Jump to navigation

The University of Arizona Wordmark Line Logo White
UA Profiles | Home
  • Phonebook
  • Edit My Profile
  • Feedback

Profiles search form

Kate S Bernheimer

  • Professor, English
  • Member of the Graduate Faculty
Contact
  • (520) 621-1836
  • Modern Languages, Rm. 445
  • Tucson, AZ 85721
  • kbernheimer@arizona.edu
  • Bio
  • Interests
  • Courses
  • Scholarly Contributions

Biography

Kate Bernheimer’s most recent book is Office at Night, a novella co-authored with Laird Hunt (Finalist, Shirley Jackson Awards). It was published by Coffee House Press and co-commissioned by The Walker Art Center. She also is the author of two story collections, How a Mother Weaned Her Girl from Fairy Tales (illustrated by Catherine Eyde) and Horse, Flower, Bird (illustrated by Rikki Ducornet) both published by Coffee House Press. Her novels — The Complete Tales of Ketzia Gold, The Complete Tales of Merry Gold, and The Complete Tales of Lucy Gold (sometimes referred to as “the Gold family trilogy) were published between 2001 and 2008 by Fiction Collective 2. Maria Tatar (Chair, Program in Folklore & Mythology, Harvard University) writes, “A master of minimalist style, Kate Bernheimer taps into the poetry of fairy tales to reveal the dread that seeps into ordinary things as well as the redemptive power of language and story.”

Bernheimer has also edited four anthologies, including the bestselling and World Fantasy Award winning My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me: Forty New Fairy Tales and the World Fantasy Award nominated xo Orpheus: Fifty New Myths, both published by Penguin Random House. My Mother She Killed Me has been translated into Russian and Chinese. Kate Bernheimer also writes fairy-tale criticism, with work appearing  such places as The Los Angeles Times, Marvels & Tales: The Journal of Fairy-Tale Studies, The New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review, and NPR's "All Things Considered."  Writing for the New York Times, bestselling author Benjamin Percy said of her work, "Anyone attracted to fairy tales and fables should check out the stories and criticism of Kate Bernheimer."

Her fabulist children's books (The Girl in the Castle inside the Museum with illustrations by Nicoletta Ceccoli, The Lonely Book with illustrations by Chris Sheban, and The Girl Who Wouldn't Brush Her Hair with illustrations by Jake Parker) are all published by Penguin Random House/Schwartz & Wade Books and have been nominated for many awards. They have been translated into Korean, Japanese, Spanish, Catalan, French, Italian, Romanian, and Hebrew.  Bernheimer lectures internationally about fairy tales as an art form; representative venues include The Museum of Modern Art in NY, NY, The Blanton Museum in Austin, TX, Harvard University in Cambridge, MA, Brooklyn Bridge Park in Brooklyn, NY, and Brown University in Providence, RI. In 2005 she founded, and currently continues to edit, the annual journal Fairy Tale Review (Wayne State University Press), the country's only literary journal dedicated to fairy-tale writing in English and in translation to English.

Bernheimer’s work as an author, critic, and professor explores the intersections of contemporary fairy tales with multiple disciplines. To this end she frequently collaborates with her brother, Andrew Bernheimer (Principal of Bernheimer Architecture and Director of Architecture/Parsons The New School of Design), on new fiction, architectural competitions, and for an ongoing “Fairy-Tale Architecture” series for Places, an international, interdisciplinary magazine dedicated to scholarship on architecture, landscape, and urbanism.  In this series, diverse architects, designers, and structural engineers from around the world have selected favorite tales and produced works exploring the intimate relationship between the domestic structures of fairy tales and the imaginative realm of architecture.

Bernheimer teaches creative writing (fiction) workshops and classes about contemporary fairy tales as an art form.

