Welcome back fellow English nerds!
We are beginning a series of posts that will promote courses for this coming Spring 2020 semester and also introduce two new English professors. Kicking off this new series, we have an interview from Professor Chris Williams.
What is one upcoming course you’re excited to teach?
This spring I’m teaching ENG 326: Topics in Publishing, ‘Zine Culture (Tues/Thurs 2:00-3:20pm). This class will explore ‘zines, underground publications, often self-published with small circulation, focusing especially on the intersection between cultural movements (punk, Riot Grrrl, and others) and these texts. Participants will also create their own ‘zines to better understand both the labor and process of DIY ethics.
Tell me a bit about yourself and anything you’d love the students here to know. Hobbies, family, where were you before UWGB, etc
I’m originally from Michigan, near Detroit, and I hold that state and its people very close to my heart.
Before UWGB, I lived in Milwaukee, earning my PhD from UW-Milwaukee. That’s originally where I discovered the particular charms and allure of Wisconsin and decided that yes, I like it here.
I’ve got two cats. Both are impossible jerks and both are excellent.
I tend to be a person who collects hobbies, much to the chagrin of those close to me. I’m deeply invested in poetry, games (both analog and digital), beer brewing, skiing (both downhill and telemark), and rock climbing.
I think of myself as a maker—I make things (poetry, games, books, beer, strange internet stuff) that I need to see in the world. That’s an attribute, I think, that unites a lot of folks who do creative work—the need to make a vision manifest in the world.
If you would have a superpower, what would it be and why?
I view understanding and empathy as core hallmarks of the human condition, so I think I’d love the ability to instantly comprehend any language. I mean language in the broadest sense here—programming languages, spoken languages, love languages, fictive languages. I think the ability to fully understand how someone else is communicating and expressing themselves regardless of background or circumstances would be brilliant.
What is your favorite piece of literature?
This question changes so much from day to day. Right now, I think the answer to this question is probably With Those We Love Aliveby Porpentine Charity Heartscape. It is a hypertext interactive experience detailing a dystopian world in which the player serves the whims of a larval empress. It is transfixing and haunting and, I think, deals with complex questions of identity and survival in an increasingly violent world.
What is the coolest thing you’ve ever done?
I spent a summer in Denali National Park in Alaska building trail with the Park Service. If you ever hike the Savage River Loop Trail, you’ll experience some of our work. I met some of the kindest people I’ve ever encountered working there. It snowed on the 4thof July.
What is your favorite part about UWGB?
So far, the students. The folks in my classes have been asking thoughtful, engaging questions and producing vibrant and compelling work.
Something I ask all my students to do is embrace the idea of failure as it relates to the creative process. I want students to try and make something and fail at it, then learn from that failure. It can sometimes be a challenge to get students to be on board with this, but, to a large extent, folks here have seen the virtue of failure and risk. The work they’ve produced is indicative of that and very heartening to see.
If you were stranded on a deserted island, what three things would you have and why?
Well, am I preparing to be stranded on a deserted island, and bringing those items with me? Or am I just stranded and happen to have whatever I’ve always got with me? I’m choosing to interpret this question as the latter, so I’d likely have at least two notebooks (one filled with random ideas for creations, the other with notes about whatever text I’m currently reading/engaging with), a pair of headphones, and a water bottle (assuming I haven’t misplaced it somewhere yet again).
Who has inspired you in your life?
I’m continually inspired by my family and friends, but I think a prominent public figure that I think about quite a bit in terms of my own creative practices is Buckminster Fuller. Bucky was an architect, writer, inventor, and overall just a fascinating thinker. I could write about his contributions to futurist philosophy and sustainability, his work popularizing the concept of “Spaceship Earth,” or his many architectural insights, but his greatest inspiration to me is not what he created, but how he created it. He famously struggled with depressive episodes, but he worked through it and his creative output is a reflection of that. I find that remarkable.
What is the funniest thing that has happened to you recently?
This morning, a squirrel scared me as I left my apartment for work and I dropped my smoothie all over the ground. The kids getting on the bus across the street thought that was hilarious.
What did you want to be when you were younger?
Believe it or not, I actually wanted to be a NASA Engineer. I wanted to solve space problems and help explore the farthest reaches of the unknown. But I wasn’t very good at math, so that was pretty significant barrier.
Then I read “The Red Wheelbarrow”by Williams Carlos Williams and all that changed. I was (and remain) captivated by that poem and its short, experimental form. Williams offers little in the way of an explanation about his work and I’ve been searching for the answer to that poem (and to other poems) ever since.
What is your favorite book to movie adaption?
Either Winter’s Boneor No Country for Old Men.Both, I think, are very good examples of translating the particular world of a novel to the screen (the Ozarks in Winter’s Bone, and the United States/Mexico border in No Country). It seems to be almost an act of translation rather than rote adaption.
