English

Diane Raptosh

Diane Raptosh Teaching: I teach a wide range of courses, ranging from composition to the literature of medicine. In my typical rotation of courses, I teach composition, the poetry writing workshop, and Techniques in Contemporary Poetry, along with a special topics course or two. Some of such courses have included the following: Literature and Medicine, The Literature of Motherhood, The Cuba Experience, and The Literature of Remembering. In recent years I have developed a keen interest in prison literature. With my colleague in sociology, Dr. Robin Lorentzen, I team-teach the six-unit intensive course, The Prison Experience, which provides opportunities for students to learn first-hand about prisons and prison life through fieldtrips to local prisons and jails as well as through exposure to literature by and about inmates. I have continuing interests in writing as a rehabilitative tool and frequently place students in internships in which they facilitate writing workshops for underserved populations.

Creative Work: I am interested in issues of in-betweenness and hybridity. I write primarily in hybrid forms, in particular, prose poetry. In my work I aim to break down such binaries as male/female, mother/father, gay/straight, human/animal. I see poetry as a mode of inquiry, every poem as a means to revise social, cultural, and aesthetic norms—every poem, an opportunity to rethink the world through song.

Hobbies: I am a fan of the indoors as well as the outside. I enjoy a wide range of music and lots of offbeat films. I like to run in the foothills, hike, go on river trips, ride bikes, and rollerblade with my family. I love to read in a wide variety of disciplines; I enjoy travel. I look forward to the day that I can return to Cuba—with The College of Idaho students!

Poetry Publications

Parents from a Different Alphabet (Guernica Editions, Toronto, forthcoming 2008)
Labor Songs (Guernica Editions, 1999)
Just West of Now (Guernica Editions, 1992, repr. 1995)

Recent Poetry Publications, Anthologies

But, Buddy, I’m a Kind of Poem: An Anthology of Poems about Frank Sinatra, Entasis Press, 2007: “Neck and Neck,” “Parts of Speech.”
Out of Line: An Annual Anthology of Writings with Underlying Themes of Peace and Justice, Garden House Press, 2006: “Couvade,” “The Body Politic,” “The Elbow Room.”
Mischief, Caprice, and Other Poetic Strategies, Red Hen Press, 2004: “Ears, an Essay.”
Woven on the Wind: Women Write about Friendship in the Sagebrush West, Houghton Mifflin, 2001: “The Rapture,” “Matrimony”
The Glenn Gould Anthology, John Gordon Burke Publisher, 2001: “The Idea of North.”

Recent Poetry Publications, Journals

Best Poem (bestpoem.wordpress.com): "Elations."
Fraglit: An Online Magazine of Fragmentary Writing (www.fraglit.com), March 2007: "At the Symposium on the Necessity of Beauty," "Husband," "World Affairs," "Story Problem," "Flight Choreography," "Affliction," and "Betrayal."
Latitudes, Summer 2007: “Great Books”
Arabesques Review: International Poetry and Literature Journal, June 2007: “Materfamilias,” “Milk,” “The Arm,” “Interspecies.”
The New Verse News, Thursday, March 30, 2007: “Human with Feline Head."
Women’s Studies Quarterly, 2005: “Interior Design.”
Mudlark, 2003: “Monogamy,” “The Information Age,” “Condition,” “Everything,” “The Mother of Her Second Daughter,” “The Diva Regina’s Soliloquy.”
Muse Apprentice Guild, 2003: “Dispatch from a Liberian Soldier,” “The Island of Menstruating Men,” “In the Infusion Room,” “The Male Mother”
Sundress, 2003: “Great Books.”
Terrain.org: A Journal of the Built and Natural Environments, Winter 2002: “Neck and Neck,” “Parts of Speech,” “Plosion.”
Pif Magazine, 2000, Vol. 35: “The Private Sector.”

Essays and Articles

Philosophical Mother Magazine, 2003: “On Need and Satiety: Some Meditations on Being a Mother Twice.”
Beyond the Margin: Readings in Italian/Americana, Farleigh Dickinson Press, 1998: “Sentences of Self and Blood and Sea: The Poetry of Sandra M. Gilbert.”

Poetry Readings

International Women’s Day Poetry Reading, Boise, Idaho 2007
Log Cabin Literary Center Poetry Reading, Boise, Idaho 2004, 2003, 2002
Idaho Writers and Readers Rendez-vous, Riggins, Idaho 2001
Lewis-Clark State College, Lewiston, Idaho 2000

Presentations and Professional Activities

“Poetry and the Liberal Arts”: Liberal Arts Lecturer, The College of Idaho, April 2008.
Poetry Out Loud: National Recitation Contest, Boise High School, Boise Idaho: judge 2006 & 2007.
“Capture the Moment: Pulitzer Prize Winning Photographs,” The College of Idaho panelist, 2007
International Baccalaureate North America Conference, Grand Bahama Island, presenter, 2006: “The International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme and the Liberal Arts College: A Natural Link”
Beast Fable Society Conference, Tampa, Florida, presenter, 2003: “Animal Affairs—A Selection of Poems”
Fellowship Panelist, Literary Arts, Nevada Arts Council, 2005.
Meridian, Idaho, Medical Arts Charter School, “The Uses of Poetry: Poetry and Medicine,” 20005
Log Cabin Literary Center, Drop-in Writing Workshop Facilitator, July and August, 2004-2007
Log Cabin Literary Center’s Third Annual Forewords and Afterwords, 2004

Honors and Award

Idaho Commission on the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship: three-time award winner. Judges have included Pattiann Rogers, Alberto Rios, and Dorianne Laux. Most recent award, 2007
Pushcart Price Nomination

Leadership Positions

Academic Support Center Director at The College of Idaho, 2004-present
Co-Director of The College of Idaho’s Crime in Society Minor