JUAN MARTINEZ
Department of English
Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences
Northwestern University
University Hall
1897 Sheridan Road
Evanston, IL 60208-2240
(847) 467-4677
juan.martinez@northwestern.edu
Employment
Associate Professor, Northwestern University (2020-present)
Assistant Professor, Northwestern University (2013-2020)
Assistant Professor, Lebanon Valley College (2012-2013)
Visiting Assistant Professor, Whitman College (2011-2012)
Education
Ph.D. in English with a minor in translation theory
2011 - University of Nevada Las Vegas - Las Vegas, NV
Dissertation: Nabokovilia: References to Vladimir Nabokov in Contemporary British and American Culture, 1960-2009
Committee: Anne Stevens (Chair), Richard Harp, Kelly Mays, Douglas Unger, Michele Tusan
M.A. in creative writing
2004 - University of Central Florida - Orlando, FL
Thesis: Minutes from Pragma: Stories
Committee: Susan Hubbard (Chair), Ivonne Lamazares, Jeanne Leiby
B.A. in creative writing with a minor in applied computer science
2000 - University of Central Florida - Orlando, FL
Publications (Creative)
Books
Extended Stay. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press, 2023. Camino del Sol.
Best Worst American. Easthampton, MA: Small Beer Press, 2017. (Winner of the inaugural Neukom Institute Literary Prize for debut fiction, 2018)
Stories and Poems
“Customer Service at the Karaoke Don Quixote.” Flash Fiction America. New York, NY (forthcoming February 2023).
“Esther (1855).” NIGHTMARE (May 2022).
“Cerati After Cerati.” Small Odysseys. New York, NY: Workman (March 2022).
“A Subscribers-Only Sneak Peek into the Preliminary Report on the Conditions of the Camps.” The Sunday Morning Transport (January 2022).
“Trumbull.” Shenandoah (Spring 2020).
“What Happened to F.B.?” Hypertext Review (Fall 2018).
“The Retinue of Little Abysses.” Who Will Speak For America? Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press (2018)
“Three Poems of the Abyss.” Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet 37 (2018)
“Character Limit.” The Mississippi Review 45/3 (Winter 2018)
“Northern.” Huizache 5 (Fall 2015)
“Because You Asked: A Letter to My Former Students.” Because You Asked: A Book of Answers on the Art and Craft of the Writing Life. Sandpoint, Idaho: Lost Horse Press, 2015.
“Missed Tickets (1994).” The Cossack Review 4 (2015).
“Debtor.” Ecotone 16 (Fall 2013).
“Domokun in Fremont.” TriQuarterly 144 (Summer/Fall 2013). <http://www.triquarterly.org/issues/issue-144/domokun-fremont>.
“Courier.” TriQuarterly 144 (Summer/Fall 2013). <http://www.triquarterly.org/issues/issue-144/courier>.
“Best Worst American.” For Public Radio International’s Selected Shorts. Broadcast on National Public Radio on 21 October 2012. MP3 of the radio broadcast available here.
“The Vegas Pedestrian.” Four-part series on transversing Vegas on foot for Las Vegas City Life. (20 March 2011 - 21 July 2011).
“On Paradise.” The Perpetual Engine of Hope: Stories Inspired by Iconic Vegas Photographs. Las Vegas Valley Book Festival / CityLife Books.
“Customer Service at the Karaoke Don Quixote.” Sudden Fiction Latino: Short-Short Stories from the United States and Latin America. New York: Norton, 2010. (Originally appeared in McSweeney’s.)
“Well Tended.” Glimmer Train 74 (Spring 2010).
“The Orlando Sonnet” (Pushcart Prize nominee). Redivider 5:1 (Spring 2008).
“Divers” (Pushcart Prize nominee). West Branch 61 (Winter/Fall 2007).
“Souvenirs from Ganymede.” River Teeth 8:2 (Spring 2007) .
“The Spooky Japanese Girl is There for You.” McSweeney’s. 8 May 2007 <http://www.mcsweeneys.net/2007/5/8martinez.html>.