Awards

  • Shirley Jackson Award
    • Shirley Jackson Awards, Spring 2015 (Award Finalist)
  • World Fantasy Awards
    • World Fantasy Association (http://www.worldfantasy.org/), Fall 2014 (Award Nominee)

Related Links

Share Profile

Interests

Teaching

Contemporary fiction, translation, fabulism, contemporary fairy tales, folklore, mythology, poetry, literature, contemporary art, poetics, nonfiction, world literature

Research

Fiction, fairy tales, mythology, art

Courses

2025-26 Courses

  • Creative Writing: Craft
    ENGL 215 (Fall 2025)
  • Independent Study
    ENGL 499 (Fall 2025)
  • Intro to Fairy Tales
    ENGL 248B (Fall 2025)

2024-25 Courses

  • Intro to Fairy Tales
    ENGL 248B (Summer I 2025)
  • Independent Study
    ENGL 399 (Spring 2025)
  • Independent Study
    ENGL 599 (Spring 2025)
  • Intro to Fairy Tales
    ENGL 248B (Spring 2025)
  • Intro to Fairy Tales
    ENGL 248B (Winter 2024)
  • Independent Study
    ENGL 599 (Fall 2024)
  • Inter Fiction Writing
    ENGL 304 (Fall 2024)

2023-24 Courses

  • Intro to Fairy Tales
    ENGL 248B (Summer I 2024)
  • Honors Thesis
    ENGL 498H (Spring 2024)
  • Independent Study
    ENGL 599 (Spring 2024)
  • Career/Prof Dev for CW Majors
    ENGL 495A (Fall 2023)
  • Honors Thesis
    ENGL 498H (Fall 2023)
  • Professional Studies
    ENGL 595A (Fall 2023)
  • Writing Project Fiction
    ENGL 604 (Fall 2023)

2022-23 Courses

  • Intro to Fairy Tales
    ENGL 248B (Summer I 2023)
  • Intro to Fairy Tales
    ENGL 248B (Spring 2023)
  • Master's Report
    ENGL 909 (Spring 2023)
  • Professional Studies
    ENGL 595A (Spring 2023)
  • Intro to Fairy Tales
    ENGL 248B (Fall 2022)

2021-22 Courses

  • Intro to Fairy Tales
    ENGL 248B (Summer I 2022)
  • Independent Study
    ENGL 499 (Spring 2022)
  • Intro to Fairy Tales
    ENGL 248B (Spring 2022)
  • Master's Report
    ENGL 909 (Spring 2022)
  • Intro to Fairy Tales
    ENGL 248B (Fall 2021)
  • Writing Project Fiction
    ENGL 604 (Fall 2021)

2020-21 Courses

  • Intro to Fairy Tales
    ENGL 248B (Summer I 2021)
  • Advanced Fiction Writing
    ENGL 404 (Spring 2021)
  • Honors Thesis
    ENGL 498H (Spring 2021)
  • Intro to Fairy Tales
    ENGL 248B (Spring 2021)
  • Master's Report
    ENGL 909 (Spring 2021)
  • Intro to Fairy Tales
    ENGL 248B (Winter 2020)
  • Honors Thesis
    ENGL 498H (Fall 2020)
  • Independent Study
    ENGL 599 (Fall 2020)
  • Intro to Fairy Tales
    ENGL 248B (Fall 2020)
  • Thesis
    ENGL 910 (Fall 2020)

2019-20 Courses

  • Intro to Fairy Tales
    ENGL 248B (Summer I 2020)
  • Honors Thesis
    ENGL 498H (Spring 2020)
  • Independent Study
    ENGL 599 (Spring 2020)
  • Intro to Fairy Tales
    ENGL 248B (Spring 2020)
  • Master's Report
    ENGL 909 (Spring 2020)
  • Modern Literature
    ENGL 596H (Spring 2020)
  • Intro to Fairy Tales
    ENGL 248B (Winter 2019)
  • Honors Thesis
    ENGL 498H (Fall 2019)
  • Intro to Fairy Tales
    ENGL 248B (Fall 2019)
  • Thesis
    ENGL 910 (Fall 2019)
  • Writing Project Fiction
    ENGL 604 (Fall 2019)

2018-19 Courses

  • Advanced Fiction Writing
    ENGL 404 (Fall 2018)
  • Master's Report
    ENGL 909 (Fall 2018)
  • Modern Literature
    ENGL 596H (Fall 2018)

2017-18 Courses

  • Honors Thesis
    ENGL 498H (Fall 2017)
  • Inter Fiction Writing
    ENGL 304 (Fall 2017)
  • Intro to Fairy Tales
    ENGL 248B (Fall 2017)

2016-17 Courses

  • Inter Fiction Writing
    ENGL 304 (Spring 2017)
  • Master's Report
    ENGL 909 (Spring 2017)
  • Intro to Fairy Tales
    ENGL 248B (Fall 2016)

