TRENTON HICKMAN
Department of English
4105 JFSB
Brigham Young University
Provo UT 84602
(801) 422-1715
Trenton_Hickman@byu.edu
EDUCATION
State University of New York at Stony Brook
Ph.D. in English 1996-2000
Dissertation Title: Border Literatures in Twentieth-Century American Literature:
Retheorizing Spaces of Betweenness
Fields of study: 19th- and 20th-century American literature, Latino literature, Anglophone
Caribbean literature
Brigham Young University
M.A. in English 1994-1996
Thesis Title: A Writer’s Guide to the Triggering Town: Elizabeth Bishop’s and Richard
Hugo’s Use of Place in Poetry and Selected Poems from Día de la
Raza
B.A. in Honors English and University Honors 1988-1989; 1991-1994
Honors Thesis Title: Visceral Imagery in the Poetry of World War I Soldier Poets
Minor: Spanish
PUBLICATIONS
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
“Against Nostalgia: Turning the Page of Cormac McCarthy‟s Cities of the Plain.” Western
American Literature 42.2 (Summer 2007): 142-63.
“Hagiographic Commemorafiction in Julia Alvarez‟s In the Time of the Butterflies and In The Name of
Salomé.” MELUS 31.1 (Spring 2006): 99-121.
“The Last to See Them Alive: Panopticism, the Supervisory Gaze, and Catharsis in Capote‟s In
Cold Blood.” Studies in the Novel 37.4 (Winter 2005): 464-76.
“Ciguapas, the Colonial Encounter, and Julia Alvarez's The Secret Footprints.” Monographic
Review/Revista Monográfica 20 (2005): 115-26.
“McCarthy‟s Blood Matrix in The Border Trilogy.” Southwestern American Literature 28.1
(Fall 2002): 19-29.
“The Colonized Woman as Monster in Jane Eyre, Wide Sargasso Sea, and Annie John.” Journal
of Caribbean Studies 14.3 (Summer 2000): 181-98.
Peer-Reviewed Book Chapters
“The Political Left and the Development of Nuyorican Poetry.” In Writing Off the Hyphen: New
Perspectives on the Literature of the Puerto Rican Diaspora. Eds. Jose Torres-Padilla and Carmen
HaydeeRivera. Seattle, WA: U of Washington P, 2008. 143-61.
“Theodore Roethke and the Poetics of Place.” In Reading the Middle Generation Anew: Culture,
Community, and Form in Twentieth-Century American Poetry. Ed. Eric Haralson. Iowa City, IA:
U of Iowa P, 2006. 183-202.
“Coffee and Colonialism in Julia Alvarez‟s A Cafecito Story.” In Caribbean Literature and the
Environment: Between Nature and Culture. Eds. Renée Gosson, Elizabeth DeLoughrey,
and George Handley. Charlottesville: U of Virginia P, 2005. 70-82.
Book Reviews
“Locating the Latino(a) Literary Canon: The Politics, the Market, and the Music.” Rev. of The
Latino/a Canon and the Emergence of Post-Sixties Literature by Raphael Dalleo and Elena Machado
Sáez. Latino(a) Research Review 6.3 (2007-2008): 121-24.
Rev. of The Aesthetics and Politics of the Crowd in American Literature, by Mary Esteve. Studies in the
Novel 37.2 (Summer 2005): 242-44.
Encyclopedia and Reference Book Entries
“American literature: a survey of modern American poetry and fiction.” In The essentials of
literature in English post-1914. Ed. Ian Mackean. London: Hodder Arnold, 2005. 223-28.
“Elizabeth Bishop‟s „In The Waiting Room.‟” In Encyclopedia of American Poetry: The
Twentieth Century. Ed. Eric Haralson. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2001. 75-77.
“Julia Alvarez.” In Encyclopedia of American Poetry: The Twentieth Century. Ed. Eric
Haralson. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2001. 5-6.
