ZacHARy Ostraff

Education 

2023 (anticipated graduation) PH.D. Creative Writing, Texas Tech University

2016                MFA Creative Writing, Eastern Washington

2012                BA English, BYU

TEACHING EXPERIENCE                                                                                    

College/University Education:

Texas Tech University: Graduate Student Instructor

  • English 3351: Nonfiction Workshop

  • English 2351: Introduction to Creative Writing

  • English 2308: Introduction to Nonfiction Literature

  • English 1302: Advanced College Rhetoric

  • English 1301: Essentials of College Rhetoric

Utah Valley University: adjunct professor

  • English 2010

Snow College: adjunct professor

  • English 1010: Freshman Writing

  • English 0980: Developmental Writing

Eastern Washington University:

  • English 170 (an Introduction to Literature course)—for 3 terms taught a small group of 15-24 students once a week, and attended a lecture series taught in conjunction two other times during the week.

Secondary Education:

·      Taught 9th grade-12th grade secondary students. Beginning writing (persuasive and informative) and reading (early introduction to literature).

Creative Writing

  • “Catching that Pig,” Longridge Review, (forthcoming)

  • “Death Mask (2)”, “Death Mask (3),” and “Death Mask (5), Writing Texas 2021/22

  • “Bread For Birds,” High Desert Journal, Fall 2021

  • “Precedent,” Semi-finalist essay for the Hippocampus Magazine’s Remember in November contest, 2020

Scholarly Writing

  • “Indigenous Speculation in Nonfiction: What Was and What May Still Be”, Wicazo Sa Review. The University of New Mexico [under Review]

  • Incorporating multimodal literacies across a FYW program: Graduate instructors’ preparation and experiences. In Shyam B. Pandey & Santosh Khadka (Eds.), Professional multimodal composition: Faculty and institutional perspectives. Coauthored with, Lauren Brawley, Morgan Connor, Meghalee Das, Aliethia Dean, Claudia Diaz, Michael J. Faris, Michelle Flahive, Maeve Kirk, Max Kirschenbaum, Joshua Kulseth, Alfonsina Lago, Kristina Lewis, Lance Lomax, Brook McClurg, Zachary Ostraff, Anthony Ranieri, Sierra Sinor, Rebekah Smith, & Yifan Zhang.

  • “The Lyric Essay as a Form of Counterpoetic.” Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies. Issue 7.2 Spring 2021.

MultiMedia and Other Projects

  • “Oddspace(s),” an exhibition of artist books, Thomas Nelson Community College, Hampton, VA Spring 2021

  • Artifacts of Family (masters thesis), A collection of non-fiction essays that explores the meaning of the things we inherit, pass down, and create in regard to familial relationships.

  • Desert Folklore (unpublished), A book of essays that integrate folklore from Utah’s deserts with my own experiences.

  • Manulua Book Arts Project (collaborative), this was a book art project that integrated western art practices with traditional Polynesian tapa cloth making.

  • Mapping the West Project (collaborative), This was an art project that involved a group of artists from a university in Liverpool, England. They came to Utah to participate in a collaborative project with BYU students, in which they made books in response to Utah’s geography. I was part of the local entourage that took them camping in Southern Utah.   

SCHOLARSHIPS AND AWARDS

Bruce G. and Cara Pollard Herlin Scholarship in Creative Writing, 2022-2023

Summer Dissertation Research Award, 2022-2023

Graduate Student Research Support Award, 2022-2023

Pulla Manda Nanda Akkaraju Scholarship, 2021-2022

Bruce G. and Cara Pollard Herlin Scholarship in Creative Writing, 2020-2021

BYU Maxwell Institute Graduate Fellow 2020 (canceled because of COVID-19)

Outstanding First Year Ph.D. Instructor in FYW Award Texas Tech, 2020-2021

GPTI for First Year Writing at Texas Tech University, 4-year position, 2019-2023

Conferences

TACWT  (Texas Association of Creative Writing Teachers)- 2022 panelist/reader

HippoCamp 2022—Breakout Session Speaker, “Embodying Family Story with 3rd Person POV”

TTU Arts & Humanities Conference-Fall 2021, Presenter, “The 2nd Person in Literary Nonfiction”

TACWT (Texas Association of Creative Writing Teachers)-2021 reading conference

Service and Professional Development

Iron Horse Literary Review—Managing Editor (August 2022-Current)

Iron Horse Literary Review—Associate Editor (Fall 2019-August 2022)

TTU Groundworks Program Fellow-January 2022

INTERNSHIPS                                                                                                                    

October 2014-March 2016     Writers in the Community Intern

January 2015-March 2015     Get Lit Festival Intern/Grant Writing

MANAGEMENT/LEADERSHIP                                                                                        

2018-NSHS Boys Soccer Coach

2016/17–National Junior Honor Society advisor, BRMS

2010–BYU Field Studies Field Facilitator: oversaw university students doing research in the Kingdom of Tonga