Professor Trabold believes writing is the work of self-reflection, empathy, and compassion. She strives to teach with the world outside the classroom in mind, asking each day how she can empower students to transform their lives through language. She is primarily a nonfiction writer, author of the essay collection Five Plots, and co-editor of the forthcoming anthology The Lyric Essay as Resistance. She, her husband, daughter, and three cats live in Lynchburg.
Courses Taught
- CORE 120: The Mindful Writer
- ENCW 101: Intro to Literary Studio
- ENCW 203: The Art of the Personal Essay
- ENCW 222: Food & Form
- ENCW 307: The Lyric Essay
- ENCW 322: Graphic Memoir
Publications
Books
- The Lyric Essay as Resistance (co-edited with Zoë Bossiere), Wayne State University Press, 2023
- Dots, Ghost Proposal, 2021
- Five Plots, Seneca Review Books, 2018
Essays
- “Rough Shape.” Thin Air Magazine—forthcoming
- “My Willa Cather.” Fugue, 61, November 2021, Print.
- “March.” Ruminate’s “The Waking,” July 13, 2021.
- “Reality, the Great Adventure.” Blood Orange Review, 39, December 1, 2020.
- “Notes on Handedness.” Ghost Proposal, 12, August 7, 2020.
- “February.” Hobart, July 30, 2020.
- “Ritual.” Santa Clara Review, 107.2, March 2020, Print.
- “The Green Sebring.” Brevity, 62, September 13, 2019.
- “Citybuilding.” Territory, “Love” Issue, June 19, 2018.
- “Borrow Pits.” Passages North, 39, March 2018. Print.
- “Swedish Rye Bread.” New South, “Hunger” Mini-Issue, January 30, 2018.
- “Geysir.” Punctuate, October 11, 2017. Collaborative travel essay, NonfictioNOW Reykjavík.
- “Writing a Scene About Happiness.” Elsewhere Lit, September 2017.
- “(Mis)Directions for Visiting Château Michel de Montaigne.” Literary Hub, August 15, 2017.
- “Tracks.” South Dakota Review, 53.1, April 2017: 65–9. Print.
- “A List of Concerns.” The Rumpus, April 3, 2017.
- “What Christmas Means to Me: A Timeline.” Essay Daily, December 17, 2016.
- “Child Proof.” Proximity Magazine, 7, July 2015.
- “Canyoneering.” The Collagist, 71, June 2015.
- “Via Veneto.” First Class Lit, June 2015.
- “Five Plots.” Seneca Review, 43.1 May 2013: 97–100. Print.
- “Burning Out.” Penumbra, 1.1, December 2012.
Erica Trabold is the author of Five Plots (Seneca Review Books, 2018), winner of the inaugural Deborah Tall Lyric Essay Book Prize and a 2019 Nebraska Book Award, and co-editor of the forthcoming anthology The Lyric Essay as Resistance: Truth from the Margins (Wayne State University Press, 2023). Her essays appear in Literary Hub, The Rumpus, Passages North, Essay Daily, and elsewhere. A graduate of Oregon State University’s MFA program and the University of Nebraska at Omaha, Erica writes and teaches in central Virginia, where she is an Assistant Professor at Sweet Briar College.
For more information, please visit my personal website.