.
“Doing Times: Carceral Control and the Prisoner Poetry of Jimmy Santiago Baca.” Pacific Coast Philology 48.1, 2014, 25-47.
“Cadáveres que transitan a las semillas: State Violence and the Aporia of Alicia Partnoy’s Poetry.” Revista Hispánica Moderna 66.2, 2013, 159-181.
Anthologies:
Antología de poesía slam de macedonia. Ed. Khedija Gadhoum and Seth Michelson. (Guayaquil, 2023).
BOQUETE: Poemas de personas libres*. (Centro Berit, 2023). *Poetry by incarcerated people in a men’s prison in Uruguay.
Dreaming America: Voices of Undocumented Youth in Maximum-Security Detention. (Settlement House, 2017).
Original Poetry:
Rengo (Valparaíso, 2023)
Rengo (Yaugurú, 2022)
Swimming through Fire (Press 53, 2017)
Eyes Like Broken Windows** (Press 53, 2012) **Winner of the 2013 International Book Awards (Poetry)
House in a Hurricane (Big Table Publishing, 2010)
Kaddish for My Unborn Son (Pudding House Publications, 2009)
Maestro of Brutal Splendor (Jeanne Duvall Editions, 2005)
Poetry in Translation:
Child by Amir Or (Broken Sleep Books, 2023)
The Sun of Always by Liliana Ancalao, Mapuche (Eulalia Books, 2022)
Women of the Big Sky by Liliana Ancalao, Mapuche (Word Works, 2020)
The Ghetto by Tamara Kamenszain, Argentina (Veliz Books, 2018)
Wings by Amir Or, Israel (Sagging Meniscus, 2018)
The Red Song by Melisa Machado, Uruguay (Action Books, 2018)
Scripted in the Streams by Rati Sxena, India (Poetrywala, 2017)
Poems from the Disaster by Zulema Moret, Argentina (Torremozas, 2016)
roly poly by Victoria Estol, Uruguay (Toad Press, 2014)
Dreaming in Another Land by Rati Saxena, India (Kritya, 2014)
El Ghetto/The Ghetto: A Bilingual Edition by Tamara Kamenszain, Argentina (Point of Contact, 2011)
Center for Poetic Research, Director
Center for Poetic Research:
https://www.wlu.edu/center-for-poetic-research