2015-16 Courses

  • Advanced Fiction Writing
    ENGL 404 (Spring 2016)
  • Independent Study
    ENGL 399 (Spring 2016)
  • Master's Report
    ENGL 909 (Spring 2016)
  • Writing Project Fiction
    ENGL 604 (Spring 2016)

Related Links

UA Course Catalog

Scholarly Contributions

Books

  • Bernheimer, K. (2016). The Girl in the Castle inside the Museum. Greece: Livanis Publishing Organization S.A..
    More info
    Translation and publication/distribution for hardcover sold to Livanis Publishing Organization S.A. (Greece) by Penguin Random House on behalf of Kate Bernheimer & Massie McQuilkin Literary Agents/NYC.
  • Bernheimer, K. (2016). The Girl in the Castle inside the Museum. Japan: Babel Press.
    More info
    Japanese translation & publication rights for hardcover sold by Penguin Random House on behalf of Kate Bernheimer/Massie McQuilken.
  • Bernheimer, K. (2016). The Girl in the Castle inside the Museum. China: China Youth Book, Inc. (an imprint of China Youth Press).
  • Bernheimer, K. (2014). How a Mother Weaned Her Girl from Fairy Tales (and Other Stories). Minneapolis, MN: Coffee House Press.
    More info
    No one has done more for the contemporary fairy tale than Kate Bernheimer. In eight new stories, she leads us into a forest of everyday magic and misfits, where dinosaurs wear pajamas and talking dolls ruin your life. Elegant and brutal, Bernheimer’s lat- est collection locates the existential loveliness of ideas amidst the topsy-turvy logic of things. This collection renews classic stories with intelligent wonder. Like one of Bernheimer’s girls, whose hands of steel turn to flowers, the reader will marvel. (Adult literary fiction)
  • Bernheimer, K. (2014). My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me: Forty New Fairy Tales (Korean translation). Seoul, Korea: Hyundae Munhak Co., Ltd..
    More info
    Korean translation of English language original
  • Bernheimer, K. (2014). My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me: Forty New Fairy Tales (Vol I and Vol II, Russian translation). Moscow, Russia: Gayatri/LIVEBOOKS.
    More info
    Two-volume Russian translation of English language original (Tales distributed as: Vol. 1: Russia, Germany, Norway, Denmark; Vol 2: UK, Italy, France, Greece, Vietnam, Japan, Mexico, USA)
  • Bernheimer, K. (2014). The Girl in The Castle inside The Museum (Spanish translation). Barcelona, Spain: Ediciones Obelisco.
    More info
    Spanish translation of English language originally published by Random House Children's Books
  • Bernheimer, K. (2014). The Girl in the Castle inside the Museum (Hebrew translation). Ben Shemen, Israel: Moden Publishing.
    More info
    Hebrew language translation of English language original
  • Hunt, L. (2014). Office at Night: A Novella. Minneapolis, MN: Coffee House Press & The Walker Art Center.
    More info
    Edward Hopper’s Office at Night is open to endless interpretation. Throughout his career, the artist was concerned with the relationship between “the facts” of observation and the improvisation that happened when making a work of art. In conjunction with the exhibition Hopper Drawing: A Painter’s Process, Kate Bernheimer and Laird Hunt adopt a similar process in writing a collaborative novella inspired by the 1940 painting. “Taking up residence” inside the work, the writers have imagined the lives of its characters: stenographer Marge Quinn and her boss, the sometimes painter Abraham Chelikowsky.Released as a serial on the Walker’s website in April, the story was published as an e-book by Coffee House Press in June 2014.

Chapters

  • Bernheimer, K. (2017). "100 Percent Human Hair Mullet Wig". In Lost Objects(p. 1). HiLobrow.
    More info
    A 25-part series of nonfiction stories about lost objects. Editors asked 25 writers to tell them about a significant object they’d lost (or thrown away, or destroyed), then assigned these stories to 25 illustrators. This is the fourth volume in the PROJECT:OBJECT series.
  • Bernheimer, K. (2014). Whitework. In The Uncanny Reader: Stories from the Shadows(p. 30). New York, NY: St. Martin's.