“Miguel Algarín.” In Encyclopedia of American Poetry: The Twentieth Century. Ed. Eric
Haralson. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2001. 4-5.
“Victor Hernández Cruz.” In Encyclopedia of American Poetry: The Twentieth Century. Ed.
Eric Haralson. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2001. 294-95.
Proceedings
“The Importance of Violence in the Visceral Imagery of World War I Soldier Poets.” In The
Image of Violence in Literature, the Media, and Society: Selected Papers--1995 Conference,
Society for the Interdisciplinary Study of Social Imagery. Eds. Will Wright and Stephen
Kaplan. Pueblo, CO: Society for the Interdisciplinary Study of Social Imagery, 1995. 91-95.
Poetry
Peer-Reviewed Original Poems
“Fantasia on Picasso‟s „Mandolin, Fruit Bowl, and Plaster Arm‟ (1925)”. Borders Open-Door Poetry
Contest. 15 April 2008.
“We Regret to Inform You.” Many Mountains Moving Online (2005). 12 May 2006.
“Press Conference.” Many Mountains Moving 4.3 (2001): 135.
“Disclaimer, and an Invitation.” HMS Beagle 55 (1999).
28 May 1999.
“Essay Questions.” Southwest Review 82.3 (1997): 382-83.
“All Tucked In.” BYU Studies 36.1 (1996-97): 200.
“Arrival.” River Styx 48 (1996): 75.
“Plaza Bolivar.” Tar River Poetry 35.2 (1996): 4.
“Tightrope.” Literature and Belief 16.1 (1996): 25.
“Mother and Son Discuss Politics.” BYU Studies 35.3 (1995-96)
“Siesta.” Tar River Poetry 34.2 (1995): 9.
“Homecoming.” Tar River Poetry 33.2 (1994): 4.
“Nursing Jehovah.” BYU Studies 34.1 (1994): 41.
Translations of Poetry
“Birds.” By Rafael Cadenas. Trans. Brian Evenson and Trenton Hickman. roughdraft
(Spring 1995): 17.
“We Are Here.” By Rafael Cadenas. Trans. Brian Evenson and Trenton Hickman. roughdraft
(Spring 1995): 17.
The Space of Silence: Selected Poems by Rafael Cadenas. Trans. Brian Evenson and Trenton
Hickman. Sylmar, CA: Pyx, 1995.
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
International
“The Aesthetics of Mestizaje in Dominican-American Fiction.” American Comparative Literature
Association Conference. Puebla, Mexico. April 19-22, 2007.
“Coffee and Colonialism, Nostalgia and Desire, and a Dominican-American Parable.” 2nd
International American Studies Association World Congress. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
August 18-20, 2005.
National
“Mundo y Palabra: Dominican-American Literary History and the Poetry of Rhina Espaillat.”
MELUS (Multi-Ethnic Literatures of the United States) Conference. The Ohio State
University, Columbus, OH. March 27-29, 2008.
“The Trujillato as Desideratum in Dominican-American Literature.” Nuestra América in the U.S.?
A Latino/a Studies Conference. University of Kansas., Manhattan, KS. February 8-9, 2008.
“Drowning in Edison, New Jersey: Work in the Dominican-American Fiction of Junot Díaz.”
MELUS (Multi-Ethnic Literatures of the United States) Conference. California State
University, Fresno, CA. March 22-25, 2007.
“Viral History in Julia Alvarez‟s Saving the World.” American Literature Association Symposium on
American Fiction. San Diego, CA. September 28-30, 2006.
“Diagnosing the Border Subject in Jhumpa Lahiri‟s Interpreter of Maladies.” MELUS (Multi-
Ethnic Literatures of the United States) Conference. The University of Texas at San Antonio,
San Antonio, TX. March 11, 2004.
“Remaking the Butterflies: Julia Alvarez's Commemoration and Reconstruction of the Mirabal
Sisters in In The Time of the Butterflies.” Twentieth Century Literature Conference. University of
Louisville, Louisville, KY. February 26, 2004.
