Natasha Sajé

 (801) 832-2376  Westminster College

1840 South 1300 East, Salt Lake, UT 84105

nsaje@westminstercollege.edu

 

Education

 

1995  Ph.D. University of Maryland, English

1980  M.A. Johns Hopkins University, Writing Seminars

1976  B.A. University of Virginia, English Honors

 

Dissertation

 

"'Artful Artlessness': Reading the Coquette in the Novel, 1724-1913"         

Director: Linda S. Kauffman     

I trace the coquette—a woman who gains power through verbal and body language—as a figure of discourse through eighteenth-century British novels and conduct books, with a major focus on American novelists Hannah Webster Foster, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Henry James, and Edith Wharton. I argue that the coquette's "art" challenges hierarchies that limit human potential, such as those between natural and artificial, male and female, true and false.

 

Teaching Experience

 

Westminster College, Salt Lake City, UT 84105

Assistant Professor of English, 1998-2002; Associate Professor, 2002 to 2008; Professor, 2009-present.

Director of the Anne Newman Sutton Weeks Poetry Series

Teach courses in literature (Introduction to Literature, Middle Eastern Literature, Introduction to Literary Studies, American Realism and Modernism, English Senior Thesis Seminar), creative writing (Introduction to Creative Writing, Poetry Workshop, Nonfiction Workshop), and composition; advise literary magazine (Ellipsis); write grants for poetry series and Ellipsis.

 

Vermont College MFA in Writing, Vermont College of Fine Arts, Montpelier, VT 05602

Faculty, Poetry:  December 1996 to present

Lecture and teach workshops in poetry, translation, and creative nonfiction. Guide students through individual courses of study.

 

Johns Hopkins University, Part-Time Graduate Division, Washington, D.C., 1994 to 1998

Instructor: Graduate courses: Poetry Workshops; 20th-Century World Literature; Voice in Modern Short Fiction; Fiction Workshop; Contemporary Literature; Identity Politics and the Contemporary Writer. Made admissions decisions on poetry applicants and acted as advisor to poetry students; read theses.

 

Maryland State Arts Council, Poet-in-Residence, 1989 to 1998

Poetry writing workshops for grades 3-12 and workshops for teachers.

 

Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, 1993 to 1998

Instructor:  "The American Dream: Gender, Race, Class, and Ethnicity, 1865-1993," essay writing, introduction to literature courses, poetry workshops.

 

Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD     Writing Seminars, 1996-1997

Visiting Lecturer: advanced undergraduate poetry workshops.

 

Sweet Briar College, Sweet Briar, Virginia.

Margaret Banister Writer-in-Residence, Fall 1995: advanced undergraduate poetry workshop.

 


University of Maryland English Department, 1988-1994

Teaching Assistant: Courses taught:  Advanced Poetry Writing, Critical Methods, Introduction to the Novel, Women in Literature, Professional Writing, Composition.

 

Mentor Teacher: Supervisor of new teaching assistants.

 

Goucher College, Maryland, 1982-1987

Instructor: Three levels of composition in a computer-integrated program. Taught creative writing workshops in the continuing education program.

 

Business Writing at Its Best, 1985-1990

Workshops for business executives.

 

Books-in-Progress

 

Windows and Doors: A Poet Reads Literary Theory

Chapters on Etymology, Syntax, Rhythm and Sound, Surprise and other Emotions, Figurative Language, Form, Narrative, Ethics, Self and Identity, Structuring Books, Literary Evaluation

 

untitled as yet

collection of poems spurred by etymology and the alphabet

 

Books of Poems

 

Bend  (Tupelo Press, 2004)  Utah Book Award for Poetry

 

Red Under the Skin (1994, U. of Pittsburgh Press, Winner of Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize)

 

Articles

 

“Poetry and Ethics: Writing about Others,” forthcoming The Writer’s Chronicle

 

“Metonomy, the Neglected (but Necessary) Trope,” American Poetry Review Jan/Feb 2009

 

“Narrative and Poetry,”  The Writer’s Chronicle 41 (1) September 2008: 62-72.

 

“Rhythm and Repetition in Free Verse, or, the Poet as Witch,” The Writer’s Chronicle 39 (5) March 2007:25-35.

 

“Frontloading Syntax,” The Writer’s Chronicle 38(2) October 2005: 46-53.

 

“Dynamic Design: Structuring Books of Poems,” The Iowa Review 35(2) Fall 2005: 149-162.

 

“The Politics of Literary Evaluation,” The Writer’s Chronicle 36(6) May 2004: 24-32.

 

“Roots in our Throats: A Case for Using Etymology,” The Writer’s Chronicle 35(6) May 2003: 50-56.

