Michael Pontacoloni - VIsiting Lecturer and Director of Creative Writing Pedagogy

Why IU?: I am joining IU as the Director of Creative Writing Pedagogy and a Visiting Lecturer in Creative Writing. My own academic background is in poetry writing, but before I entered academia I earned a masters in teaching and taught for several years in the Connecticut public school system. This role at IU combines my academic, creative, and professional background and skillset in ways that I only had imagined. It’s truly a dream job.

Research and Writing: I’m a poet, and I suppose I have an interest in place and placemaking, especially places that lack thick histories or strong resonances to begin with—like say an apartment I only lived in for a year or a hockey rink I played in once. I find that attending to such places helps me get at larger themes of nonplacement and isolation as a form of emotional resistance, particularly as they manifest in an increasingly connected world. Or to put another way, all my best poems are about carrying couches. As a scholar, I engage with the intersection of poetics, popular culture, and the environment. My current project looks at this one Looney Tunes short through Foucault’s theories of biopower to explore the relationship between fascism and extinction.

Teaching: I aim to help students define their own goals and success within the bounds of the semester, and to engender an enthusiasm and personal standard that prompts the constant redefinition thereof long after the fact. I know that some students will never write another story or poem after the course is over. But if they become more aware of language, if they grow more empathetic to narrative, if they are more sensitive to themselves, then they’ve succeeded. And I’ll count that student as successful as one who writes a dozen novels.

Looking forward: I’m so excited to join the community of writers here at IU, and to play a small role in helping it grow and thrive. I am also looking forward to a bit of winter, to be honest. It’s been a few years since I was properly cold. I’m a life-long ice hockey player and native New Englander, so I feel at home with a bit of ice on the ground.

Why IU?: Many reasons drew me to IU: a desire to return to the Midwest, to be near family, to be part of a community where writing, thinking, and teaching are approached with generosity, care, and excitement. And redbuds! And Griffy Lake! And Bruesters ice cream! And just a general heart-sense that this was a place I wanted to be.

Research and Writing: l believe the work of writing is the work of listening, of finding possibility in sites or situations that feel hopeless—whether internal landscapes, geopolitical conflicts, or rapidly disappearing ecosystems. This perspective shapes my approach as a poet / essayist / educator. I wrote my first book, Glass Jaw, in Virginia while getting my MFA. This collection explores power dynamics within the world of women’s boxing, based on my time training as a fighter. It asks: what does it mean to tell a story of harm? How can we be responsible with language and narrative? My next book, about the myth of Ariadne and the labyrinth, set in the American Southwest— will be out in 2027. Much of my work wonders about physicality— how do I live in a body? What does it means to live within paradox— within and between “both/and”— grief and joy, love and horror— how do we hold all of it?

Teaching: I hope to emphasize curiosity, risk-taking, and embodiment in the classroom. And joy! I want students to feel empowered to shape their learning and their critique processes, and I hope to teach in a way that my past self would have needed. My experiences as a chaplain and boxer really influence my approach to the classroom— in terms of pace, structure, and how I come to the emotional and intellectual demands of study.

Looking forward: I am looking forward to SO much. Definitely building relationships with students, colleagues, the wider community of Bloomington. I’m always looking for ways to bring poetry off the page and into collective spaces, whether through typewriter events, cross-disciplinary collaborations, conversations with other local writers / readers / artists / athletes.

Why IU?: IU had many attractions for me, not least of which was its location! I’m originally from Bloomington, and after fifteen years in the Carolinas, first as a graduate student in Chapel Hill, NC and then as a lecturer at Clemson University, I was thrilled by the prospect of returning to my hometown and everything it has to offer.

Research and Writing: I’d say my research has a foot in both the medieval past and the present. On the medieval side, I work on twelfth through fourteenth century romance, typically from a narratalogical perspective or one that foregrounds gender and sexuality, including medieval depictions of sexual violence and queer and trans readings of romance. On the modern side, my narrative interests extend to film and other media.

Teaching: One avenue I’ve been exploring is the value of online resources both to make course content more accessible and to facilitate active learning. Whether through open-source materials like digital editions and online museum exhibits or tools like collaborative Google Docs and Zoom breakout rooms, I’ve been experimenting with technology to make both online and in-person classrooms more engaging. These technologies also complement my efforts to incorporate choice and independence in course design—I’ve found that building flexibility and choice into assignments helps facilitate peer-to-peer learning and gets students invested in the material.

Looking forward: Last summer I worked on an updated online W131 curriculum, and I’m excited to incorporate some of the tools I’ve learned about from CITL workshops on online learning. In my composition classes, I’d like to work more with primary sources, with a focus on local and university history, and I’ve been having fun going through IU’s digitized archives to find materials.

We are stoked to have Ayesha Hardison join our department as the new Susan D. Gubar Chair and an Associate Professor of English. Dr. Hardison came to IU from the University of Kansas in Fall 2024, bringing with her a focus on African-American literary history.

“I’m really interested in cultural production: how we understand the tradition and why that might be the case,” Hardison explains. Her research now looks later in the 20th century (even, early 21st century), and considers the ways history impacts, and is impacted by, contemporary cultural production. “I’m exploring how to approach literary history in new ways to consider history itself and history’s meaning for literature. [That is,] How literature might be imagining or writing history differently.” She is particularly interested in the Civil Rights and Black Power eras.

Alongside fiction, Hardison is equally drawn to unconventional forms of primary texts, like calendars, as historical artifacts that visually tell stories of production, audience, and purpose. To that end, Hardison is curious about IU’s rich Black archival spaces, including the Black Film Center & Archive and the Archives of African American Music and Culture.

In the classroom, Hardison prioritizes dynamic discussion and student-led exploration over rigid answers. “[I] try to listen to what students say they’re interested in, and ask questions to help further that,” she asserts. The goal is not a single “correct” answer but the cultivation of critical thinking, the ability to ask questions, and engagement with complex ideas. She encourages students to see literature as a lens for exploring questions in other fields: “I appreciate those moments when I can turn students back to the novel, or literature, more broadly, to help them grapple with questions in interdisciplinary fields.”

Looking ahead, Hardison is eager to expand programming through the History of Black Writing, a literary archival project she directs, and to establish its presence on campus. She looks forward to hosting Autumn Womack later in October as well as future collaborations that celebrate Black literature, foster discussion, and engage the broader campus community.