Rachel M. Hanson, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Contact Information

  • rhanson@unca.edu
  • 251-6597
  • 224 Karpen Hall

 

My work explores intersections of nature, gender, violence, and class, giving particular consideration to how these themes take shape in creative nonfiction, the novel, and hybrid prose and lyric works. I’m interested in the confluence of the human and natural world from an ecofeminist perspective; specifically considering the trends in America that devastate wildlife, bridle rivers and lands, and how this devastation and “bridling” is analogous to violence against women and the legislation of their bodies.

Author website: rachelmhanson.com

Education

  • Ph.D. English Literature and Creative Nonfiction, University of Missouri, 2016
  • M.F.A. Creative Writing, University of Utah, 2010
  • B.S.  Political Science, University of Utah, May 2005
  • B.S.  International Studies, University of Utah, May 2005

Fellowships

  • Olive B. O’Connor Nonfiction Fellow, 2017/2018
  • Creative Nonfiction Fellowship, University of Missouri, 2011-2015

Select Publications

  • The End of Tennessee: A Memoir (University of South Carolina Press, 2024)
  • “If Not Love” Atticus Review
  • Weighted” Great River Review (Winner of the Walter Nathan Essay Prize)
  • “Lookout” Forth River Review
  •  “A Year Spent in Central New York” Midway Journal (forthcoming)
  • “On Returning to Appalachia” The Forge Literary Magazine
  • “Conscientious” North American Review
  • “On Seventeen in Appalachia” Hairstreak Butterfly Review
  • “Dead Water” Meridian
  • “Spaces” Ninth Letter
  • "The End of Tennessee" Entropy Magazine
  • “Breaking” The Iowa Review
  • "Ways of Leaving" American Literary Review (Nominated for a Pushcart and a Notable Essay in Best American Essays)
  • “Invasives” Cheat River Review
  • “Burning the Lie”Arcadia
  •  “It Was Like This: Nine Vignettes” South Loop Review: Creative Nonfiction + Art
  • “The End of Prayer” South Dakota Review - 50th Anniversary issue
  • “Prism” Creative Nonfiction
  • “Dislocations” So to Speak: A Feminist Journal of Literature and Art
  • “Talking in Tongues” storySouth
  • “Hunger Fishing” Juked
  • “Left in the Ground” The Minnesota Review
  • “Crossing One of Those Places Where Utah Meets Wyoming” & “A Talus Slope” Corium Magazine
  •  “An American Echo” (novel excerpt) Joyland Magazine
  • “Bound” Best New Poets Anthology

Recent Teaching

  • Language 374: Writing on the Environment
  • Language 363: Fiction Writing Workshop
  • Literature 344 Readings in Gender and Sexuality: American Literature & Land as Bodies
  • Language 366: Creative Nonfiction Workshop
  • Language 260: Introduction to Creative Writing
  • Literature 240: Introduction to Literature