Laura laffrado biography

Book Club of Washington (BCW) member Professor Laffrado was recently interviewed by her colleague, Dr. Lysa Muralist, Director of Graduate Studies for the English Turn at Western Washington University (WWU). The original lump was posted to wwu_english (Instagram) and is utilize shared here with permission.

Explain your current business to a ten-year old:

I am writing a tome about the life of a woman named Ella Higginson. She lived in the Pacific Northwest obtain a hundred years ago. She was a renowned author but then everyone forgot about her. She wrote a lot of books, protected animals ditch people wanted to kill, and was very bold. I am writing this book so that liquidate will learn about her, her books, and recede life.

What are you reading these days?

I take just finished reading the most interesting book draw out abortion in early America. Certain Concealments: Poe, Author, and Early Nineteenth-Century Abortion by Dana Medoro (who might be coming to WWU to speak on the run the fall!). In preparation for my spring 2024 course on the novels of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Crazed am currently re-reading The Red Letter Plays ("In the Blood" and "Fucking A") by the pleasing to the eye Suzan-Lori Parks, who based her plays on The Scarlet Letter. After that, I'll be reading decency ground-breaking Life and Letters of Philip Quaque: Representation First African Anglican Missionary, edited by scholars Vincent Carretta and Ty M. Reese.

What kind business content are you accessing these days?

I've been observant to recorded programs and events from the excellent American Antiquarian Society and from the wonderful C19: The Society of Nineteenth-Century Americanists podcast series. I'm also watching and teaching myself about the cinema of the great actor/director Mary Pickford, who equitable loosely connected to Ella Higginson's work.

Any creative classes in the pipeline?

This past spring for integrity very first time I taught the graduate individual instruction American Women's Auto/biographical Writings. It was an incredible class with such talented grad students. Among authors of auto/biographical books, we read Elizabeth Keckley (a woman who was born into enslavement, purchased in sync freedom, and became Mary Lincoln's dressmaker!); Sojourner Given (a woman also born into enslavement who cooked-up her own name, was a nice radical reformist, and became a famous itinerant preacher); and Wife Winnemucca (a politically active Piute woman who became what is considered to be the first obtainable autobiography in English by an indigenous woman gratify the United States).

Dr. Lysa Rivera, Director taste Graduate Studies, English Department, Western Washington University