Dr. Kimberly Southwick-Thompson and her daughter, Esmé

Dr. Kimberly Southwick-Thompson is an Assistant Professor in JSU’s English Department. Originally from Cherry Hill, New Jersey, she earned her B.F.A. from Emerson College, M.A. from NYU, and Ph.D. from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

In her second semester at JSU, Southwick-Thompson is currently teaching American Literature I, English Composition II, Creative Writing: Poetry, and an Explore Seminar on Hip-Hop, Race, and Poetry. She says her favorite course is Creative Writing: Poetry, but that she genuinely enjoys them all. The thing that she likes most about her job is the ability to introduce new ideas and aspects of different cultures to her students, as they may carry these things with them for the rest of their lives. For Southwick-Thompson, the best things about the English Department itself are the general friendliness and the vastly different yet overlapping interests present among the faculty.

While in graduate school, Southwick-Thompson’s work was centered around hybridity and poetics. “My dissertation focused on recentering the idea of hybridity as an idea that poets and writers in other genres use within their work, rather than a genre of its own. I’m very into the categorization and organization of ideas. It’s probably also why I love grammar and music. Some of my favorite books of poetry are those that utilize hybridity–bringing in elements of text and image and ways to organize ideas that are not traditionally found in poetry. I hope to someday write a book that incorporates sentence diagramming with poetry, for example.”

Currently, Southwick-Thompson is working with her staff to create a new issue of Gigantic Sequins, “a literary-arts journal that I’ve run as Editor in Chief for over a decade.” She is also assisting JSU’s Writer’s Club in putting together their own literary journal titled Something Else. By the end of the year, her first full-length poetry collection Orchid Alpha will have been published with Trembling Pillow Press.

Most of Southwick-Thompson’s spare time is spent watching and caring for her “daring and energetic” baby, but she still finds time for leisurely activities like reading, writing, baking, cooking, watching football, and streaming programs on Netflix. Occasionally, she is a guest and co-host of the pop culture podcast Slayerfest 98.

The advice that Southwick-Thompson would give her younger, almost college-aged, self is quite encouraging. “I would say that all the hard work you’ve been doing and will do–it’s going to pay off in so many different ways, so just keep working hard and believing in yourself and your abilities.”

The advice that Southwick-Thompson would give her students is just as sweet. “Never hesitate to reach out to me if you have any questions–my goal is for everyone to pass my class and enjoy their time as my student, so I want to do everything in my power to help both of those things happen.”