 

“Gertrude Stein’s Granddaughters: A Reading of Surprise.” The Writer’s Chronicle 34 (4) February 2002: 38-45.

 

"Open Coffins and Sealed Books: The Death of the Coquette in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Dred." Legacy: A Journal of         American Women Writers 15(2) Fall 1998: 158-170.

 

"'Artful Artlessness': Reading the Coquette in Roderick Hudson." The Henry James Review 18 (Spring 1997): 161-172.

 


"'The Assurance to Write, The Vanity of Expecting to Be Read': Deception and Reform in Mary Davys' The Reform'd Coquet." Essays in Literature 23 (Fall 1996): 165-177.

 

"D.H. Lawrence, Hamlet, and Sons and Lovers," Dalhousie Review 71(3) (1992): 334-347.

 

Reviews and Interviews

 

Interview with Kamau Brathwaite, forthcoming Ariel: A Review of International English Literature

 

Interview with Derek Walcott (with George Handley), Ariel: A Review of International English Literature 32 (2) April 2001: 129-144.

 

Interview with Maxine Kumin. Arts and Letters 5 (Spring 2001): 12-25.

 

"Dynamic Design: Review of books by Stuart Friebert, C.D. Wright, Sarah Gorham & Rod Smith" Prairie Schooner 74(4) Winter 2001: 167-174.

 

Review: Sandra Alcosser, Except By Nature, Poet Lore 94(4) Winter 2000: 65-67.

 

Review: "Collective Music," Chezia Thompson-Cager, Giant Talk; and Forrest Hamer, Call and Response. Poet Lore 92 (2) Summer 1997: 61-64.

 

Review: "A Finely Nuanced Darkness," Elaine Terranova, Damages. Poet Lore 91 (3) Winter 1996: 61-62.

 

Review: "Travelers in Time," Barbara Guest, Selected Poems, and Josephine Jacobsen, In the Crevice of Time. Poet Lore 91 (2) Fall 1996: 70-73.

 

Review:  Women and Romance by Laurie Langbauer; Daughters, Fathers, and the Novel by Lynda Zwinger; and Women, Love and Power by Elaine Hoffman Baruch; for Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 19(1) Autumn 1993: 276-279.

 

Personal Essays

 

“Down to the Wire,” Modern Love Column, Sunday New York Times 19 April 2009

 

“Reading Sula in Salt Lake City” (forthcoming Twentieth-Century Literature, “Academic Orthodoxies,” edited by Lisa Ruddick)

 

“On Reading Mr. Mani,” New Ohio Review Fall 2008

 

“The Telephone Interview,” Associated Writing Programs Job List September 2006.

 

“Teaching for Tips,” Liberal Education 91(1) Winter 2005: 48-51.

 

“A Recipe to Share: Women’s Writing Groups and Community,” So to Speak: A Feminist Journal 13(1) Winter/Spring 2004: 55-59.

 

"The Poetic Process as an Agent of Growth," Maryland Poetry Review 15 (Fall 1996): 47.

 

"An Uneasy Relationship: Women, Housework, and Writing," The American Voice 39 (Spring 1996): 84-90.

 

Selected Poems since 1992

 

“Against Chronology” and “Two Thieves” Cerise Review (inaugural issue) Summer 2009

“Anathema,”  forthcoming New Ohio Review

“Brief Bio,”  “Essay on Touch,” “Dear John, Dear Mr. Milton,” Western Humanities Review  Spring 2009

“Friendships”  The Café Review Winter 2009

“G” and “Š” Denver Quarterly Fall 2008

“O” and “M”  Pool (#7, 2008)

“The Sheep’s Tail”  Antioch Review Fall 2008

“Refraction: Moby Dick” and “Refraction: The Scarlet Letter” (American Poetry Journal Summer 2007)

“Ghosts,” “Mourner,” “This Moment,” “My Guardian Angel,” (translations of Miriam Drev)   Chelsea 82/83 (November 2007).

