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Headshot of Kat Gonso

Teaching Professor in English & Director of the Writing Center

Kat Gonso’s research focuses on peer review and its impact on the choices student writers make in creative writing, first-year writing, and writing in the discipline courses. She has held roles as Director of First-Year Writing and Director of the Writing Center. Currently, she is a co-facilitator of ADVANCE’s Inclusive Teaching Mentoring Circle.

An active creative writer, her most recent work has been featured in SmokeLong Quarterly, Hobart, and New Flash Fiction Review. She primarily writes flash fiction and young adult literature. Her fiction has received two Pushcart nominations (2014, 2015) and she was the winner of The Southeast Review’s World’s Best Short-Short Story Contest. Her chapbook, “Where We Go When We Disappear” was named a semi-finalist in the Black Lawrence Press Black River Chapbook Competition.

View CV
  • 2019-2020 Service-Learning Fellow
  • 2019 Global Experience Office Fellow
  • Humanities Center Grant 2017
  • Gover Fiction Prize. First Place. “What Home Will Look Like When We Return.” (2017).
  • Pushcart Nomination from SmokeLong Quarterly. “Puberty.” (2016).
  • Wigleaf Top 50 List of Best Very Short Fiction. “Puberty.” (2016).
  • 2015 – 2016 CATLR Faculty Scholars Program fellowship
  • Black Lawrence Press. The Black River Chapbook Competition. Semi-finalist. Where We Go When We Disappear. (2015).
  • Pushcart Nomination from The Southeast Review. “A Pinch of Salt.” (2014).
  • The Florida Review Jeanne Leiby Memorial Chapbook Contest. Semi-finalist. (2014). Smokelong Quarterly New England Flash Fiction Contest. Semi-finalist. (2014).
  • The World’s Best Short-Short Story Contest. First Place. The Southeast Review. “A Pinch of Salt.”(2013).
  • The World’s Best Short-Short Story Contest. Finalist. The Southeast Review. “Escape Plan.” (2012).
  • Distinguished Story of the Midwest. New Stories from the Midwest. Eds. Jason Lee Brown and Lee Prefontaine. Ohio University Press. (2011).
  • The World’s Best Short-Short Story Contest. Finalist. The Southeast Review. “Escape Plan.” (2010).
  • Wigleaf Long List of Best Very Short Fiction. “Things I Never Thought I’d Say.” (2010).
  • The World’s Best Short-Short Story Contest. Finalist. The Southeast Review. “Escape Plan.” (2012).
  • Distinguished Story of the Midwest. New Stories from the Midwest. Eds. Jason Lee Brown and Lee Prefontaine. Ohio University Press. (2011).
  • The World’s Best Short-Short Story Contest. Finalist. The Southeast Review. “Escape Plan.” (2010).
  • Wigleaf Long List of Best Very Short Fiction. “Things I Never Thought I’d Say.” (2010).
  • Collaboration and Community: Starting a First-generation College Literary Magazine. (Working paper).
  • Getchell and Gonso. “Valuing the Process: Building a Foundation for Collaborative Peer Review.” Teaching English in the Two-Year College. Print. (September 2019).
  • Based on a True Story.” New Flash Fiction Review. Web. (March 2018).
  • “Daniel.” Storm Cellar. Print. (March 2018)
  • Cleveland, 2009.Jellyfish Review. Web. (February 2018)
  • “What Home Will Look Like When We Return.” Best New Writing. 2017. Print.
  • Exposure.” Hobart. Web. (September 2017).
  • Aftermath.” Gravel. Web. (March 2017)
  • Bloodless.” Green Briar Review. Web. (February 2016).
  • Unfed.” Newfound. Web. (January 2016).
  • Puberty.” SmokeLong Quarterly. Quarterly Publication. Web. (June 2015).
  • “Izzy Stole Maria’s Night Guard.” Corium. Web. (2014).
  • “Harry Holden and Everything After.” Flash: The International Short-Short Story Magazine. 7.1 (2014).
  • “A Pinch of Salt.” The Southeast Review. 32.1 (2014).
  • “Capture the Flag.” The Southeast Review. 31.1 (2013).
  • “Varying Authorial Roles of the University Tutor in High School Writing Centers.” Teachers on Writing and Writers on Teaching. Emerson College. (2011).
  • John Trimbur, Anne C. Wheeler, Kat Gonso, Kara Mae Brown, Amy Patterson, Tim Lockridge, Daniel Lawson, and Diana George. “Rhetorical Situations, Research Writing, and Genre: Cross-Institutional Collaboration on Curriculum Design.” Journal of College Writing. 10. (2010): 1 – 42.
  • “To Drown in All This World.” American Literary Review. 21.1. (2010).
  • “Escape Plan.” The Southeast Review. 28.1 (2010).
  • Where We Go When We Disappear.” What If? Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers. 3rd Ed. Pamela Painter and Anne Bernays, Perason Longman. (2010). Reprinted 2012.
  • “Something She Did Not Have to Give.” River Styx. 80.1 (2009)
  • Thing I Never Thought I’d Say.” Fringe. Web. (2009).
  • Floor WorkPindeldyboz. Web. (2009).

Related Schools & Departments

Courses

Course catalog
  • Students practice and reflect on writing in professional, public, and academic genres—such as literature reviews, case studies, protocols, and care instructions—relevant for careers in nursing, pharmacy, and other health professions. In a workshop setting, offers students an opportunity to evaluate a wide variety of sources and develop expertise in audience analysis, critical research, peer review, and revision.

  • Offers instruction in writing for students considering careers or advanced study in the social sciences. By exploring research literature and reflecting on their own experiences, offers students an opportunity to identify issues of interest and analyze how texts make claims, invoke other social science literature, offer evidence, and deploy key terms. Through analysis and imitation, exposes students to the challenges of the social science project, including the collection of data on human subjects and the ethical presentation of evidence. In a workshop setting, offers students an opportunity to evaluate a wide variety of sources and develop expertise in audience analysis, critical research, peer review, and revision.

  • Focuses on the teaching of writing by studying the professional literature of writing theory as well as a teaching practicum. Students work as a writing tutor or shadow experienced teachers. Offers students an opportunity to prepare for future teaching of writing and to obtain deeper insight into their own writing processes.