Author Archives: Jessica Yood

About Jessica Yood

I am an Associate Professor of English at Lehman College, The City University of New York (CUNY). Composition and Rhetoric is my primary field and research into the history and emerging role of writing in our contemporary culture continues to broaden my definition of this discipline. Work for my book project takes me into the history of literary criticism in America, complexity theories, the culture wars and the intellectual crises of the 1990s, and the enduring complexity of first-year writing and writers.

Forgetting as Step in the (Writing) Process

Posted on January 28, 2022 by Jessica Yood

Last November I finished a book. I resisted returning to it because I didn’t want to make any changes before receiving feedback. But when January ends, so does my time in writing purgatory: the period when an author does nothing … Continue reading →

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Writing in The New Yorker in the New Year

Posted on January 20, 2022 by Jessica Yood

I read the The New Yorker to find out what to read. I take my direction from the magazine’s always on-point book reviews. But Louis Menand’s December 20th review essay, about the dire state of the humanities, prompted me to … Continue reading →

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Reading in Reverse: May Again

Posted on May 14, 2020 by Jessica Yood

I read in reverse. Here are two examples: Ocean Vuong’s poetic On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous got me through the endless month of pandemic March. But inexplicably I turned its mystery into my mania. “Magical realism in the outskirts of … Continue reading →

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Being A TryHard In An Era of FailBetters

Posted on November 30, 2019 by Jessica Yood

I am a tryhard. A tryhard wants to fit in and stand out at the same time. They want to be noticed but not remembered. Being a tryhard can be exhausting and sometimes leads to serious regret. (See my class … Continue reading →

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Visiting Day II: Revision and Expectation

Posted on July 28, 2019 by Jessica Yood

“Visiting Day,” last week’s entry, was revised eight times. Eight times (8!) I returned to that short piece, tweaked and tightened until I forgot why I wrote it in the first place. Long gone now, that first draft surprised me. … Continue reading →

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Visiting Day Again

Posted on July 20, 2019 by Jessica Yood

A rite of passage followed me back to the city. Visiting Day at summer camp came and went. But I can’t let it go this time. The day started out as it always does: we do what we’re supposed to … Continue reading →

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When Composition and Literature Meet

Posted on March 21, 2019 by Jessica Yood

March 15, 2019: This is the brief talk I gave as part of a panel welcoming students accepted or wait-listed to The Graduate Center at CUNY.  Here I describe a class I’m teaching now, focused on the “academic novel” and … Continue reading →

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Private Pain, Public Humanities: Critical University Studies and Composition

Posted on October 23, 2017 by Jessica Yood

This is the talk I gave at the Critical University Studies Friday Forum at The Graduate Center , CUNY on Friday October 20th. I’ll open my talk with something participatory. If that’s upsetting to you (as it would be to … Continue reading →

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Am I Good at Critical University Studies?

Posted on October 23, 2017 by Jessica Yood

Is activist scholarship like all scholarship: meant to be judged? I’m wondering because, thanks to my CUNY colleagues, more than ever I feel connected to the activist field of Critical University Studies. Critical University Studies aims to intervene in higher … Continue reading →

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Tomorrow We Revise: November 2016

Posted on November 14, 2016 by Jessica Yood

Dear Readers, Tomorrow my writing class meets. I can’t wait. I teach literature too and love wrestling with how reading works in our world. But it’s a week into worry for what might happen to this country and to my college and … Continue reading →

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