Biography:

Martin Pousson is Associate Professor of English at California State University, Northridge, where he teaches in the Creative Writing Program and the Queer Studies Program. He was born in Acadiana, in the Cajun French bayouland of Louisiana. He received a Master of Fine Arts degree in Writing from Columbia University and has taught at Columbia University, at Rutgers University, and at Loyola University. His first novel, No Place, Louisiana, was published by Riverhead Books and was a finalist for the John Gardner Award in fiction. His first collection of poetry, Sugar, was published by Suspect Thoughts Press and was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award. His stories and poems have appeared in Epoch, StoryQuarterly, Rattling Wall, Parnassus, ISLE: Oxford Journals, Icon, Transfer, Cocktail, New Orleans Review, Verse Daily, Intersection, The Louisiana Review, Love, Bourbon Street, Gay City Anthology, and Cimarron Review. Now he is at work on a collection of short stories, The Nerves. In addition to English 465, Theories of Fiction, and the full sequence of Narrative Writing courses, he also teaches English 368: Gay Male Writers and Queer Studies 302: L.A. in Transit. In 1990, he joined Queer Nation in San Francisco, where he was bashed and hospitalized after the AB 101 Veto Riots and where he was arrested and jailed for protesting in a demonstration with the Queer Nation Heathers. In San Francisco, he also joined Project Open Hand, AIDS Walk, and The NAMES Project. In 1993, as an undergraduate at Loyola University in New Orleans, he founded Out/Here, the first LGBTQQ student organization on a southern Jesuit campus. Since then, he has protested with the Matthew Shepard Political Funeral March in New York City, co-hosted the post-Hurricane Katrina Fleur de Relief benefit for the NO/AIDS Task Force and the Saints & Sinners Literary Festival, and has marched with Equality California in Los Angeles. He serves as Faculty Advisor for the Northridge Creative Writing Circle, LGBTA, and Queer Ambassadors.

Publications:

• “The Masked Boy:” A short story to be published by Rattling Wall (Fall, 2011).

• “Hoodoo:” A poem to be published by Rattling Wall (Fall, 2011).

• “Voodoo:” A poem to be published by Rattling Wall (Fall, 2011).

• “Revival Girl:” A short story to be published by Epoch (Spring, 2011).

• “The Weight of New Orleans:” An invited essay published by ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, Oxford Journals (Summer, 2010).

• “The Wolf & the Pipe:” A short story published by StoryQuarterly (Spring, 2010).

• “Wanted Man:” A short story published by Epoch (Summer, 2009).

• “Fairy Song:” A short story published by Gay City Anthology (Summer, 2009).

• “Decalogue:” A short story published by Gay City Anthology (Summer, 2009).

• “Revolver:” A poem published by Gay City Anthology (Summer, 2009).

• “The Donner Party:” A story published by New Orleans Review (Spring, 2009).

• “The Fear of Tides,” “Hurricane Names,” “Master Eddie DeLis,” “Shirley DeLis:” Four poems anthologized by Alyson Press in Love, Bourbon St. (September, 2006).

• “St. Ann & Decatur:” A poem anthologized in Intersection (September, 2006).

• “Shirley DeLis:” A poem selected and featured by Verse Daily on versedaily.com (August, 2006).

• “Master Eddie DeLis,” “Shirley Delis:” Two poems published in Cimarron Review (August, 2006).

• Sugar: A volume of poetry published by Suspect Thoughts Press (November, 2005).

• “First Kiss:” A short story published by Epoch (Fall, 2005).

• No Place, Louisiana: A novel published in hardcover by Riverhead Books (March, 2002); Paperback released by Riverhead Books (April 2003).

• “The Fear of Tides:” A poem published in The Louisiana Review (Fall, 2001).           

• Things That Work: Pedagogical Strategies for the Composition Classroom, Co-Editor and Contributor, An instructional guidebook published by Rutgers University (Fall, 2001).

• “Sugar,” “Azalea:” Two poems published in Icon (Spring, 2000).

• “Live Oak,” “You Can’t Always Get What You Want:” Two poems published in Cocktail (Spring, 1997).

• “Hurricane Names,” “Hers:” Two poems published in Revisions (Spring, 1994).

• “Sleepwalker:” A poem published in Transfer (Fall, 1991).