“C” and “Q”  Cincinnati Review (Summer 2007)

“D” Paper Street (Fall 2007) issue includes interview

“Legacy” (translation of Miriam Drev) Seneca Review, Spring 2007

“Sacrifice: An Interview” (Wheelhouse Summer 2007)

“J” (Salt Flats Annual 2007)

“W” VOLT (February 2007)

“E,” “N,” “V,” “Z” Prairie Schooner (Winter 2006)

“F” Beloit Poetry Journal (Winter 2006-2007)

 “L,” “P” and “T,” Gettysburg Review (Fall 2005)

“B” and “H,” Pool (#4, 2005)

“Y” and “S,” Puerto del Sol  (Summer 2005)

 “Divine Plan,” “Catamenia,” and “Passing,” XConnect  (2004)

“Marcel at the Station House,” Paris Review (Summer 2003)

“Dear One” and “Seven Types of Ambiguity,Quarterly West (Summer 2003)

“The Tunnel” and “On Melancholy,” Virginia Quarterly Review (Fall 2003)

“Pink Parken,” Tar River Poetry (Fall 2003)

“Chicken Scratch” and “My Secret Life,Shenandoah (Fall 2003)

“Wave,” “Heaven,”  and “The Art of the Novel,” The Southern Review (Fall 2002)

 “Flying Home” and “Tale,” Prairie Schooner (Fall 2002)

“Song of the Cook,” “trouble,” and “Bad News,” Exquisite Corpse (Spring 2002)

“Leave No Trace,” Antioch Review (Summer 2002)

 “I See,” “Reading the Menu,” and “Thanksgiving,” Beloit Poetry Journal (Summer 2002)

“View of Utrecht” and “Avatar,” Women’s Review of Books (April 2002)

 A Girl of the Streets,New Zoo Poetry Review  (Spring 2002)

“The Philosopher’s Name Was Misspelled Everywhere,” “The Statues,” and “Graphology,”  Ploughshares  (Spring 2002)

“We Saw No Caribou,”  Parnassus (Winter 2002) rptd Poetry Daily

"Wonders of the Invisible World," Paris Review (Winter 2002)

 “Marble Steps,” Crab Orchard Review (Spring/Summer 2001)

"Theme and Variations for Flute, Snail, and Bird," Colorado Review (Spring 2001)

"Vice," Chelsea (Fall 2001)

"Bend" and "Reading Henry Fowler's Modern English Usage in Salt Lake City in November," Kenyon Review (Fall 2000)

"Channel," The New Republic (15 September 2000)

"Beyond Good and Evil" and "White," Gettysburg Review (Spring 2000)

"Story of a Marriage," Two Rivers Review (Spring 1999)

"A Minor Riot at the Mint," Ploughshares (Fall 1998)

"Goodbye To Robert Graves," The American Voice Anthology 1998

"I am peeling four pink grapefruit," Shenandoah (Spring 1998) rptd. Poetry Daily

"Reading for a Train," (with Karen Garthe) Chain 5 (1998)

"Walking Dream," Bloomsbury Review (Fall 1998)

"Fruit," Gargoyle (1998)

"Heloise to Abelard" and "Night Writing," Luna (Spring 1998)

"Astrology" and "Why I Won't Pierce My Ears," Crab Orchard Review (Fall 1997) 

"I Want But Can't Remember," Shenandoah (Fall 1996)

"Scrabble," Shenandoah (Spring 1996)

"Fable," Harvard Review (Fall 1995)

"Gravity," Denver Quarterly  (Fall 1995)

"Then What Is the Question?" Feminist Studies (Spring 1995)

"Agoraphobia," The Virginia Quarterly Review (Fall 1994)

"Edith Wharton after the Death of Henry James," Gettysburg Review (Spring 1994)

"Appetites" and "Salsify," Salmagundi (Spring 1994)

"What I Want To Make For You," The American Voice (Spring 1994)

"Red under the Skin," Ploughshares (Spring 1994)

"A Male in the Women's Locker Room," Ploughshares (Fall 1993)


"Tongues," Prairie Schooner (Fall 1993)

"Game" and "Eating Crabs with Bob and Jim," Shenandoah (June 1993)

"A Short History of the Sybarites," Poetry (May 1993)

"What Difference Does It Make?"  Ploughshares (Spring 1993)

"Reeling," Chelsea (Fall 1992)

"L'Oustau de Baumanière," The American Voice (Fall 1992)

"Rampion" and "Chocolates," Antaeus (Fall 1992)

 

Work in Anthologies and Textbooks, Reprinted Poems and Essays.

