Biography
Dr. Theodora Ziolkowski teaches creative writing as an Assistant Professor at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. She is the author of the novella, On the Rocks (2018 & 2020, Sam Houston State University/Texas Review Press) and the short story chapbook, Mother Tongues (2015 & 2018, The Cupboard).
A recipient of the Next Generation Indie Book Award for the Novella, Dr. Ziolkowski's work has received support from the Vermont Studio Center, the National Alumni Association (University of Alabama), and Inprint (Houston, Texas). Her fiction, poetry, and essays have appeared in The Writer's Chronicle, Short Fiction (England), no tokens, Oxford Poetry (UK), and Prairie Schooner, among over sixty other literary journals, magazines, anthologies, and exhibits. In the past, Dr. Ziolkowski has served as Poetry Editor for Gulf Coast, Fiction Editor for Big Fiction, and Assistant Poetry Editor for Black Warrior Review. She holds an MFA from the University of Alabama, where she was honored as a ‘30 Under 30’ alum, and a PhD in Creative Writing and Literature from the University of Houston, where she was the recipient of the Inprint Marion Barthelme Prize in Creative Writing. Her debut poetry collection, Ghostlit, is forthcoming from Sam Houston State University/Texas Review Press in February 2025.
Education
PhD, Creative Writing and Literature, University of Houston
MFA, Creative Writing, University of Alabama
BA, English, University of Vermont
Research Interests
- Creative Writing
- Contemporary Fiction
- Body Poetics
- The Gothic
- Humor Writing
- Creative Writing Pedagogy
UNK Courses Taught
- Introduction to Creative Writing
- Beginning Fiction
- Narrative Strategies
- Creative Writing Professionalism
Sample Publications
"The Leash," no tokens
"Portrait of My Body in the Land of X," The Seventh Wave
"At the Memory Care Center," Rattle
“Lying on the patient table, gel on the wand—,” Radar Poetry (reprinted in Medmic: Conversations, Culture & Creativity from the Health Care Community)
“The Wooden Headdress” Booth, (Winner of Wigleaf's Top 50 Very Short Fictions, 2020)
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