Splash Biography

WREN AUSTIN, Funky poetic from rural Arkansas

Major: English & Linguistics

College/Employer: UChicago

Year of Graduation: 2023

Brief Biographical Sketch:

Hi, I'm Wren! This is my second year at UChicago and my fourth year of college overall. I'm an English major and my interests there include themes of religion, death, and dying in 20th century poetics, but I also work in a Linguistics lab studying gestural lexicography. I'm passionate about interacting with others, especially when it gives me the opportunity to show that academia doesn't have to be such a scary place. I'm a FLI student and active in the first gen, low-income, immigrant community at UC. When I'm not working, I love woodworking, painting, and driving wherever my little Subie will take me.

Past Classes

(Clicking a class title will bring you to the course's section of the corresponding course catalog)

L1840: Let's Talk Poetry!: Working with Difficult Poems in Cascade Cascade 2021 (Apr. 13, 2021)

Some poems are...dare I say...weird. Quirky, actually. Some are super short, some have multiple "strands," and some seem to switch in and out of gibberish. Close reading them can be intimidating. The goal of this course is to equip students with the tools to confront challenging poetic works with a full toolbox of close reading implements. In that process, students will learn just how funky the art of poetry can be and have the opportunity to write their own weird poems.