“The Coca-Cola Executive in the Zapatoca Outhouse.” Conjunctions. 28 January 2007 <http://www.conjunctions.com/webcon/martinez07.htm>.
“Correspondences Between the Lower World and Old Men in Pinstripe Suits.” Interim 25 (Spring 2007).
“The Lead Singer is Distracting Me.” McSweeney's. 10 November 2006 <http://www.mcsweeneys.net/links/monologues/10leadsinger.html>.
“Your Significant Other's Kitten Poster” and “Liner Notes for Renegade: The Director's Opening Sequence.” Sceal (Spring 2006).
"Divers," a sonnet set to music by Moya Henderson. Performed on 9 April 2006 by Fiona Chatwin and the Happy Vegemites at the University of California, San Diego.
“Roadblock.” Glimmer Train 58 (Spring 2006).
“Machulín in L.A.” The Santa Monica Review (Fall 2004).
“Hobbledehoydom.” The Morning News. 19 April 2004
<http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/personalities/hobbledehoydom.php>.
“An Important Message from Mephistopheles, Servant of the Prince of the Devils, From his Condo in Boca Raton.” McSweeney's. 30 October 2003 <http://www.mcsweeneys.net/2003/10/30martinez.html>.
“The Person We Want.” Nabokov Festschrift. <http://www10.plala.or.jp/transparentt/martinez.html>.
“On Messing Around While Sober.” Public Scrutiny. Spring 2003 <http://www.publicscrutiny.net/2003/ps-2003-sober.htm>.
“Errands.” Pindeldyboz (Spring 2002).
“Treatment.” Pindeldyboz. 15 October 2002 <http://www.pindeldyboz.com/jmtreat.htm>.
“Treaty.” Pindeldyboz. 19 January 2002 <http://www.pindeldyboz.com/jmmtreaty.htm>
“My Sister's Knees.” Pindeldyboz (Spring 2001).
“Some Things That Have Gone Wrong With My Techno-Thriller.” McSweeney's. 29 June 2001 <http://www.mcsweeneys.net/2001/06/29thriller.html>.
“Strangers on Vacation: Snapshots.” McSweeney’s. 22 March 2001 <http://www.mcsweeneys.net/2001/03/22strangers.html>.
“The Women Who Talk to Themselves.” Pindeldyboz. Ed. Whitney Pastorek. 26 February 2001 <http://www.pindeldyboz.com/jmmwomen.htm>.
“After the End of the World: A Capsule Review.” McSweeney's. 21 February 2001 <http://www.mcsweeneys.net/2001/02/21endofworld.html>.
“Customer Service at the Karaoke Don Quixote.” McSweeney’s. 7 December 2000 <http://www.mcsweeneys.net/2000/12/07quixote.html>.
“Last Minute Installation Ideas.” McSweeney's. 5 December 2000 <http://www.mcsweeneys.net/links/lists/installation.html>.
“Tag Team Orientation Seminar in the Wilderness of Hope, MN.” Pindeldyboz. 27 November 2000 <http://www.pindeldyboz.com/jmmtag.htm>.
“Forsaken, the Crew Awaited News From the People Below.” McSweeney's. 21 July 2000 <http://www.mcsweeneys.net/2000/07/21forsaken.html>.
“Backlight.” The Cypress Dome (Spring 1998).
Publications (Scholarly/Refereed)
“Bridge, Median, and Underpass: Nabokov’s Circulation in Television and Movies.” Nabokov Online Journal X-XI (2016). Ed. Nassim Balestrini.
A review of Rene Allayade’s The Darker Shades of Pale Fire: An Investigation into a Literary Mystery. Nabokov Online Journal VIII (2014). Ed. Yuri Leving. <http://www.nabokovonline.com/>
“Cynthia’s Broken Series: The Hereafter’s Text and Paratext in ‘The Vane Sisters.’” The Nabokovian 64 (Spring 2010). Ed. Stephen Jan Parker.
---. Reprinted in Short Story Criticism. Ed. Jelena Krstovic. Vol. 163. Detroit: Gale, Cengage Learning, 2012.
