Joseph Plicka

Current Academic Appointment

Past Appointments

Visiting Assistant Professor of Creative Writing, Fiction
Fall 2011 – Spring 2012
Ohio University

Education

Ph.D.       Ohio University 
English Language and Literature, Creative Writing Fiction June 2011
Secondary emphases: Poetry, 20^th Century American Literature
Dissertation: “Stories for the Mongrel Heart,” short fiction with a critical introduction
Committee: Darrell Spencer (chair), Robert DeMott, Eric LeMay, Hans Meyer

M.A.          Brigham Young University
English—Creative Writing
August 2006
Emphasis: Fiction
Thesis: “Man Down South,” a novella
Committee: John Bennion, Lance Larsen, Bruce Jorgensen

B.A.           Brigham Young University
English and Latin American Studies (double)
April 2002
Areas of Concentration: American Literature, Central American History

Publications and Awards

Fiction
“Natural Causes.” The Path and the Gate, edited by Andrew Hall and Robert Raleigh, Signature Books, October 2023.

“Old Spice’s New Toxic Masculinity Line of Deodorants.” Monkey Bicycle, October 16, 2020. <

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“Postcards.” Hobart, December 11, 2015. <http://www.hobartpulp.com/web_features/postcards>
“Police Report from Florida North Region Outpost 32086.” Kugelmass Fall 2013: 67-73. Print.
“A Sail.” Fringe Magazine, July 2010. <http://sundresspublications.com/fringe/lit/declassified/a-sail/>
“Flaco.” Calaveras Station, Fall (2004). Print.

Essays
“Two Inches from Van Gogh.” Ekstasis Magazine, September 2022.
<https://www.ekstasismagazine.com/blog/2022/two-inches-from-van-gogh>
“Deep Night, Dark Night.” Ekstasis Magazine, December 2021.
<https://www.ekstasismagazine.com/blog/2021/12/16/new-night>
“Two Flash Essays.” Psaltery and Lyre, October 11, 2021. Nominated for Best of the Net. <

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“Brain Trauma Or, Nothing is Lost.” Braided Way, July 26, 2021. Nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
<

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“But Whyyy?” Brevity, May 15, 2021.
<https://brevitymag.com/nonfiction/but-whyyy/>
“The Jesus.” Ekstasis Magazine, February 2021.
<https://www.ekstasismagazine.com/blog/2021/1/1/the-jesus>
“Abide With Me.” Booth 7 (2014): 249-251. Print. Appeared initially on the web on October 4, 2013: <

>
Poetry
“Why the Virgin Hangs in My Bedroom,” “Things I said to God before you were born,” and 3 other poems. Fire in the Pasture: 21^st Century Mormon Poets. Ed. Tyler Chadwick. El Cerrito, California: Peculiar Pages, 2011. 357-362. Print.
“hymn to a thing I knew and still know to some degree,” Anti- 4 (June 2009). Nominated for a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net.
“True Love,” and “Stonegate Suburb, 1989-90,” Inscape Winter (2006). Print.
“Apricots,” Calaveras Station Fall (2004). Print.

Book Reviews
Review of Sublime Physick, by Patrick Madden, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, 49.4 (Winter 2016). Print. Web. <https://www.dialoguejournal.com/2017/book-review-patrick-madden-sublime-physick-essays/>
Review of Camp Olvido and The Goodbye House, by Lawrence Coates, Western American Literature: A Journal of Literary, Cultural, and Place Studies, 51.2 (Summer 2016). Print.
Review of Food of a Younger Land, by Mark Kurlansky, Alimentum: The Literature of Food, March 2011. <http://www.alimentumjournal.com/food-of-a-younger-land>

Awards
Ohio University’s Emerson Poetry Prize, 2009, second place for “In My Apocalypse,” judged by George Bilgere
Ohio University’s Emerson Poetry Prize, 2007, second place for “Fatherhood,” judged by Claire Bateman
Carolyn Barnes Poetry Award, 2005, for “Why the Virgin Hangs in My Bedroom,” judged by Jim Barnes

Teaching Awards

Ohio University Graduate Associate Outstanding Teaching Award, 2009
One of four graduate instructors recognized annually for excellence in teaching and service to undergraduates.

