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Matt
Dube
Matt
Dube got his B.A. from Syracuse University and an MFA in creative writing
from Western Michigan University. He has been enrolled in the Ph.D. Creative Writing
Program at UL Lafayette since 1998. His stories and reviews have appeared in Rain
Taxi, Prechelonian, The Literary Review, and Third Coast
Review. While at ULL, Matt has hosted the Thursday Night Graduate Student
Reading Series, helped to coordinate the Deep South Festival of Writers, and
also taught introductory creative writing students. His dissertation will be
a book of short stories called Say Hello to the Angels of Epistemology.
The story “Baby Juju” is from that collection. |
M.F.A./M.A. English
Literature and Creative Writing, Western Michigan University, 1998
B.A. English and Textual
Studies, Syracuse University, 1993
DISSERTATION
Say Hello to the Angels of Epistemology
A collection of twelve short stories and a
critical introduction, this is representative of my work with the short story
form, as well as an exploration of the way literary criticism has informed my
writing. The twelve stories are not consciously linked by character or theme,
but certain concerns resurface regularly. These stories show different ways that
short stories can be approached, especially in terms of formal narrative
structure, my response to the Roland Barthes S/Z, Peter Brooks Reading for the
Plot, and other structuralists. Also, the stories work towards expressing a
particular, socially active reply to popular culture and its representations of
gender, race, and personal identity. The critical introduction seeks to
highlight those theorists and writers who have particularly influenced my
writing, and to explore the way I have incorporated these theories into my own
fictions, and the way they add meaning to my writing.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Teacher:
Spring
2000: English 206: American Literature II, UL-L
Fall
1999: English 223: Introduction to Creative Writing, UL-L
Fall
1996- Spring 1998: English 105: Freshman Composition, WMU
2000
Coordinator, Deep South Festival of Writers
1999
Coordinator, Deep South Writer’s Conference
1998
Coordinator, “Manuscript Day,” Michigan High School Writer’s Conference
PUBLICATIONS
2001 Writing about Literature: Theory Into
Practice (Textbook), “Who Wants a Donut Without a Hole?: Deconstructive
Criticism and the Failure of Meaning in Bobbie Ann Mason’s ‘Shiloh,’” sample
student essay
2001 Southwestern Review, “Xmas is the
Season for Giving Presents”
2001 Bridge Magazine, “Baby Juju”
2000 Rain Taxi, “The Case of Dr. Sachs” and
“Throwing Knives,” review-articles
2000 Rain Taxi, “Orlo and Leini,”
review-article
2000
Literary Review, "A Reconsideration of Clarence Major Upon a Reissue,"
review-article
2000
Southwestern Review, “Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Bifurcated
Braniac”
1999 Rain Taxi, "Bogeywoman,"
review-article
1999 Rain Taxi, "Big Banana,"
review-article
1999 Rain Taxi, "Mosaic Man,"
review-article
1999 Prechelonian, "A European
Episode," short story (excerpted)
1999 Prechelonian, "(The Secret Dreams
of) Meat," short story (excerpted)
1999 Southwestern Review, "The List of
My All-Time Top Ten Favorite Movies," short story
1998
Third Coast Review, "Curtis White's Memories of My Father Watching
TV," review-article
1994 New College Review, "Two
Japans," short story, Summer 1994
PRESENTATIONS
2001
Lecturer, “The Art of the Short Story”
2001
Lecturer, “Introduction to Creative Writing: Revision means Seeing Double”
2000
Lecturer, “Introduction to Creative Writing: Fictions of the Self”
2000
“The Bowling Shoe Diaries,” short story, Thursday Night Reading Series,
Lafayette, LA
1999
"Second Honeymoon," short story, Thursday Night Reading Series,
Lafayette, LA.
1998
"Baby Juju" and "Pears," short stories, Thursday Night
Reading Series, Lafayette, LA.
1998
"Frederick Douglass and the Absent Center of His Slave Narrative," MA
Colloquium, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI
1997
Chapters of "Six Nights and a Nightclub," novella-thesis, Western
Michigan University, MFA Festival, Kalamazoo, MI
HONORS AND AWARDS
University Fellow, University of Louisiana at
Lafayette, Sept 98-May 2001
SERVICE
1999-2001 Member of Creative Writing Curriculum
Committee
2000
Student Alternate Representative, Search Committee for Department Chair
1999-2000
Coordinator, Thursday Night Reading Series
1999
Assistant Editor, Southwestern Review
1997-1998
Coordinator, Friday Night Reading Series
TEACHING AND RESEARCH INTERESTS
Creative Writing and Creative Writing Pedagogy
20th Century American Literature, especially
avant-garde prose and poetics
Women's Studies and African-American Literature
Literary Theory, Victorian and Romantic Prose and
Poetry
The biggest surprise of my experience at UL
Lafayette is how the community here can make you a better and more successful
writer. In two weeks after I moved down here, I had people who were willing to
read my work outside of class. Since then, things have only got better—it’s not
at all unusual to swap names of magazines that might like your work, and
friends who read at them. The other students here are not competitive about
locking up their publications and never letting you in; instead, they offer you
advice on where to place your work under the assumption that a rising tide
lifts all boats, or something like that. The professors are also very
approachable and present. Jerry McGuire, head of the creative writing program, is
especially noteworthy in this regard, as is Skip Fox, but nearly all the
creative writing and lit professors spend a lot of time on campus and in their
offices, and are always happy to have you drop in and talk to them. The weekly
reading series and the on-campus literary magazine Southwestern Review
also generate a lot of excitement on campus, and help to keep you on task and
talking about new writing. It’s also worth noting that the workload here is
lighter than that at comparable programs: graduate assistants teach on average
two classes a semester and fellows one each for their duty-year. Also, you
won’t be locked into teaching comp for your entire time here. Usually, Ph.D.
students have the chance to teach either sophomore level survey classes or intro
creative writing classes, something my friends at other programs have told me
they are envious of.
Read a Sample of Matt Dube’s Fiction
Go to UL-Lafayette Creative Writing Anthology
This site designed and maintained by The Creative Writing
Concentration of the English Department of the University of Louisiana at
Lafayette.
To contact us by mail: Director of Creative Writing, English
Department, Box 44691, UL-Lafayette, Lafayette LA 70504-4691; by telephone,
337-482-5478;
by email, jlm8047@louisiana.edu.
Last updated: May 1, 2001.