Sandra L. Giles
VitaWork Address:
Department of Literature and Language School of Liberal Arts
Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College Tifton, GA 31793
229-391-4961
sgiles@abac.edu
EDUCATION
PhD in English (Creative Writing and Composition/Rhetoric), 2008, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida
MA in English, 1991, Valdosta State University, Valdosta, Georgia
BA in English, 1989, Valdosta State University
AA in English, 1987, Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, Tifton, Georgia
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Creative Nonfiction Writing (Writing the Rural Life) Fiction Writing
Introduction to Creative Writing (Multi-Genre) Literary Magazine Production
Capstone/Senior Project (Rural Studies Writing and Communication) Professional Writing/Business Writing
World Literature II and III (incl. III Honors) American Literature II
Composition I and II (incl. II Honors) Freshman Learning Communities
Learning Support/Remedial English I and II Freshman Seminar
TEACHING POSITIONS--PRESENT Professor of English
Fall 1997-Spring 2000, Fall 2003-Present, Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College (ABAC), Tifton, Georgia
Online English Instructor
Fall 2013-Present, University System of Georgia’s eCore (administered through the University of West Georgia, Carrollton)
TEACHING POSITIONS--PAST Teaching Assistant, English
Fall 2000-Summer 2003, Department of English, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida
Full-Time Temporary Instructor of English
Fall 1991-Spring 1992, Fall 1993-Summer 1997, Valdosta State University, Valdosta, Georgia
Part-Time Instructor of English
Fall 1992-Summer 1993, Valdosta State University
TEACHING AWARDS
W. Bruce and Rosalyn Ray Donaldson Faculty Award for Teaching Excellence, Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, 2012
ABAC Nominee for Georgia Governor’s Teaching Fellows, 2009
Robert O. Lawton Award for Excellence in Teaching First-Year Writing, Spring 2002, English Department, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida
CERTIFICATION
Online Teaching Certification, University System of Georgia’s eCore, July 2013
SELECTED PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITY Creative Nonfiction Publications/Awards
Review of Rick Bragg’s The Most They Ever Had. Pegasus 41 (Spring 2014): 75. “He Said He’d Be There,” First Place, Inspirational Writing, Southeastern Writers
Association, 2013.
“Saddlebags and Circuit Riders,” Second Place, Cappy Award for Humor, Southeastern Writers Association, 2013.
“Consider the Seeds,” Tifton Gazette 20 December 2012: 6A. “Defining ‘Creative Nonfiction.’” Purple Pros 21.8 (August 2012):
southeasternwriters.org.
Review of Terri Cheney's Manic: A Memoir. Pegasus (Spring 2011): 72.
“They Get Mad When You Save Yourself,” Honorable Mention, New Millennium Writings Nonfiction Contest, Winter 2009.
“The Mediums, Their Message,” On Writing: A Process Reader. Ed. Wendy Bishop. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2004. 289-93.
Fiction Publications/Awards
“Rawhead and Bloody Bones.” Rose Red Review 6 (Autumn 2013): roseredreview.org/2013-autumn-sandra-giles/.
“The Unicorn,” Third Place, G.T. Youngblood Short Fiction Award, Southeastern Writers Association, 2012.
“Cowboy Boots,” Wilderness House Literary Review 6.2 (Summer 2011): www.whlreview.com.
Review of Earnest Gaines’s Mozart and Leadbelly: Essays and Stories. Dead Tree Notes
(Spring 2007): 1-2.
Review of Thomas Jeffrey Vasseur’s Discovering The World: Thirteen Stories. Southeast Review 22.2 (Spring 2003): 142-4.
Poetry
“Crossing the Fall Line,” “First Memory,” and “At the Aquarium,” Shout Them From the Mountaintops II: Georgia Poems and Stories. Eds. Jean B. Copland, et al.
GCTAE: Legacy Press, 2012. 148-9. “After Mowing,” Pegasus 31 (Spring2004): 8.