The Working Poet: Seventy-five Exercises in Poetry Writing (Autumn House, 2010)

Contemporary American Women’s Poetry (Autumn House, 2008)

Words Overflown by Stars: Creative Writing Instruction and Insight from the Vermont College of                Fine Arts M.F.A. Faculty (Writer’s Digest Books, 2008)

Poetikon 15/16 (November-December 2007) selected Saje poems translated into Slovenian

Best American Poetry 2007

Manthology  (Iowa, 2006)

Rough Places Plain (Salt Marsh, 2006)

Mona Poetica (Mayapple Press, 2005)

Sweeping Beauty: Contemporary Women Poets on Housework  (Iowa, 2005)

Contemporary American Poetry (Autumn House, 2005)

Poetry East: Origins: Poets on the Composition Process (#55, 2005)

Sustenance and Desire: A Food Lover’s Anthology of Sensuality and Humor (Godine, 2004)

Poetry Speaks  (Source Books, 2003)

Mercy of  Tides (Salt Marsh, 2003)

Are You Experienced? Baby Boom Poets at Midlife (Iowa, 2003)

O Taste and See: Food Poems (Bottom Dog Press, 2003)

Proposing on the Brooklyn Bridge (Grayson, 2003)

The Poets’ Grimm (Storyline, 2003)

Strongly Spent: Fifty Years of Poetry (Washington & Lee U, 2003)

Poets of the New Century (Godine, 2001)

Writing Poems 5th & 6th Editions (Addison, Wesley, Longman, 2000, 2003)

Adirondack Review (Fall 2001)

The American Voice Poetry Anthology (Kentucky, 1998)

Everyday Creative Writing (NCTE, 1996)

Hungry As We Are (Washington Writers House, 1995)

What’s Become of Eden: Poems of Family at Century’s End (Slapering Hol Press, 1994)

Poetry Daily (Fall 2005; Fall 2003; Summer 2002; Winter 2002; Spring 1998)

Verse Daily (September 2002)

 

Selected Presentations

 

“Poetry and Ethics: Writing about Others,” National Federation of State Poetry Societies, National Convention, Layton, Utah, June 2008

 

 “The Politics of Translation.” Chair.  Associated Writing Programs Annual Convention, New York, 2008

 

“Can a Cobbler Make a Revolutionary Shoe?” Discussion of Literature and Politics with writer Diane Lefer at the Utah Book Festival, October 2007

 

“Roots in Our Throats: Poets Using Etymology.” Chair. Associated Writing Programs Annual                 Convention, Austin, 2006

           

“Poems from Bend.”  Utah Book Festival, September 2004

 

“What Makes a Book Popular? What Makes a Book Good?” Salt Lake Public Library, May 2004

 

“Poets Reading Novels; Novelists Reading Poems,” Panelist. Associated Writing Programs Annual Convention, Chicago, 2004.

 

“The Politics of Literary Evaluation,” Loveland, Colorado Poets in the Park, July 2003

 

“Translating Poetry/Translating Culture,” Chair.  Associated Writing Programs

Annual Convention, Baltimore, 2003

 

“Roots in Our Throats”: Poetry Master Class. National Collegiate Honors Council

            Salt Lake City, Utah, November 2002

 

“Problems in Reading Middle Eastern Literature”

Utah Humanities Council Lecturer, Fall 2001 to 2007

 

“Hunger and Excess: Women, Food, and Poetry,” Panelist. Associated Writing Programs

            Annual Convention, New Orleans, 2002

 

Contemporary American Poetry: Talk & Reading (invited speaker)

            College English Association, Caribbean Chapter Conference

            November 2001, Mayagűez, Puerto Rico

 

“Writing about the ‘Other’: Who Is Allowed to Say What about Whom?” Chair.

Associated Writing Programs Annual Convention, Palm Springs, 2001

 

Interview with Derek Walcott. Utah Book Festival, Salt Lake City, September 2000

 

Interview with Maxine Kumin. Utah Book Festival, Salt Lake City, September 1999

 

"Bridges between Critical Theory and Creative Writing," Chair. Associated Writing Programs Annual Convention, Pittsburgh, 1995

 

"'The Assurance To Write, The Vanity of Expecting To Be Read':   The Coquette as Woman Writer."  South Atlantic Modern Language Association Annual Convention, Baltimore, November 1994.

 

"Sorcery in the Street: Harriet Beecher Stowe, Edith Wharton, and the Undine as Woman Novelist." American Studies Association Annual Meeting, Nashville, October 1994.

 

"Every Dante Needs a Beatrice: Henry James and Minny Temple." Redefining Henry James's Place in Culture. Henry James Sesquicentennial Symposium, New York, June 1993.

 

"Hannah Webster Foster's Unsentimental Novels.” American Literature Association Annual Convention, Baltimore, May 1993.

