Donora Hillard
American educator, author
Donora Shaw (née Hillard) is an American writer and educator. She first gained recognition in institutional critique and trauma studies for her debut full-length collection of poetry, published when she was 27 years old. Her projects have appeared on CNN, WBEZ Chicago, and MSNBC.
Shaw is the author of several works of hybrid text, poetry, and theory: Parapherna (2006), Exhibition (2008), Theology of the Body (2010), Covenant (2012), and The Aphasia Poems (2014). In 2015, her play The Plagiarist was produced in conjunction with the National Endowment for the Arts' The Big Read initiative. She has also modeled in book trailers. In 2016, Cobalt Press published her most recent full-length poetry book, Jeff Bridges.
Early life
Shaw was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. "Home for me," Shaw has said of the rural setting of her upbringing, "is being lost in the woods with people telling stories about something terrible all around you." Some of her earliest works of poetry were recognized locally.
Shaw later matriculated at King's College, where she would become President of Sigma Tau Delta, the International English Honor Society, and attain a membership to the Aquinas Society, the King's College honor society.
Academic career
After completing her BA in English from King's College (Pennsylvania) in just under three years, Shaw went on to pursue an MA in creative writing with a fellowship from Rutgers University-Camden.
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