Photography
“St. Simons Island #1” and “St. Simons #2.” Rose Red Review 6 (Autumn 2013): autumn-lynne-williams/ and roseredreview.org/2013-autumn-ken-poyner/.
Pedagogical Publications
Co-Authored with Tom C. Hunley. “Rhetorical Pedagogy” in A Guide to Creative Writing Pedagogies, eds. Tom C. Hunley and Alexandria Peary. Forthcoming from Southern Illinois University Press Winter 2015.
"Reflective Writing and the Revision Process: What Were You Thinking?" Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing. Vol. 1. Eds. Charlie Lowe and Pavel Zemliansky. Lafayette, IN: Parlor Press, 2010. 191-204. Also available at writingspaces.org. “Reading and Writing in Bad Decline? Creative Writing and the AWP Conference 2007,”
Blackwater Reflections 2.1 (October 2007): 2.
Co-Authored with Tom C. Hunley. “What To Do When You’re Not Really New,”
Feeling Our Way: A Writing Teacher’s Sourcebook. Eds. Wendy Bishop and
Deborah Coxwell-Teague. Houghton-Mifflin, 2004. 18-29.
“Letter to the Reader: An Assignment in Metacognition,” Pedagogy Papers 2004. Associated Writing Programs. Spring 2004-Spring 2005: awpwriter.org.
Conference Presentations
Panel Discussion, Rural Studies Roundtable, Georgia Museum of Agriculture, Tifton, Georgia, 14 November 2012.
Co-Presented with Jeff Newberry and C.D. Mitchell. “Literary Magazine Pedagogy,” Other Words: A Conference of the Florida Literary Arts Coalition, St. Augustine, Florida, November 6, 2010.
Co-Presented with Jana Williams and Mike Williams. “Recess For Writers: Playing with Language and Laughter,” Student Success In First-Year Composition Conference, Statesboro, Georgia, February 4, 2005.
“Generative Forms for Prose Writing: The Greeks Invented That Wheel,” Conference on College Composition and Communication, San Antonio, Texas, March 24-7, 2004.
“Using Process Memos To Respond to Student Writing,” Responding to Creative Writing. Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) Conference, Baltimore, Maryland, February 26-March 1, 2003.
Recent Seminars and Workshops
“Thriller 101: Horror Writing,” Moultrie-Colquitt County Library, 26 October 2013 “How to Make Memoirs More Than Just Mem’ries,” Sunbelt Writers Association,
Moultrie-Colquitt County Public Library, Moultrie, Georgia, 18 August 2012 ABAC Center for Teaching and Learning workshop (as member of Faculty Learning
Community) “Alternatives to Quizzes,” 28 March 2011
ABAC Center for Teaching and Learning workshop “Reflection, Self-Assessment, and the Learning Process” 27 Sept 2010
Pegasus Literary Magazine workshop on Prose Writing, 24 Feb 2010 and 4 March 2009
Literary Readings and Other Speaking Engagements
Featured Reader (with Brian Ray, Erin Campbell, Peter Pinnow) during “Reader’s Theatre: Literature and the King James Bible” during Manifold Greatness: The Creation and Afterlife of the King James Bible, Tifton-Tift County Public Library, 5 May 2013
Alumni Address at ABAC Freshman Convocation, Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, 12 August 2012. Available on YouTube.com
Read original flash nonfiction “13 in 1980,” Love Affair Fine Arts Festival Jazz and Poetry Café, Tifton, Georgia, 29 April 2011
Read original short fiction “The Hardest Part” for Lunch N Learn series, Tift Public Library, 2 July 2010
Read original flash fiction “Cowboy Boots” Love Affair Fine Arts Festival, Tifton, Georgia, May 2010
Read original creative nonfiction “They Get Mad When You Save Yourself” ABAC Writers Harvest, 29 October 2009
Read original creative nonfiction “Soldiers” Love Affair Fine Arts Festival, Tifton, Georgia, 1 May 2009
Read from original novel, The Eight Of Swords, George Scott Day Celebration of Arts and Humanities, ABAC, 13 April 2006
Read from original creative nonfiction “They Get Mad When You Save Yourself” George Scott Day, ABAC, 21 April 2005