Conference Presentations

“Surfing the Banzai Pipeline of Accreditation: Assessing Institutional Learning Outcomes.”
Hawaii International Conference on Education, Honolulu, 2016.
“A Creative Writing Teacher Wonders What His Friends in the English as an International Language Program Are Up To, and Falls in Over His Head.” Annual Writing Conference, English Creative Writing in Asia, Chiang Mai, Thailand, 2015.
“Every Thursday Until Further Notice.” Western Literature Association Conference, Berkeley, CA, 2013.
“Liquid Technology and Human Code in Microserfs.” The Louisville Conference on Literature and Culture, University of Louisville, 2010.
 

Editorial Experience

Editor-in-chief
Quarter After Eight
2008-2010
Editing and publishing a national literary journal with a solid reputation as a venue for experimental, innovative prose forms.

Teaching Experience

Associate Professor
Brigham Young University–Hawaii
Assistant Professor, Fall 2012—Fall 2018; Associate Professor, Spring 2018-present
Director of the Creative Writing Minor
College Reading, Writing, Research (English 101)
            Literary Analysis and Research (English 201)
            Introduction to Creative Writing (English 218)
            Exposition and Report Writing (English 315)
            Literature and Literacy of World Religions (Theme)
            Advanced Creative Writing (English 318)
            Form and Theory of Genres (English 319)
            American Literature from 1965-Present (English 364)
            Literary Editing and Publishing / Kula Manu (English 392)
            Writing for Publication (English 418)
            Independent Study (English 495R)

Visiting Assistant Professor
Ohio University
Fall 2011-Spring 2012
Principles of Textual Analysis (English 250)
            Creative Writing: Fiction (English 363)
            Creative Writing Workshop: Short Story (English 391)
            Form and Theory: Fiction (English 481)

Instructor
Ohio University
Fall 2006-Summer 2011
Writing and Rhetoric (English 151)
            Writing and Rhetoric and Literature (English 152)
            Introduction to Literature (English 200)
            Critical Approaches to Fiction (English 201)
            Survey of American Literature (English 253)
            Writing and Rhetoric II (English 308J)
            Creative Writing: Fiction (English 363)
            Creative Writing Workshop: Short Story (English 391)

Teaching Assistant
Ohio University
Winter 2007-Fall 2009
English Literature before 1688 (English 251)
            English Literature, 1689-present (English 253)
            American Literature Survey (English 253)

Graduate Instructor
Brigham Young University
Fall 2004-Summer 2006
           College Writing and Reading (English 115)

Service

Faculty Advisor—English Circle
Brigham Young University–Hawaii
Fall 2021-present
The English Circle is an academic society open to all that sponsors events, writing groups, guest speakers, and service opportunities.

Representative—Faculty Advisory Committee (FAC)
Brigham Young University–Hawaii
Fall 2017-Spring 2020
Elected to a three-year term to represent faculty from the College of Arts and Humanities on the Faculty Advisory Committee. FAC advocates for faculty concerns and issues and facilitates communication, cooperation and negotiation with administration.

Member—University Assessment Committee
Brigham Young University–Hawaii
Fall 2014-Spring 2016
Worked with departments to develop and review assessment plans. Met with department heads for annual assessment plan evaluation. Worked to ready departments for WASC accreditation visit.

Faculty Lead/Writer—BYU–Hawaii WASC Accreditation Document
Brigham Young University–Hawaii
Fall 2014-Fall 2016
Led a sub-committee in assessing written communication (a university ILO, as well as a WASC core competency) across campus, in preparation for the 2016-17 WASC accreditation review. Responsible for helping draft the section of the WASC report that addresses written communication.

Member—English Department Scholarship Committee
Brigham Young University–Hawaii
Fall 2013-present
Helped decide how to distribute departmental scholarship money to English majors.

Miscellaneous—English Department
Brigham Young University–Hawaii
Fall 2012-present
Serving on various hiring and rank advancement committees. Mentoring for students on senior seminar papers. Rewrote and shepherded new creative writing curriculum proposal through the approval process. Arranging for and hosting various guest writers and speakers. Planned and executed the 2016 Association for Mormon Letters conference on campus.

Professional Memberships

Association for Mormon Letters (President, Spring 2014-2016)
Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP)
Western Literature Association
Saint Augustine Historical Society

Related Experience

Staff Writer
The Daily Republic and The Davis Enterprise
Fairfield, California and Davis, California
2000-2003
Wrote daily news and features, including crime and courts reporting, working to coordinate the efforts of editors, photographers and graphic designers at two papers with a combined circulation of over 30,000.

Languages

Spanish—speak, read and write with high proficiency.

CV Last Revised 11/2023