Dr. Jennifer Givhan, Creative Writing

Name:

Dr. Jennifer Givhan

Title:

Visiting Professor of Creative Writing

Department:

Creative Writing

Describe your research in about 200 words.

As a Latina and Indigenous writer from a small desert community on the California/Mexico border, one major goal for my writing is to try to speak the multivalent voices of the women I grew up with—the mothers, daughters, childless women, aunties, and nanas who have become the voices of my writing. My poetry is concerned with the complex relationships many of us Latina/Indigenous women have with family; it is both a liberating and subjugating force, can be both buttressing and repressive. It is both mythical and real. I write about the violence against women and mothers on the border, but also about the resilience and strength we women and mothers evince every day of our lives.

What’s the most interesting thing you have learned from a student?

My students remind me of the joy of learning and that I am a forever student. One of the coolest things about being a writer is that there is always more to learn–about craft and life, and that we can unravel and begin to try to understand what we encounter within ourselves and each other in our lived experiences through the writing.