Read original short fiction, “Love and Madness,” during Florida State University’s Warehouse Readings Series, Tallahassee, Florida, 10 September 2002
SERVICE TO PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
Board of Directors, Secretary/Registrar, Southeastern Writers Association, Summer 2014-Present
Teacher-Consultant for the Blackwater Writing Project, a unit of the National Writing Project through Valdosta State University, Fall 1999-Spring 2013
E-Responder for National Writing Project’s E-Anthology, June 2011
SELECTED SERVICE TO INSTITUTION AND COMMUNITY
Coordinator, Oral History Workshop in conjunction with Lewis Hine/Young Family Exhibit, Georgia Museum of Agriculture, 15 March 2014
Coordinator, “Back Roads of Georgia” Creative Nonfiction Contest, Georgia Museum of Agriculture and Tifton-Tift County Arts Council, Summer-Fall 2013
Guest Lecturer, Julie Rucker’s Tift County High School Sophomore World Literature Class, ABAC Takes Over TCHS Day, 19 February 2014
Tifton-Tift County Arts Council, Summer 2013-Present Founder, Tiftarea Writers Haven, Summer 2005-Fall 2008
Chair, Stafford School of Business Promotion and Tenure Committee, Fall 2013 School of Liberal Arts and Dept. of Literature and Language Promotion and Tenure
Committees, Fall 2013 and Fall 2010
Chair, College-wide Promotion and Tenure Committee, Spring 2013 Chair, Humanities Division Promotion and Tenure Committee, Fall 2008
Chair, Search Committee for English Faculty, Summer 2014 Chair, English Search Committee, Spring 2008
Selection Committee for Carson Lanier Service Award for Staff Excellence, Spring 2014 College-wide Curriculum Committee, Fall 2008-Spring 2009
CTL Faculty Learning Community, Fall 2010 with presentation “Alternatives to Quizzes in Literature Classes,” 28 March 2011
President’s Team on Professional Development and Engagement, Spring 2008
Faculty Senate, Fall 2006-Spring 2008, and Sub-Committee on Student Evaluations, Fall 2007-Spring 2008
Chair, Professional and Creative Writing Committee, Fall 2010-Spring 2012 Co-Chair, Sophomore Literature Committee, Fall 2012-Spring 2013
Co-Chair, department Faculty Success Committee, Spring 2012
Committee to design and propose 4-year Bachelor’s Degree in English, Fall 2010 Chair, Committee to design the Writing and Communication track for the Rural Studies
Bachelor’s Degree, Fall 2009
Chair, First-Year Writing Committee, Fall 2009-Spring 2010 Academic Advising, Fall 1998-Spring 2000, Fall 2003-Present
Faculty Co-Advisor, Pegasus Student Literary Magazine, Fall 1998-Spring 2000, Spring 2009-Present
Co-Coordinator of the Conference of the College Literary Magazine Association, April 13, 2007
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
AWP (Association of Writers and Writing Programs) Gulf Coast Association of Creative Writing Teachers NCTE (National Council for Teachers of English) Southeastern Writers Association
Phi Kappa Phi
RELATED WORK EXPERIENCE Technical Writer/Editor
Goldleaf Technologies, Inc., Hahira, Georgia, June 1992-August 1993. Responsibilities included the following:
Writing and/or editing, overseeing production of technical documentation (computer manuals, workshop and seminar manuals)
Serving as contributing editor for the Goldleaf Exchange (newsletter) Designing, composing, and producing marketing materials (press releases, brochures, announcements, fliers)
Paralegal
Morris and Webster Law Firm, Tifton, Georgia, Summers of 1989 and 1990. Responsibilities included the following:
Acting as Paralegal in the areas of Criminal Law and in Workers’ Compensation, Insurance, and Personal Injury Law
Conducting legal research and composing briefs Composing deposition and transcript summaries Assisting lawyers in court