Teacher. Christie is in her ninth year as an educator. She teaches senior English, AP English Literature, and the creative writing elective at an all-girls school, as well as a summer camp creative writing course for girls in the 5th-8th grade. She also teaches online and summer courses for gifted students enrolled in Duke University's Talent Identification Program. She taught literature and composition at Louisiana State University from 2012-2016 and at the University of New Orleans from 2011-2012. She is a Google Certified Educator, Level 2.
Scholar. Christie is a PhD candidate in English literature at Louisiana State University. She received a dissertation-year fellowship from the LSU Graduate School in 2018. Christie holds a bachelor’s degree in English literature with a special concentration in creative writing (minor in anthropology) and a master’s degree in English literature from the University of New Orleans. She has presented her scholarly work at conferences across the country. She also studied abroad several times, taking graduate courses in creative writing (fiction and non-fiction), British and French literature, book history, print culture, and French language in France in 2011 and 2013 and in Canada in 2014. Her research interests include Romantic and Victorian literature, the lyric, social and physical histories of affect, and the multi-faceted role of silence in expressing emotional and sensory excess.
She is currently at work on her dissertation project titled Inside Voice: Charlotte Smith, (In)Sensibility, and the Emotional Cadence of Silence. This dissertation project serves as an investigation into the emotional-sensory qualities of sonnets of sensibility and an argument for a corrective mode of reading which actually recognizes muteness as a creative language (although this language offers complex challenges to the traditional reading and reception of a poem). This project examines the link between silence and the senses, the poetics of sensibility, and historical understandings of empathy in conjunction with Charlotte Smith’s Romantic poetry.
Writer. Christie writes short fiction and novels, primarily fantasy and magical realism about strange people, beautiful dreams, and magic. She attended the 2016 Madcap Retreats Aspiring Writers Workshop with Maggie Stiefvater, V.E. Schwab, Julie Murphy, and other amazing authors—all while deep in the fairy tale woods of Tennessee in a beautiful house full of light. Her biggest goals as a fiction writer include attending a Clarion or Clarion West workshop, selling a short story, and selling a novel one day.
She is currently at work on a non-fiction book which is part of a series aimed at teen readers. Her book addresses depression in teenagers, offering relatable, accessible situations and strategies to guide teens struggling with mental health—including identifying signs of struggle, recognizing stress factors, de-stigmatizing shame, implementing strategies for self-care (both in immediate crisis and long-term coping skills), and finding resources for help.
Dreamer. When not at work on her dissertation, she enjoys spending time with her lovely husband, petting her kittens Lord Tennyson & Mister Browning (aka Teeny & Mister), reading, and writing. Her new year’s resolution is to read at least 100 books for fun in the coming year.