“Julia Alvarez‟s A Cafecito Story: Coffee, Colonialism, and A Dominican-American Morality
Tale.” Twentieth Century Literature Conference. University of Louisville, Louisville, KY.
February 28, 2003.
“Blood in the Borderlands: Cormac McCarthy‟s Border Trilogy.” American Literature
Association 2001 Contemporary American Literature Conference. Santa Fe, NM. October
27, 2001.
“Whose Nuyorican Literature? Bohemianism, Colonialism, and the Nuyorican Poets‟ Café.”
Twentieth Century Literature Conference. University of Louisville, Louisville, KY. February
22, 2001.
Regional
“Turning the Page of Cormac McCarthy‟s Cities of the Plain.” Shaping the American West
Conference. Snowbird, UT. June 9-11, 2005.
“Loving Che, Loving Cuba: Ana Menéndez and the Intimacy of Cuban Diasporic Ideologies.”
Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association Conference. Boulder, CO. September 30,
2004.
“Border Literatures, Generic Hybridity, and Postcolonial Realism.” Northeast Modern Language
Association Conference. Hartford, CT. March 31, 2001.
INVITED PRESENTATIONS
Local
“Ethnicity Unplugged: MTV and the Nuyorican Poets Café.” BYU American Studies Lecture
Series. January 26, 2006.
ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS
•Associate Professor, Brigham Young University, May 2007-present.
•Assistant Professor, Brigham Young University, August 2000-May 2007.
•Instructor, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY. August 1996-2000.
•Senior Adjunct Instructor, Dowling College, Oakdale, NY. Fall 1997-.Spring 2000.
•Instructor, St. Joseph‟s College, Patchogue, NY. Spring 1997-Spring 2000.
•Visiting Poet/ Guest Instructor, Nassau BOCES Cultural Arts Center, Syosset, NY. July 1997.
•Writing Tutor, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Summer 1997, Summer 1998.
•Instructor, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT. August 1994-August 1996.
SELECTED AWARDS AND HONORS
•American Studies Professor of the Year, Brigham Young University, 2008.
•Alcuin Fellowship in General Education, Brigham Young University, 2008-2010.
•English Department Teaching Award (“Teacher of the Year”), Brigham Young University,
Winter 2005.
•Teacher of Honor Award, Brigham Young University Student Honor Association, Winter 2002.
•Graduate Council Fellowship, State University of New York at Stony Brook, 1996-2001.
UNIVERSITY SERVICE AND COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIPS
•Assessment Committee Member, Brigham Young University English Department, August 2006-
present.
•English 293 Course Coordinator, Brigham Young University English Department, August 2003-
Present.
•BYU English Society Faculty Advisor, Brigham Young University English Department, August
2005-2008.
•Graduate Program Committee Member, Brigham Young University English Department,
August 2004-August 2005.
•Recruitment and Hiring Committee Member, Brigham Young University English Department,
August 2001-August 2004.
•Electronic Advisory Committee Member, Brigham Young University English Department,
August 2000-August 2001.
•Library Committee Member, Brigham Young University English Department, August 2000-
August 2001.
•Undergraduate Advisor, Brigham Young University English Department, August 2000-August
2003.
OTHER PROFESSIONAL SERVICE
•Reader, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, November 2004.
•Student Representative, English Graduate Program Committee, State University of New York at
Stony Brook, 1999-2000.
•Vice President, Graduate English Society, State University of New York at Stony Brook, 1997-
1998.
•Writing Program Placement Committee Member, State University of New York at Stony Brook,
July 1997-August 1998; September 1999-2000.
•Judge, Stony Brook Short Fiction Prize, State University of New York at Stony Brook, 1999.
•Creative Writing Chair and Conference Committee Member, Stony Brook Interdisciplinary
Graduate Student Conference, December 1997-March 1998.
