BIO

I grew up in Denver and earned a Ph.D. in English at Rutgers University in New Jersey. I teach at Roosevelt University in Chicago.

My scholarship focuses on American fiction and poetry, the politics of literacy, and ideas of “documentation” in written and visual media. My ideas are tested and revised in everyday dialogue with the students I teach.

The fiber art I create is both daughter and mother of my scholarship. I analyze and re-present tiny bits of narrative thought, the shape of a tired man’s mouth, the placement of a resigned woman’s hands in her lap. I draw attention to the working minds and bodies of people who have been written off by powerful institutions.

I am a hero- and heroine-driven populist. I admire Paulo Freire, Abbey Lincoln, Fr. Gregory Boyle, E.L. Doctorow, R. W. Emerson, Patti Smith, Sr. Joan Chittister, Walt Whitman, and my mother, Donna Marcellino.

Priscilla Perkins/Oak Park, IL

email: priscilla.perkins@gmail.com

m: 708.717.3007