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Catherine Theis

Dornsife Fellow in General Education
Catherine Theis
Pronouns She / Her / Hers Email ctheis@usc.edu Office THH

Biography

Catherine Theis is the author of MEDEA (Plays Inverse, 2017) and The Fraud of Good Sleep (Salt Modern Poets, 2011). In October 2024, her translation of the Italian poet Jolanda Insana, Slashing Sounds, was published by the University of Chicago Press in their Phoenix Poets series. Her forthcoming collection of poems, By a Roman, will be published by Antiphony Press in August 2025. 

Education

  • Ph.D. Literature and Creative Writing, University of Southern California, 8/2020
  • MFA Iowa Writers’ Workshop, 5/2004
  • MFA Univ Montana, 12/2001

  • Summary Statement of Research Interests

    My scholarly work engages with theories of phenomenology, poetics, and performance studies in twentieth-century poetry and prose; my creative work explores the intersection between lyric and dramatic traditions; my translation work, specifically on the Italian poet Jolanda Insana, draws on both my scholarly and creative work while also informing my teaching, which stretches from general education and writing courses to creative writing workshops.

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