Journals/Publications

  • Bernheimer, K. (2016). Fairy Tale Review (The Ochre Issue). Fairy Tale Review, 12(1), 181.
    More info
    As founding editor and editor of Fairy Tale Review (Wayne State University Press) and in tandem with volunteer MFA student Assistant Editors and undergraduate interns (listed on the masthead as Editorial Assistants), published The Ochre Issue, the 12th annual issue of Fairy Tale Review.
  • Bernheimer, K. (2016). Flatland. Places Journal, 5.
    More info
    All text by Kate Bernheimer. Design by Ultramoderne, whose principals are Yasmin Vobis and Aaron Forrest. Vobis has taught at Princeton University and currently teaches at the Rhode Island School of Design. She is a recipient of the Rome Prize in Architecture 2016-17. Forrest is a licensed architect who teaches at the Rhode Island School of Design. He received both his Bachelors Degree and Masters in Architecture from Princeton University. This essay (and architect interview) are part of an ongoing series. For five years, the brother-sister duo of writer Kate Bernheimer and architect Andrew Bernheimer have curated an invited series for Places in which diverse architects explore the intimate relationship between the domestic structure of fairy tales and the imaginative realm of architecture. Founded at MIT and Berkeley in 1983, Places partners with an international cohort of academic partners including Aarhus School of Architecture, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Columbia University, ETH Zürich, Georgia Tech, MIT, Pratt Institute, Stanford University, UC Berkeley and many others. Places has associations with leading design faculties around the world. Bridging from the university to the profession to the public, and its articles combine the scope and immediacy of serious journalism with the precision and depth of scholarship.Andrew Bernheimer is a Brooklyn-based architect and the principal of Bernheimer Architecture. Bernheimer was a founding partner of the award-winning firm Della Valle Bernheimer and is an Assistant Professor in the Master of Architecture program at Parsons School of Design.
  • Bernheimer, K. (2016). Gripho. Places Journal, 5.
    More info
    All text by Kate Bernheimer. Design by Smiljan Radić. Smiljan Radić is a leading Chilean architect and internationally is widely considered one of the most important contemporary architects today .He graduated from Catholic University of Chile in 1989 and studied at the Istitutto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia, Italy. He traveled for three years and finally opened his own studio in 1995 in Chile. Chosen as the Best Chilean Architect under 35 by the College of Architects of Chile in 2001, he was selected to be part of Architectural Record’s Design Vanguard 2008 and named an Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects in 2009. He has lectured and exhibited internationally, and his work has been published widely, most recently in the monograph “Smiljan Radic, 2003-2013,” El Croquis Magazine N°167.This essay (and architect interview) are part of an ongoing series. For five years, the brother-sister duo of writer Kate Bernheimer and architect Andrew Bernheimer have curated an invited series in which diverse architects explore the intimate relationship between the domestic structure of fairy tales and the imaginative realm of architecture.Founded at MIT and Berkeley in 1983, Places partners with an international cohort of academic partners including Aarhus School of Architecture, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Columbia University, ETH Zürich, Georgia Tech, MIT, Pratt Institute, Stanford University, UC Berkeley and many others. Places has associations with leading design faculties around the world. Bridging from the university to the profession to the public, and its articles combine the scope and immediacy of serious journalism with the precision and depth of scholarship.
  • Bernheimer, K. (2016). The Punk's Bride & Author Interview. Notre Dame Review, 4.
    More info
    Notre Dame Review is a peer review journal housed in College of Letters at University of Notre Dame. NDR often showcases celebrated authors like Nobel laureates Seamus Heaney and Czeslaw Milosz. Kate Bernheimer is the 'featured author' in Issue 42, including an original short story (the second story of the same title by her) and a featured author interview.
  • Bernheimer, K. (2016). Tiddalik the Frog. Places Journal, 6.
    More info
    All text by Kate Bernheimer. Original design by Snøhetta. Snøhetta is an integrated design practice with offices in Oslo and New York City. Team members on the Fairy Tale Architecture project were Samuel Brissette, Craig Dykers, Andrea Gulerez, Lara Kaufman, Jackie Martinez, Elaine Molinar, and Dennis Rijkhoff. For over 25 years, Snøhetta has designed some of the world’s most notable public and cultural projects. Snøhetta kickstarted its career in 1989 with the competition-winning entry for the new library of Alexandria, Egypt. This was later followed by the commission for the Norwegian National Opera in Oslo, the National September 11 Memorial Museum Pavilion at the World Trade Center in New York City, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Expansion, among many others. Since its inception, the practice has maintained its original trans-disciplinary approach, integrating architectural, landscape, and interior design in all of its projects. This essay (and architect interview) are part of an ongoing series. For five years, the brother-sister duo of writer Kate Bernheimer and architect Andrew Bernheimer have curated an invited series for Places in which diverse architects explore the intimate relationship between the domestic structure