“Up a Backlit Staircase, Casting a Long Shadow: Jacques Torneur’s I Walked With a Zombie, Robert Stevenson’s Jane Eyre, and the Problems and Rewards of Visible Obstacles.” Journal of Popular Culture (Summer 2010). Ed. Felicia Campbell.
“A Fold of the Marquisette: Nabokov’s Lepidoptery in Visual Media.” Nabokov Online Journal III (2009). Ed. Yuri Leving. <http://www.nabokovonline.com/>
---. Reprinted in The Goalkeeper: The Nabokov Almanac. Ed. Yuri Leving. Boston: Academic Studies Press, 2010.
Awards, Fellowships, Recognitions, and Certificates
Best Worst American won the inaugural Neukom Institute Literary Prize for debut fiction, 2018.
Short story “Best Worst American” commissioned by Symphony Space’s Selected Shorts and performed by Cristin Milioti. Broadcast on National Public Radio on 21 October 2012. (Additional information: coverage of the live performance, Symphony Space’s news release, Hannah Tinti interviews Etkar Keret on the stories featured in the segment) MP3 of the radio broadcast available here.
Short story “Customer Service at the Karaoke Don Quixote” performed live by Nate Cordry for Symphony Space at the Getty Center in Los Angeles. Broadcast nationally in National Public Radio’s Selected Shorts. Also available online at <http://castroller.com/Podcasts/PriSelectedShorts/2680287>. (Additional information: L.A. Times and Getty Center coverage of the live performance.)
English-department nominee for the UNLV Outstanding Dissertation Award
Interviewed for KNPR’s State of Nevada, 17 May 2011. KNPR 89.9. Also available online at <http://www.knpr.org/son/archive/detail2.cfm?SegmentID=7855&ProgramID=2234>.
Interviewed for KNPR’s State of Nevada, 6 October 2010. KNPR 88.9. Also available online at <http://www.knpr.org/son/archive/detail2.cfm?SegmentID=7219&ProgramID=2067>.
President’s Graduate Fellowship
August 2009 - August 2010 - University of Nevada, Las Vegas - Las Vegas, NV
Graduate College International Access Scholarship
August 2007 - August 2011 - University of Nevada, Las Vegas - Las Vegas, NV
GA Excellence in Teaching Award
April 2007 - Teaching and Learning Center, University of Nevada, Las Vegas - Las Vegas, NV
Poem “Divers” set to music by Australian composer Moya Henderson. (Additional information here.)
Graduate Assistantship
August 2005-August 2011 - English Department, University of Nevada, Las Vegas - Las Vegas, NV
Graduate Student of the Year
2003 - English Department, University of Central Florida - Orlando, FL
Graduate Teaching Assistant Certificate Course
2003 - Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning, University of Central Florida - Orlando, FL
Interviewed for NPR’s The Arts Connection by Sarah Schlossman, 17 November 2004 WMFE 90.7 .
Waxwing: The Vladimir Nabokov Appreciation Site linked by CNN, The Guardian, Longman Publishing, the division of Russian and Slavic Studies at Hunter College New York, and elsewhere; the website is also featured in course syllabi at Cornell, MIT, Mount Holyoke, and other universities.