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Assistant Professor and Associate Professor, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT
Courses Taught: American Studies 390R: Topics in American Studies [“America through
the Beatles”]—Winter 2008
English 150: Rhetoric and Writing—Fall 2007
English 200, 200H: Rhetoric and Writing—Fall 2000, Fall 2001
English 293: American Literary History—Fall 2002, Winter
2003, Fall 2003, Fall 2004, Fall 2005, Winter
2006, Winter 2007
English 358R: Ethnic/Regional Literature [“U.S. Latino/a Literary
History”]—Winter 2002, Winter 2004, Winter
2005, Winter 2007
English 359: The Short Story—Spring 2005, Fall 2005
English 363: American Literature, 1914-1960—Fall 2000, Fall
2001
English 365: American Literature, 1960 to the Present—Spring
2001, Winter 2005, Winter 2006, Fall 2006, Fall
2007
English 495: Senior Course [“Postmodernism and the Late 20th
Century American Novel”—Winter 2001; “The
New Latino Literatures”—Winter 2002, Fall
2006; “The Novel as History, History as a
Novel”—Winter 2004, Fall 2005; “The 1960s
and American Literary Thought”—Fall 2004;
“Early Twenty-First Century American Fiction
and Poetry”—Fall 2007]
English 628R: Seminar in American Literature, 1914 to the
Present—Fall 2006
English 658R: Ethnic and Regional Literatures in English [“The
New Latino Literatures”—Fall 2002]
English 666: Late 20th Century American Literature—Winter
2001, Fall 2004
English 680: Contemporary Literature—Fall 2003
Instructor, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY
Courses Taught: English 101: Writing Workshop—Fall 1996, Fall 1997
English 191: Introduction to Poetry [“Contemporary American
Poetry, 1945-1995”—Spring 1999]
English 318: Nineteenth-Century American Literature—Summer
1999
Senior Adjunct Instructor, Dowling College, Oakdale, NY
Courses Taught: English 001A: Principles of Writing—Fall 1997, Spring 1998,
Fall 1998, Fall 1999
English 071A: Introduction to Creative Writing--Spring 1999,
Fall 1999
Adjunct Instructor, St. Joseph’s College, Patchogue, NY
Courses Taught: English 109: Analytical Writing—Spring 1997
English 115: The Short Story—Fall 1998
English 116: Religion in Literature—Spring 1998, Spring 1999
Visiting Poet/Guest Instructor, Nassau BOCES Cultural Arts Center, Syosset, NY
Courses Taught: Poetry Writing Workshop—July 1997
Graduate Instructor, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT
Courses Taught: English 115: The Dynamics of Political Literacy—Winter
1996 (special version of the course)
English 115: Principles of Reading and Writing—Fall 1994,
Winter 1995, Fall 1995, Winter 1996, Spring
1996
M.A. AND HONORS THESES
Chaired M.A. Theses (13 completed)
Melissa Huff, The Contract of Vagueness: Education in Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street and
Chang-Rae Lee’s Native Speaker (American Literature, 2008)
Annalisa Wiggins, Rethinking the Historical Lens: A Case for Relational Identity in Sandra Cisneros’s House
on Mango Street (American Literature, 2008)
Sarah Jenkins, Facing God: Contemporary American Devotional Poetry (American Literature, 2008)
Raj Chetty, Versions of America: Reading American Literature for Identity and Difference (American
Literature, 2006)
Nicole Carlson, Telling History through the Stories of Women: Julia Alvarez’s In The Time of the
Butterflies and In The Name of Salomé (American Literature, 2006)
Rachel Ligairi, The Familiar Foreign Country: Reading Mexico in Cormac McCarthy, Jack Kerouac, and
Katherine Anne Porter (American Literature, 2006)