of fairy tales and the imaginative realm of architecture. Andrew Bernheimer is a Brooklyn-based architect and the principal of Bernheimer Architecture. Bernheimer was a founding partner of the award-winning firm Della Valle Bernheimer and is an Assistant Professor in the Master of Architecture program at Parsons School of Design.Founded at MIT and Berkeley in 1983, Places partners with an international cohort of academic partners including Aarhus School of Architecture, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Columbia University, ETH Zürich, Georgia Tech, MIT, Pratt Institute, Stanford University, UC Berkeley and many others. Places has associations with leading design faculties around the world. Bridging from the university to the profession to the public, and its articles combine the scope and immediacy of serious journalism with the precision and depth of scholarship.
  • Bernheimer, K. S. (2016). Magic and the Intellect: Four Writers Consider the Stake of Magic in Literature Today. The Writers Chronicle, 12.
    More info
    Cover Story for The Writer's Chronicle: feature including four essays by Lucy Corin, Anna Joy Springer, Rikki Ducornet, and Kate Bernheimer. For over four decades, the Writer’s Chronicle has served as a leading source of articles, news, and information for writers, editors, students, and teachers of writing. The Writer's Chronicle enjoys a growing print circulation of over 35,000 and is considered the leading professional publication in the academic field of creative writing. Published six times during the academic year and distributed to bookstores by Curtis Circulation Company, LLC, the magazine reaches those who are most actively engaged in contemporary literature: literary writers, teachers, readers, students, editors, publishers, and arts professionals. Published six times during the academic year, the Chronicle provides diverse insights into the art of writing that are accessible, pragmatic, and idealistic. Each issue features in-depth essays on the craft of writing, as well as extensive interviews with accomplished authors. Readers can also find news on publishing trends and literary controversies; a listing of grants, awards, and publication opportunities available to writers; and a list of upcoming conferences for writers, including AWP’s Annual Conference & Bookfair. Our pages are for those who love reading and writing.
  • Bernheimer, K., & Bernheimer, K. (2016). The Seven Ravens. Places Journal, 5.
    More info
    Kate and Andrew Bernheimer, “Fairy Tale Architecture: The Seven Ravens,” Places Journal, December 2016. Accessed 13 Mar 2017. https://doi.org/10.22269/161222All text by Kate Bernheimer. Design by Andrew Bernheimer. Andrew Bernheimer is a Brooklyn-based architect and the principal of Bernheimer Architecture. Bernheimer was a founding partner of the award-winning firm Della Valle Bernheimer and is an Assistant Professor in the Master of Architecture program at Parsons School of Design.This essay (and architect interview) are part of an ongoing series. For five years, the brother-sister duo of writer Kate Bernheimer and architect Andrew Bernheimer have curated an invited series for Places in which diverse architects explore the intimate relationship between the domestic structure of fairy tales and the imaginative realm of architecture. Founded at MIT and Berkeley in 1983, Places partners with an international cohort of academic partners including Aarhus School of Architecture, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Columbia University, ETH Zürich, Georgia Tech, MIT, Pratt Institute, Stanford University, UC Berkeley and many others. Places has associations with leading design faculties around the world. Bridging from the university to the profession to the public, and its articles combine the scope and immediacy of serious journalism with the precision and depth of scholarship.
  • Bernheimer, K. (2015). Fairy Tale Review (The Mauve Issue). Fairy Tale Review, 11, 225.
    More info
    As editor, gathered and put into production the 11th annual issue of Fairy Tale Review, now published by Wayne State University Press and available as well on JStor. Subscriptions: Around 500. E-downloads: Around 3,000 to date. JStor data available upon request.
  • Bernheimer, K. (2014). Surviving an Adult World in Fairy Tales, and Real Life. NPR's All Things Considered (recorded radio commentary).
    More info
    Radio commentary, paired with published article, contextualizing one of the week's news stories -- in this case, the plight of immigrant minors in Arizona -- in the context of a recommended book -- in this case, The Grimm Reader, a volume of Grimm fairy tales translated by Maria Tatar.
  • Bernheimer, K. (2014). Surviving an Adult World in Fairy Tales, and Real Life. National Public Radio News Website.
    More info
    Essay that accompanies radio commentary for same venue; two different pieces -- one written, one audio (audio an abbreviated essay on same topic). Contextualizes the plight of immigrant minors within fairy tales, specifically The Brothers Grimm's version of "Hansel and Gretel."
  • Bernheimer, K. (2014). The Punk's Bride. The Master's Review, 3.
    More info
    Short story based on the Brothers Grimm tale "The Hare's Bride"
  • Bernheimer, K. S. (2014). Fairy Tale Review (The Emerald Issue). Fairy Tale Review, 10, 225.
    More info
    As founding editor, published the 10th anniversary edition of Fairy Tale Review (Wayne State University Press, Journals Division, Series in Fairy-Tale Studies).
  • Bernheimer, K. S. (2014). The Snow Bride. Faerie Magazine, 3.
    More info
    Story based on the Japanese folk tale "The Snow Bride," published alongside work by Alice Hoffman and others.

Presentations

  • Bernheimer, K. S. (2017, October). Modern American Fairy Tales. Fletcher Lecture Series. Nicholls State University, Thibodeaux LA: letcher Lecture Committee of Nicholls State University, the Department of Languages & Literature, and the Nicholls Student Programming Association.
    More info
    Fairytale author and associate professor of English at the University of Arizona Kate Bernheimer will join the Nicholls campus as the guest speaker for the 2017 Fletcher Lecture Series on Thursday, Oct. 5.Bernheimer will host a question-and-answer session at 11 a.m. in Le Bijou Theatre. At 6:30 p.m., she will deliver a lecture, titled “Modern American Fairy Tales,” in the Gouaux Hall auditorium. The talk is free and open to the public.Described as “one of the living masters of the fairy tale” Bernheimer has published five books, a collection of short stories and three children’s books. Her published works include “The Complete Tales of Ketzia Gold” in 2001, “The Complete Tales of Merry Gold” in 2006, “The Girl in the Castle Inside the Museum” in 2008, “Horse, Flower, Bird” in 2010, “The Complete Tales of Lucy Gold” in 2011, “The Lonely Book” in 2012, “The Girl Who Wouldn’t Brush Her Hair” in 2013, “Office at Night” and “How a Mother Weaned Her Girl from Fairy Tales” in 2014.She was the editor of the best-selling book, “My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me: Forty New Fairy Tales” in 2010.Sponsored by the Fletcher Lecture Committee, the Department of Languages & Literature, and the Nicholls Student Programming Association, the Fletcher Lecture Series is in its 32nd year. Last year, NPR radio host Nick Spitzer was the guest speaker. Other previous speakers include Benh Zeitlin, director of “Beasts of the Southern Wild;” Marilynne Robinson, author of Pulitzer Prize Award-winning novel, “Gilead;” and Samuel Pickering, English Professor at the University of Connecticut in Storrs and inspiration for Mr. Keating from the movie, ”Dead Poets Society.”
  • Bernheimer, K. S. (2017, September). "Fairy Tales, Object, and Place". Lecture. The New School, 2 W. 13th Street, New York City, New York: Parsons School of Design School of Constructed Environments.
    More info
    Bernheimer will lecture about architectural installation, the interior, the object, and how fairy tales present, interpret, and influence concepts of space and possession. The emphasis will be on the domestic mise-en-scene and how a fairy-tale space illuminates desire and resists domination - collapses the Real and the Imaginary into a beautifully functionless zone.
  • Bernheimer, K. (2016, April). Lecture & Reading. La Sociedad para las Artes Distinguished Visiting Author Reading Series. Las Cruces, NM: New Mexico State University, Department of English/MFA Program in Creative Writing.
    More info
    Public lecture and reading, along with Iranian MFA-candidate in fiction Marzie Ghasempour. For more than 25 years, La Sociedad para las Artes has acted as the main outreach organization for the English Department at New Mexico State University. The cornerstone of La Sociedad’s activities, the Distinguished Visiting Writer Series began more than 30 years ago by now-retired faculty members, Joe Somoza and Keith Wilson. Since then, with a very modest budget, La Sociedad has provided NMSU, Las Cruces, and El Paso with a steady stream of the major contemporary regional, national, and international writers of our day, including Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Russo; National Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award winner Andrea Barrett; Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky; MacArthur “Genius Grant” Award winners Ed Hirsh, Barrett, and David Foster Wallace; and Nobel Prize short-listed Chinese dissident poet Bei Dao. Other writers have received literature’s highest honors, serving as models and inspiration for our local audience: Tim O’Brien, Ana Castillo, Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Denise Chavez, Larry Brown, Zhang Ur, Dagoberto Gilb, and others. Our readings are popular and many writers comment on the numbers we attract to their readings. Poetry readings usually have at least 100 people in attendance and fiction readings have up to 400 and sometimes more. The audience comprises a mix of students, professors and community members in equal parts and the readings are always free.La Sociedad’s priorities are to interface with the school system and the community, helping to tear down boundaries between “town” and “gown.” As part of a major research university in one of the poorest counties in the country, La Sociedad seeks out opportunities to involve the English department locally, in order to increase public access to our university, making positive connections between all involved. These connections, benefiting the community as they do, also improve our university, since social responsiveness makes NMSU a more flexible, active organization, qualities that generate vital kinds of research. Every year, the organization hosts free evening readings of national caliber, of readers who also offer manuscript consultation to graduate students and craft talks to high school students, undergraduates, graduate students and community members. Since 1996, we have offered the Writers in the Schools (WITS) program, which supports our impoverished school system with one of the lowest literacy scores in the country. Finally, our annual Hunger Benefit, part of a nation-wide movement where writers coordinate reading events to raise money to fight hunger, has raised at least $45,000 for Casa de Peregrinos, a local food bank.
  • Bernheimer, K. (2014, February). Magic and the Intellect. Association of Writers and Writing Programs Annual Conference. Seattle, WA: Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP).
    More info
    In her essay “The Deep Zoo” Rikki Ducornet writes: “the work of the writer is to move beyond the simple definitions or descriptions of things… and to bring a dream to life through the alchemy of language; to move from the street—the place of received ideas—into the forest—the place of the unknown.” On this panel five fiction writers intend to describe, depict, illustrate, and otherwise expose this movement from known to unknown in order to ask: what do we mean when we say “magic”? With Lucy Corin, Rikki Ducornet, Kate Bernheimer and Anna Joy Springer.
  • Bernheimer, K. S. (2014, Summer). Retelling Tales: An Evening with Kate Bernheimer and Genevieve Valentine. Books Beneath the Bridge. Brooklyn, NY: Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy & WORD Bookstores.
    More info
    Public reading taking place at The Granite Prospect in Brooklyn Bridge Park, a free summer literary series outdoor readings curated by local independent bookstores.

Reviews

  • Bernheimer, K. S. (2016. The Bitter Life of Božena Němcová(p. 1).
  • Bernheimer, K. S. (2014. William T. Vollmann's Last Stories and Other Stories(p. 2). New York, NY.
    More info
    A review of William T. Vollmann's story collection LAST STORIES AND OTHER STORIES, published in The New York Times Sunday Book Review (NYTBR).

Creative Performances

  • Bernheimer, K. S. (2018. Visiting Author. Public Reading and Lecture. Denver, CO: University of Denver, Department of English/MFA Program in Creative Writing.

Others

  • Bernheimer, K. S. (2017, Dec). Hope Chest Demythologizing Girlhood in Kate Bernheimer’s Trilogy. Girlhood Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal. https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/girlhood-studies/10/3/ghs100313.xml
    More info
    Article in peer review journal about my novel trilogy in Girlhood Studies (Winner of the 2009 AAP/PSP Prose Award for Best New Journal in the Social Sciences & Humanities)ABSTRACT by article author, Dr. Catriona McAra, Leeds UniversityIn this article I position the metaphor of the hope chest at the heart of a trilogy of fairy tale novels, The Complete Tales of Ketzia (2001), The Complete Tales of Merry (2006a) and The Complete Tales of Lucy Gold (2011), by Kate Bernheimer that explore traditions of American girlhood. Deploying psychoanalytic interpretative readings, I investigate the characterization of each of the three sisters. My use of the hope chest (as both a toy and a cultural repository) enables me to offer a fuller picture of the social transition depicted in these novels from childhood into womanhood, and is thus conflated with the idea of the child-woman— a hinge-like cultural figure whom Bernheimer represents metaphorically through boxes of accoutrements containing memories and prophecies. With reference to unpublished interviews with Bernheimer, I support my interpretative reading of her trilogy by invoking and explaining the relevance of literary theories related to caskets.

 Edit my profile

UA Profiles | Home

University Information Security and Privacy

© 2025 The Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of The University of Arizona.