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New Mexico State University
College of Arts and Sciences
Department of English

Faculty

Carmen Giménez Smith
Carmen Smith

 

Carmen Giménez Smith
Assistant Professor

Email:
carmen@noemipress.org

Office Address:
New Mexico State University
Department of English
P.O. Box 30001, MSC 3E
Las Cruces, NM 88003

Phone:
(575) 646-4338

Fax:
(575) 646-7725


Education

  • M.F.A. Creative Writing, University of Iowa
  • B.A. English, San Jose State University

Biographical Statement
Formerly a Teaching-Writing Fellow at the University of Iowa, Carmen Gimenez Smith is now an assistant professor of creative writing at New Mexico State University, the publisher of Noemi Press (www.noemipress.org), and the editor-in-chief of Puerto DEL SOL (http://www.puertodelsol.org). Her work has most recently appeared in MANDORLA, COLORADO REVIEW and PLOUGHSHARES and is forthcoming in jubilat and DENVER QUARTERLY. She is the author of ODALISQUE IN PIECES (University of Arizona Press, 2009) and BRING DOWN THE LITTLE BIRDS (University of Arizona, 2010) and GLITCH (Dusie Press Kollectiv, 2009). She recently edited, with Kate Bernheimer, an anthology of contemporary fairy tale adaptations to be published by Penguin Classics in 2010. She lives in Las Cruces, New Mexico with her husband and their two children.


Research and Creative Interests
I am interested in poetry since modernism and particularly the poetries of avant-garde movements. I teach a book arts class in which we explore the relationship between form and content in artist's books and collaborative books. I like to promote small publishing culture. I am also very interested in fairy tales and hybridized forms of writing including the lyric essay.

Courses Recently Taught

  • ENGL 220: Introduction to Creative Writing
  • ENGL 306: Poetry Writing
  • ENGL 363: Children’s Literature
  • ENGL 414: Advanced Creative Writing, Poetry
  • ENGL 535: Form and Technique of Poetry: Poetics
  • ENGL 575: Graduate Workshop
  • ENGL 580: Intersections in Text and Art

Teaching Statement
The creative writing MFA in poetry is an apprenticeship to the long and varied history of poetry that precedes each poet, but it is also the occasion for the poet to consider what important risks he or she is to take in his or her work and how is he or she going to change the terms of their art for the good of the art in general. The workshop is one of many occasions in this program to begin to interrogate what one does in their work, how and why.


Selected and Recent Publications

Books
Odalisque In Pieces (University of Arizona Press, 2009)
Bring Down the Little Birds (University Arizona Press, 2009
Contemporary Fairy Tales edited by Kate Bernheimer with Carmen Giménez Smith

Chapbooks
Casanova Variations (DusieKollective, 2009)

Anthologies

  • poems in Floricanto Si! U.S. Latina Poets (Penguin 1998)
  • short story in New Voices: Young Latino Writers (Bantam Dell 1997)
  • short story in An Intricate Weave (Iris Editions 1997)
  • poems in Contextos: Poemas (Moving Parts Press 1994)

Magazines (poetry)
Individual poems have appeared in: