CAMILLE GOODISON
BIO
Camille Goodison is author of Chance Wanderer and Other Tales of Hunger. She co-edited, alongside her sister, Raquel Goodison, Out of Many: Multiplicity and Divisions in America Today, an anthology of contemporary short fiction and essays. Camille's writing honors include a Callaloo Creative Writing Fellowship and a notable mention by The Best American Essays. She is Professor of English at the New York City College of Technology at the City University of New York, and is currently working on a biographical project inspired by her father. Camille lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
BOOKS
CHANCE WANDERER
AND OTHER TALES OF HUNGER
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The many material fetishisms of modern life never satisfy or replace our individual desires, so these characters attempt to offer new ways of looking at the world. While the stories are told realistically, they sometimes adopt elements of the whimsical and surreal. For these characters nothing is certain. The stories illuminate aspects of ourselves as human beings, as Americans (whatever our origins), and as citizens in a quickly changing world. A multi-voiced text with stories told from varying perspectives and from a range of characters.
OUT OF MANY: MULTIPLICITY
AND DIVISIONS IN AMERICA TODAY
An anthology of contemporary U.S. fiction and nonfiction, as well as transnational writing. A wide variety of fiction writers and essayists describe what it means to be an American today. A bright showcase of progressive literary style, personality and content. Contributors include Tope Folarin, Alia Yunis, Maurice Emerson Decaul, Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich, Patricia Park, Sonny Singh, Aisha Sabatani Sloan, Zeeva Bukai, Courtney Zoffness, and others.
CV WITH LINKS
EDUCATION
Binghamton University, State University of New York
Ph. D in Literature
Field areas: Contemporary ethnic & immigrant writers; World Literatures;
Romanticism and Realism in 19th Century Russian and French Fiction;
Romanticism in African American, Latin American and Caribbean Fiction;
The African Novel;
Orality in Literature
Syracuse University
Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing
Cornelia Carhart Ward Writing Fellow
Thesis director: George Saunders
TEACHING TOPICS
ENGLISH 3402: Shorts: Storytelling in Film, Art and Design
reading and writing fiction for creative adaptions to digital and other media
ENGLISH 3403: Ralph Ellison in American Literature
placing Ellison within context of his stylistic predecessors and successors
ENGLISH 3402: Life Stories: Reading and Writing Biography and Memoir
writing creative nonfiction through select, stylistically diverse texts
PLUS Introduction to literature; and, First-Year Writing
SELECT PUBLICATIONS
​Upcoming essays:
--> "Rebel Roots: The Story of My Father and Jamaican Music."
--> "My Mother's Gardens: Birds of Paradise."
--> "#blackwomanatwork: how to make yourself mobbing-proof." The AutoEthnographer: A Literary & Arts Magazine.
--> "Circle Home." Lion's Roar.
BOOKS
Chance Wanderer and Other Tales of Hunger (Cat In The Sun Books, Part of Redux Consortium, July 2019).
Out of Many: Multiplicity and Divisions in America Today (Cat In The Sun Books, September 2018).
LITERARY SCHOLARSHIP
​“Mother's Bones, Father's Heart.” A book chapter in, Tears Become Rain: Stories of Transformation and Healing Inspired by Thich Nhat Hanh, edited by Jeanine C. Cogan and Mary Hillebrand. Penguin Random House, Fall 2023.
"Gifts of Sound and Vision: An Interview with Poet Lorna Goodison." Transition: The Magazine of Africa and the Diaspora 131 (2021): 130-155.
"Codes of Silence." Transition: The Magazine of Africa and the Diaspora 131 (2021): 6-22.
​“An Informal Invitation to the Ceremony of Zazen On Day 21 of Quarantine.” The Mindfulness Bell Magazine Autumn 2020, Issue 85: 25. An essay on living near a COVID hotspot during the height of the crisis.
“Re-visioning Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man For A Class of Urban Immigrant Youth.” The CEA Critic, A Journal of the College English Association 81.2 (2019): 117-129.
​“Frenzy: Mobbing and Recovery.” A chapter in the National Workplace Bullying Coalition's (editors), Stand Up, Speak Out Against Workplace Bullying: Your Guide to Survival and Victory Through 23 Real Life Testimonies. Infinity Publishing, 2018.
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“Afrodelica: Wangechi Mutu’s Fantastic Journey.” Bold As Love Magazine 29 November 2013. A review essay of a Brooklyn Museum art exhibit.
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“Beginning of Blessedness: Explicating David Foster Wallace and Thomas Merton.” Spirit of St. Bart's. October 2013
“Negrocity.” Callaloo: A Journal of African Diaspora Arts and Letters 35.3 (2012): 621-637. An interview with author and musician, Greg Tate.
“Sister Citizen.” Calyx, A Journal of Art and Literature by Women 27.2 (2012): 138-140. A review essay.
“The Harmonizer.” Guernica: A Magazine of Global Arts and Politics 15 December 2011.
An interview with professor and poet, Kwame Dawes.
“Where Two Railroads Cross: Teaching Reading and Writing through Me Books.” Teachers and Writers Magazine 42.4 (2011): 9-12. An essay on my experiences teaching in the Mississippi Delta.
“Easy Piece.” Capitalism Nature Socialism 22.1 (2011): 122-124. A review essay of an essay collection published by writers at The Nation.
“Unpacking the Machinery of Whiteness.” Capitalism Nature Socialism 23.4 (2011): 106-110.
“Beach Beneath the Streets.” Z Magazine 24.11 (2011): 41-42. A review essay.
“Legacies: Contemporary Artists Reflect on Slavery.” Perspectives (2007): 306-313. Review essay of New York Historical Society art exhibit.
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CREATIVE SCHOLARSHIP
​"Now and Then." The Dewdrop. February 2024.
“Katia.” In Emerging Writers: An Anthology of Fiction, edited by Ethan Nate. Z Publishing House, October 2018.
“Enchanted Wanderer.” Briar's Lit. 16 August 2018
“Yugen.” Steam Ticket 21 (2018): 13.
“The Blind Kid.” Aries: A Journal of Art and Literature 29 (2014): 79-88.
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“The Blind Kid (revised).” The Round 9.2 (2013): 10-33.
“Everything in Time.” Looseleaf Tea 1.2 (2013): 53-54.
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“Twelve Days.” Relief Journal 6.1 (2012): 10-20.
“Frenzy: a true tale of mobbing.” Cobalt Review June 2012
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Reprint
“Eloy and Eko.” A Few Lines 1.3 (2011): 18-21.
“The Marquis hates his cell.” Mad Swirl. 19 March 2011
“White Night in June.” Steam Ticket 10.1 (2007): 18-25.
READINGS, PERFORMANCES AND PRESS
“ComplexCITY: A Dramatic Reading.” The Word Cabaret, Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition, Red Hook, Brooklyn, NY, June 2, 2019.
"An Interview with Dr. Camille Goodison." Polymath Review Journal, Vol.1 Issue 1, Vraeyda Media, October 2016.
“An excerpt.” The Word Cabaret: A Reading Series in Red Hook, Brooklyn, NY, August 8, 2015.
“Everything in Time” and “A Moment of Bliss.” Reunion Sportive d’Haiti Benefit Reading, City Tech, Brooklyn, New York, April 25, 2013.
Bold As Love Magazine’s Reading Series at The Sackett, Brooklyn, New York, March 24, 2013.
“Twelve Days.” 35th Annual Spring Conference, New Jersey College English Association, Seton Hall University, April 14, 2012. Panel presentation, “Those Who Can: Teachers Who Write.”
“Eloy and Eko.” Sunset Park Café Benefit Reading for Boys Town (Ja.), Brooklyn, New York, February 11, 2012.
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BOOK REVIEWS
“June Jordan: People’s Poet.” Caribbeat Aug. 2002: 37.
“Derek Walcott Offers Two New Literary Dramas.” Caribbeat June/July 2002: 22.
“The Envy of the World: Stephen Carter’s Emperor of Ocean Park.” Africana.com June 2002
“Jamaica Kincaid’s Mr. Potter.” Africana.com May 2002
“A Matter of Discretion: Elizabeth Nunez’s New Novel.” Caribbeat Apr. 2002: 14.
“Satisfy My Soul: Colin Channer’s latest novel.” Caribbeat Feb./Mar. 2002: 15.
“Talk Stories by Jamaica Kincaid.” Caribbeat Aug./Sep. 2001: 42.
“Defending the Spirit: A Black life in America.” Z Magazine June 1998: 66-67.
Review essay of Randall Robinson’s autobiography.
“Exterminate All the Brutes.” Monthly Review Jan. 1997: 45-50.
Study on the context of the Holocaust reviewing Pierre Seel’s I, Pierre Seel, Deported Homosexual: A Memoir of Nazi Terror and Sven Lindqvist’s Exterminate All the Brutes: One Man’s Odyssey into the Heart of Darkness and the Origins of European Genocide.