Kika Dorsey is an author and a Lecturer at the University of Colorado, Boulder. She teaches university literature and creative writing classes. While finishing her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature in Seattle, Washington, she performed her poetry with musicians and artists and wrote about German and Italian modern and postmodern writers. In recent years she has also begun to write and publish fiction and ghostwrite fiction and nonfiction books and articles.
Her poems have been published in The Denver Quarterly, KYSO Flash, The Comstock Review, Narrative Northeast, The Columbia Review, among numerous other journals and books. She is the author of four poetry collections, Beside Herself (Flutter Press, 2010), Rust, Coming Up For Air (Word Tech Editions, 2016, 2018), and Occupied: Vienna is a Broken Man and Daughter of Hunger (Pinyon Publishing, 2020), winner of the Colorado Authors’ League Award. She is an affiliate professor of English at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and at Front Range Community College and has tutored in their writing center since 2008. In addition, she is a contributing editor of MacQueen’s Quinterly and the advising poetry editor of Plains Paradox.
When not writing, tutoring, or teaching, she swims miles in pools and runs and hikes in the open space of Colorado’s mountains and plains.
Kika Dorsey CV:
KIKA MEEKS DORSEY Curriculum Vitae
303-819-1672 [email protected] 4280 Peach Way
Boulder, CO, 80301
EDUCATION__________________________________________________________
Ph.D., Comparative Literature University of Washington 1996
M.A., Comparative Literature University of Washington 1991
B.A., German University of Colorado 1988
HONORS__________________________________________________________
- Dean’s scholarship and Dean’s List 1984-1988
- Grant from Austria to write article on contemporary author Elfriede Jelenik, 1997
- Five Pushcart Prize nominations
- Winner of the Colorado Authors’ League Award for Occupied: Vienna is a Broken Man and Daughter of Hunger
PUBLICATIONS_______________________________________________________
Poetry
- Numerous publications in literary journals from 2007-present
- Chapbook, Beside Herself, Flutter Press 2010
- Full-length collections:
- , Rust, (Word Tech Editions, 2016)
Coming Up For Air (Word Tech Editions, 2018)
Occupied: Vienna is a Broken Man and Daughter of Hunger (Pinyon Publishing, 2020), winner of the Colorado Authors’ League Award, 2021
Fiction
- “Joan Ponders Spit,” Fiction Southeast, 2019
- “The Savior,” Flash Fiction Magazine, 2019
- “Joan of Ark,” Fiction Southeast, 2019
- “Hunting in the Dark,” Riot Magazine, 2019
- “My Guns,” Literally Story, 2020
- “Eve,” Flash Fiction Magazine, 2020
- “The River’s Song,” Flash Fiction Magazine, 2022
Articles
- “European Like Me” Knot, 1996
- “Barbara Neuwirth’s Erzaehlsammlung “Dunkler Fluss des Lebens”: Zwischen Distanz und Naehe,”
- Peter Lang Press, 1998
- “Embodied Language: Julia Kristeva’s Theory of Poetic Language and Tantric Buddhism According
- to Reggie Ray,” Not Enough Night, 2011
Dissertation
- The House, The Labyrinth, and Fluid Forms, 1996
In realism and its tendency to reflect a space that is timeless and horizontal, there is often a redemptive pattern in the spatial constructions within the narrative. For example, the image of the house often reflects the institution of family. The structure of the narrative itself tends to reflect linear time. I explore, however, the breaks in this structure: the images of dark space, fragmented space, and dissolutions of form. I show how the modern and postmodern are on the continuum of realism. I look at writings about architecture, such as those of Anthony Vidler, and literary criticism, as well as scientific theories of chaos.
The first half of my dissertation explores realism to postmodernism and the second half examines particular spaces: the labyrinth, the eye, and the seasons, where I discuss the intersection of space and time in poetic language. Each chapter discusses a different author, starting with the modernist Natalia Ginzburg. I explore the prose of Natalia Ginzburg, Christa Wolf, Barbara Neuwirth, and the poetry of Paul Celan, Andrea Zanzotto, and Friederike Mayroeeker.
TEACHING EXPERIENCE______________________________________________
University of Washington
- A. in Film and Literature for five quarters, 1991 – 1994
- Instructor of Comparative Literature for three quarters, 1992 – 1993
University of Colorado
- Honorarium Instructor of Italian Cinema for one semester, 1994
- Instructor of World Literature, 2022
Metropolitan State University of Denver
- Instructor of Art and Literature, 2000
- Instructor of English 101 and English 102, 1997 – 2000
Naropa University
- Instructor of Graduate Poetry online, 2008-2009
Front Range Community College, Boulder Campus
- Instructor of English 101, 1995 – 1996
- Instructor of English Composition, 2008-present
- Instructor of Introduction to Literature, 2014
- Instructor of Creative Writing, 2010-present
- Instructor of Poetry Writing, 2011-present
- Instructor of Ethnic Literature, 2020-present
- Full-time English professor, Creative Writing Lead, 2016-2017
LANGUAGES______________________________________________
- German – fluent
- Italian – good reading knowledge, fair speaking skills
- Spanish – intermediate reading and speaking skills
Other
- poetry editor for FRCC’s literary journal, 2014-present
- 2017 editor of the entire journal
- Contributing editor of KYSO Flash and MacQueen’s Quinterly