Puneet Varma (Editor)

Donora Hillard

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Occupation
  
Writer

Period
  
2006–present

Nationality
  
American

Donora Hillard httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommons66

Alma mater
  
King's College, Wilkes University, Rutgers University Camden, Wayne State University

Education
  
Wilkes University, Wayne State University, King's College

Books
  
Theology of the Body, Jeff Bridges: Poetry, Covenant

Donora hillard pechakucha volume 02


Donora A. Rihn (née Hillard; born 1982) is an American educator and author who performs her work frequently across the United States. She was first made notable in the field of institutional critique, specifically for her first full-length collection of feminist poetry that challenged the misrepresentation of women's bodies among Catholic leaders and their teachings. Her projects have appeared on CNN, WBEZ Chicago, and MSNBC, owing to her inclusion in a Norton Anthology of hint fiction. She has published several works of hybrid text, poetry, and theory: Parapherna (2006), Exhibition (2008), Theology of the Body (2010), Covenant (2012), and The Aphasia Poems (2014). In 2015, her play The Plagiarist was produced in conjunction with the National Endowment for the Arts' The Big Read initiative. In 2016, Cobalt Press published her most recent full-length poetry collection, Jeff Bridges.

Contents

Currently a senior lecturer at The University of Akron, Rihn has also taught at Winter Wheat: The Mid-American Review Festival of Writing, Penn State University, Lawrence Technological University, and elsewhere.

Early life

Rihn was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. "Home for me," Rihn has said of the rural setting of her upbringing, "is being lost in the woods with people telling stories about something terrible all around you." Some of her earliest works of poetry were recognized locally. She later matriculated at King's College, where she would become President of Sigma Tau Delta, the International English Honor Society, and attain a membership to the Aquinas Society, the King's College honor society.

Academic career

After completing her BA in English from King's College (Pennsylvania) in just under three years, Rihn went on to pursue an MA in creative writing from Rutgers University. She would later finish that degree and also receive her MFA in creative writing from Wilkes University in 2008.

It was during her tenure as an English instructor at a private Roman Catholic high school near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania that Rihn cultivated the experiences that would inform Theology of the Body. In 2014, while teaching composition and literature at Lawrence Technological University, Rihn's work, The Aphasia Poems, was published by S▲L. After moving to Northeast Ohio, Rihn completed the requirements for her PhD in English from Wayne State University.

Selected works

Theology of the Body: Theology of the Body (Gold Wake Press, 2010; rereleased as Covenant, Gold Wake Press, 2012) is a feminist response, through the fragmentation of form and memory, to the teachings of Pope John Paul II, also published under the same name (Theology of the Body). This work of hybrid text would lead one staff reviewer at Kill Author to claim, "I think Donora Hillard has visionary powers." In summarizing her own belief structure, Rihn has said that it "hinges upon the Gospel of Thomas and the phrase 'Talitha cumi,' which is Aramaic for 'Girl, get up.'"

The Aphasia Poems: The Aphasia Poems (S▲L, 2014) is a collection of poems adapted with permission from Rihn's clients with linguistic disabilities, to whom she was a disability advocate and mentor in Wayne County, Michigan. According to one reviewer, while some writers might be inclined to "speak about or for these individuals, Hillard allows them to speak for themselves."

Jeff Bridges: Jeff Bridges (Cobalt Press, 2016) was published in April 2016 by Cobalt Press.

Awards and recognition

  • 2010 – Theology of the Body became a bestseller in women's studies at Amazon.com.
  • 2010 – "Departure" was included in Norton's first anthology of hint fiction.
  • References

    Donora Hillard Wikipedia