Mark Mills, Interrogating History or Making History? Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, DeLillo’s Libra, and
the Shaping of Collective Memory (American Literature, 2006)
Sally Marie Giles, Sandra Cisneros as Chicana Storyteller: Fictional Family (Hi)stories in
Caramelo (American Literature, 2005)
Noella Jeo, Perry Smith and Josef Kavalier: Historical and Literary Victimized Victimizers
(American Literature, 2005)
Amy Glauser Bankhead, The Translator’s (In)visibility in Ann Patchett’s Bel Canto (American
Literature, 2005)
Emron Lee Esplin, Magic Realism in Latin American and North American Fiction: Implications
for Periodization and Regional Literatures (American Literature, 2003)
Roy David Turner, Postmodern Religious Syncretism in Ishmael Reed’s Mumbo Jumbo and
Rudolfo Anaya’s Bless Me, Última (American Literature, 2002)
Joy M. Welch, Joseph Heller and the Influence of Age: A Critical and Cultural Examination of
Storytelling in Catch-22 and Closing Time (American Literature, 2001)
Chaired Undergraduate Honors Theses (6 completed)
Noah Fulkerson, Surviving the Canon: Film, Poetry, and Memory of the Vietnam War (2008)
Matthew Dinger, The Ways of White Folks: Anglo-American Influences on the Poetry of Langston Hughes
(2008)
Benjamin Inouye, Growing Up Backwards and Forwards (2008)
Ryan Stodtmeister, Authenticating the Genre: Recovering the Ideological Roots of Detective Fiction in Paul
Auster’s City of Glass (2006)
Philip Roland Webb, Slaughterhouse-Five and the Bombing of Dresden: A Multiplicity of Historical
Narratives (2006)
Bethany A. Dolman, A Journey Home: Transnational Dominican American Identity in Julia Alvarez’s How
The García Girls Lost Their Accents (2003)
M.A. Theses as Reader (14 completed, 1 in progress)
Eric Izant (in progress)
James Gunter (Rhetoric, 2008)
Jacob Hodgen (American Literature, 2008)
Erik Kerby (Comparative Literature, 2008)
Alexis Middleton (American Literature, 2008)
Adam Bradford (American Literature, 2005)
Krisy Gashler (Folklore, 2005)
Lisa Harris (American Literature, 2003)
Cami Hewett (American Literature, 2003)
Brian Roberts (American Literature, 2003)
Lori Hofmann (Comparative Literature, 2002)
Angela Lowe Margetts (American Literature, 2002)
Randall Rogers (American Literature, 2002)
Laura Noel Smit Sorenson (Creative Writing, 2002)
Fara Sneddon (American Literature, 2001)
Honors Thesis as Referee (2 completed)
Kate Finlinson (2006)
John Alba Cutler (2002)
MENTORED UNDERGRADUATE ORCA (BYU OFFICE OF RESEARCH AND
CREATIVE ACTIVITIES) PROJECTS
Amanda Davis, “Human Limb Objects: Pinpointing the Social Role of Prosthetics in The Plot Against
America” (2008)
Matthew Dinger, “Overlooked Anglo-American Influences on Langston Hughes‟ Poetry” (2007)
Noah Fulkerson, “Singers of War, Singers of Peace: Characteristic Boundaries of Vietnam War
Poetry” (2007)
Sarah Jenkins and Aaron Allen, “Research and Encapsulation of Emerging LDS Literary Theory”
(2004-2005)
Philip Roland Webb, “The Bombing of Dresden: Unearthing Kurt Vonnegut‟s Manuscripts to
Decipher Non-Fictional History in a Fictional Account” (2003-2004)
Benjamin Zimmer, “The Impact of Socialism on Nuyorican Literature through the Eyes of Jesús
Colón” (2002-2003)
Sarah Elkins, “Code-Switching in the Puerto Rican American Community” (2002-2003)
Bethany Dolman, “The Multiple Worlds of Yolanda García: Transnational Identity in Julia
Alvarez‟s How The García Girls Lost Their Accents” (2002-2003)
Sally Giles, “The Impact of Latino Folklore on the Future of American Culture” (2002-2003)
Xochitl Anson, “Re-scripting Mexican-Americans in Chicana/o Juvenile Literature” (2001-2002)