Irish writer-artist Sara Baume makes things–both on the page and with her hands–that inspire my thinking and challenge me to revisit the idea of craft across various environmental, literary, and historical contexts. Her new work of narrative nonfiction, handiwork, is a book that does all of those things. I recently wrote a review essay for Decorating…
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Kissing Quilt Amy E. Elkins 2020 Mixed media quilt (cyanotype, embroidery, indigo dyed fabrics) 39 ½ in. x 70 ½ in. This year, I’ve been writing about how women writers use craft in their writing as a way to survive crises, work through trauma, express queer feelings, and resist oppressive systems of time, politics, racism,…
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Check out my recent piece in PMLA: From the Gutter to the Gallery: Berenice Abbott Photographs Mina Loy’s Assemblages I’m a big fan of the Little Known Documents feature in this journal. In my archival piece, I detail the significance of newly discovered photographs that American photographer Berenice Abbott took in Mina Loy’s Bowery apartment.…
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Ali Smith is my hero. I love her books, and it has been a source of great joy to study her work as I draft my chapter for Crafting Modernity. I keep returning to her words in my new Q&A up at LA Review of Books as a source of inspiration, wonder, and creative bravery. I feel especially…
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Creative Pedagogy Workshop at Cardiff U. I recently spoke to community members at Cardiff University about creative approaches to pedagogy and how we might understand our role as teachers in the 21st c. classroom. After an introductory lecture, I invited participants to engage in close reading of Virginia Woolf’s 1927 novel To the Lighthouse…
Read MorePublic Lecture – The Exploded iPhone: ‘Homemade Tech’ in the Age of Feminist Critical Making Image Works: Research and Practice in Visual Culture at Cardiff University is pleased to present our next event combining creative and critical approaches to visual culture. Amy E. Elkins is Assistant Professor of English at Macalester College in Minnesota and…
Read MoreMy new Q&A is up over at LARB: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/writing-on-water-a-conversation-with-daisy-johnson-on-everything-under/ Such a delight talking painting, photography, transgender characters, and environmentalism. Johnson writes “women in the world” with mystery and anger but also with attention to how beauty emerges in the details. Check it out!
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LA Review of Books recently published my Q&A with Irish novelist Sara Baume, which includes lots of beautiful images of Baume’s work, along with the photographic variants between editions of A Line Made by Walking. Check it out!
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My publication about H.D.’s needleworks in The Space Between: Literature and Culture 1914-1945. Abstract: H.D. (Hilda Doolittle, 1886-1961) maintained a longstanding interest in the material and artistic history of needlework, a practice that helped her conceptualize, theorize, and overcome traumatic wartime experiences. This essay presents, for the first time, an archive of H.D.’s needlework and demonstrates…
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My name is Amy E. Elkins (she/her/hers), and I’m an Associate Professor of English at Macalester College. This website includes posts with publication news and upcoming talks, in addition to more information about my research, teaching, arts & humanities programs, and multimedia arts practice. Contact: aelkins@macalester.edu -or- amy.e.elkins@gmail.com
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AMY E. ELKINS 
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