Teaching Experience
Department of English, Northwestern University
ENG 207 Reading and Writing Fiction, Winter 2015
ENG 394 Theory and Practice of Fiction, Fall 2013-Winter 2014, Fall 2014-Winter 2015
ENG 368 Studies in 20th-Century Literature, Fall 2014
School of Continuing Studies, Northwestern University
MCW 413 Graduate Creative Writing, Fall 2013
Department of English, Lebanon Valley College
FYS 100 First Year Seminar: Obsessed, Fall 2012
ENG 112 English Communications 2, Spring 2013
ENG 225 Survey of English Literature I, Fall 2012, Spring 2013
ENG 219 Creative Writing Workshop (Fiction), Spring 2013
ENG 319 Craft of a Genre (Fiction), Fall 2012
Department of English, Whitman College
ENGL 347 Studies in American Literature, Spring 2012
ENGL 250 Intermediate Creative Writing: Fiction, Fall 2011
ENGL 150 Introduction to Creative Writing, Fall 2011, Spring 2012
ENGL 178 Introduction to Fiction, Fall 2011
Department of English, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
ENG 407A Business Writing, Fall 2010, Fall 2007, Spring 2008, Summer 2008, Summer 2009, Summer 2010
ENG 231 World Literature 1, Fall 2010, Spring 2006, Fall 2006, Summer 2007
ENG 232 World Literature 2, Summer 2006
ENG 205 Creative Writing 1, Fall 2006
ENG 101 Composition 1, Fall 2005, Spring 2011
Department of English, Valencia Community College, Orlando
CRW 2001 Creative Writing, Spring 2005
ENG 1101 Freshman Composition 1, Spring 2005
Department of English, University of Central Florida, Orlando
ENG 1101 Composition 1, Spring 2005, Spring 2004
ENG 1102 Composition 2, Fall 2004
CRW 3930, Creative Writing for Non-majors, Fall 2004
CRW 4122, Advanced Creative Writing, Spring 2004
Related Experience
Style Writer
August 2010 - August 2011 - Desert Companion, KNPR - Las Vegas, NV
Assistant to the Graduate Coordinator
August 2008 - August 2009 - UNLV English Department - Las Vegas, NV
Assistant Lab Manager
March 1999-December 2002 - Academic Computing Support, University of Central Florida - Orlando, FL
Lab Consultant
1996-1999 - Academic Computing Support, University of Central Florida - Orlando, FL
Staff Writer
1993-1996 - The Colombian Post - Bogotá, Colombia
Readings, Panels, and Presentations
July 2014. “Fast Talk: Four Easy Ways to Make Dialog Pop” & “Dirty Tricks.” The Northwestern Summer Writers’ Conference. Chicago, IL.
November 2013. “The Art of Short Fiction: Telling the Best Stories” & “Meet the Authors of Las Vegas Writes.” Vegas Valley Book Festival. Las Vegas, NV.
March 2013. “Writing and Reconsidering Regional Fiction.” The Association of Writers and Writing Programs Conference. Boston, MA.
February 2013. Visiting Writers Series, Lebanon Valley College. Annville, PA.
January 2013. “Reverse-Engineering the Elephant: Nabokov in the Titles, Opening Passages, and Afterwords of Contemporary American Authors.” The Modern Language Association Convention. Boston, MA.
September 2011. Visiting Writers Series, Whitman College. Walla Walla, WA. (Additional information: Whitman Pioneer coverage of the event.)
November 2010. “Perpetual Engine of Hope panel.” Vegas Valley Book Festival. Las Vegas, NV.
October 2010. “Sudden Fiction Latino panel.” Latino Book and Family Festival. Los Angeles, CA.
November 2009. “A Continent Without Porticos.” Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association. San Francisco, CA.
March 2009. “Up a Backlit Staircase, Casting a Long Shadow: Jacques Torneur’s I Walked With a Zombie, Robert Stevenson’s Jane Eyre, and the Problems and Rewards of Visible Obstacles.” Far West Popular Culture and American Culture Associations Convention. Las Vegas, NV.
December 2008. “Cynthia’s Broken Series: The Hereafter’s Text and Paratext in ‘The Vane Sisters.’” The Modern Language Association Convention. San Francisco, CA.
January 2008. “Pitching Fiction: From Academia to the Marketplace.” The Association of Writers and Writing Programs Conference. New York, NY.
May 2007. “Lord Kinbote, Hold Steady: Nabokov References in Pop Culture.” Oceanic Popular Culture Association Conference, Honolulu, HI.
February 2007. “Nabokovilia: Nabokov References in Contemporary Literature.” Louisville Conference on Literature and Culture Since 1900, Louisville, KY.
November 2006. "Providence and Peg Legs: Shakespeare's Pirates." Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association Conference, Riverside, CA.
March 2006. "Translating an Affair: A Comparison of the Two Official Lolita Translations". Southeast Conference on Foreign Languages and Literature, Deland, FL.
Undergraduate Advising
Nicole Bronnimann, honors thesis adviser (creative writing) 2013
Paul Riker, honors thesis adviser (creative writing) 2014
Interests
Special Skills