 


and poetry readings at many colleges, universities, arts festivals, and bookstores

 

Honors

 

2009 Merit Leave, Westminster College

2008 Utah Original Writing Competition, First Place, Poetry

2008 Gore Summer Research Grant

2008 Alice Fay di Castagnola Award (for ms in progress), Poetry Society of America

2006 Gore Summer Research Grant

2006 Westminster College Faculty/Student Research Grant

2004 Utah Book Award in Poetry

2004-2005 Fulbright Grantee/Slovenia

2004 Utah Humanities Council Colton Research Fellowship

2003 Merit Leave, Westminster College

2003 Distinguished Teaching Award, Vermont College

2002 Utah Humanities Council Friend of the Humanities Award

2002 Campbell Corner Poetry Prize

2001 Utah Original Writing Competition, First Place, Poetry 

2001 Gore Summer Research Grant

2000 Westminster College Faculty/Student Development Grant

1999 Utah Individual Artist Grant

1999 Judith Siegel Pearson Poetry Award, Wayne State University

1998 Robert Winner Award, Poetry Society of America

1996 White River Writers Conference Fellowship

1995 Towson State Prize in Literature for Red Under the Skin

1995 Banister Writer-in-Residence, Sweet Briar College

1995 Worcester County Summer Arts Grant

1994 Baltimore CityArts Community Development Grant

1993 Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize for Red Under the Skin

1993 Paumanok Poetry Award, Runner Up

(Visiting Writer, SUNY-Farmingdale)

1993 Maryland Individual Artist Grant in Poetry

1993 Academy of American Poets Prize

2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2003, 1996, 1993, 1992 Pushcart Prize Nominations

1992 Squaw Valley Community of Writers Award

 

Westminster College Service

Creative and Reflective Capacities Learning Goals Workshop, September 2008

Faculty Affairs Committee, 2002-2003 and 2007 to present

Task Force on Internationalism, Summer 2007

Peer Review Committees: 1999; 2000; 2003(chair); 2004; 2005; 2008(chair)

Sabbatical Committee, 2005 to 2007

AAUP Chapter Vice President, 2006 to present

Ad Hoc Faculty Evaluation Committee, 2005 to present

Arts & Sciences Promotion Procedures Committee, Spring 2006 to 2007

Athletic Facilities Director Search Committee, Fall 2005

English Department Search Committees, 2000, 2001, 2005, 2007

Grievance Committee, 2002, 2008

Diversity Task Force, Team Leader, Spring 2003

McNair Scholarship Committee, Reader & Advisor, Spring 2003 to present

Building and Planning Committee, Faculty Representative, 2000 to 2002

Arts & Sciences Curriculum Committee, 2001 to 2007

English Department, IT liaison, 2000 to present

Faculty Advisor, Westminster College Pride Club, Fall 2000 through Fall 2002

Faculty Advisor, Ellipsis, Westminster College Literary Journal  www.westminstercollege.edu/ellipsis     Fall 1998 to present

 

Other Service

Fulbright Scholar Program, Creative Writing Specialist, August 2007 to present

Poetry Out Loud, Utah State Competition Judge, April 2008

Vermont College of Fine Arts, Accreditation Steering Committee, July-December 2007

Hunger Mountain, co-editor, Fall 2007 issue

Writers@Work,  Board Member and Faculty Chair, 2000 to 2005

Advisory Committee, Utah Book Festival, 2000 to 2003

Utah Arts Council, Literature Advisory Panel, Fall 2002 to 2005

Arizona Commission on the Arts, Poetry Juror, Fall 2002

Salt Lake City Public Library, “Spilling the Beans: Can We Talk about Our Differences?”

Model Book Discussion, October 2002

Reader, Utah State University Press/May Swenson Award. 1998 to 2003

Reader, AWP Poetry Award Series, Spring 2000-2003

Utah Center for the Book, Juror, 2002-2003

Judge, Academy of American Poets Student Contest, BYU, Spring 2002

Vermont College MFA in Writing Program, Advisory Committee, 2001-2002

Reviewer, Utah Arts Council Literary Grants. Spring 2001; Summer 2001.

Judge, 1999-2000 Eisteddfod Poetry Competition. Brigham Young University

AWP Benefit Reader, 1999

Judge, "Say the Word" National Competition for Poems about Food. Arlington County Arts Council, 1999

Judge, University of Texas at El Paso Student Poetry Contest. 1999

Judge, Poet Lore Narrative Poetry Contest. Spring 1998

Columnist, Women's Literature Review. Fall 1996 to Fall 1998

Honors Program Committee, Maryland Institute College of Art, Summer 1996 to 1998

Reader, Mosaic: A Journal for the Interdisciplinary Study of Literature. 1993 to 1996

Graduate English Organization Speaker Committee, University of

Maryland, Spring 1993

English Department Personnel Committee, University of Maryland, 1990 to1992

Ethos, Graduate Literary Journal, University of Maryland, 1989 to1990 

Reviewer, Freshman Writing Textbooks, University of Maryland, 1988 to1990

 

Languages

 

Fluent in French and German, reading knowledge of Italian