K.B. Thors

Instructor Biography:

Author of Vulgar Mechanics whose Stormwarning translation won a Leif & Inger Prize and was nominated for a PEN Literary Award. Other translations include Chintungo: The Story of Someone Else and subtitles for About My Blood, winner of the Latin American Studies Association Award for Merit in Film.

Instructor Statement:

Every story, scene, poem—even each line in a project can take myriad forms, transforming the work at hand. My classes cultivate linguistic attention and multicultural sensibilities to develop a range of writerly skills, arming writers with tools for drafting and improving original writing as well as translations and adaptations. By situating each classroom within multiple, intersecting global arts traditions, I work to affirm the full range of writers’ curiosities, identifications, and goals. Whether working on a complex heritage project or experimenting with hypertext—or both!—my approach blends deep respect for the material with encouragement toward bold, playful artistic license. I believe that experience arranging and re-arranging a text expands writerly perspective like nothing else, opening creators up to exciting possibilities. Supporting writers as their work takes shape, I don’t favor any particular style or form, but respect the parameters of each piece as we seek the best structure and language to achieve the desired effect.