Heather Heckman-McKenna

Education

MA in English from Simmons University

BFA in Writing, Literature, and Publishing from Emerson College

Research and Teaching

Areas of Study

  • Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century British Literature
    • Romantic Period
    • Restoration and 18-Century Studies
  • Creative Writing
  • Women's and Gender Studies in English
Bio

Pronouns: She/Her/Hers

I’m an English Literature Ph.D. Candidate, Research Assistant, and Graduate Instructor at the University of Missouri. My research interests include British literature of the long eighteenth-century, nineteenth-century American literature, and women writers of the period. My work predominantly focuses on matters of feminism, power differentials, subversive overthrows of hegemonic establishments, and identity. I’m also a memoirist, and I am writing (and publishing chapters from) a book about surviving and recovering from domestic violence.

Awards and Honors

Awards and Honors:

Scholarly Awards

International: 
2022     Gale-ASECS Non-Residential Fellowship

University of Missouri Graduate School:
2022    Mary Elizabeth Gutermuth Award for Community Engagement
2020    John D. Bies International Travel Award, 2020-2021
2020     Dissertation Research Travel Scholarship, 2020-2021

University of Missouri English Department:
2022    English Department Fellowship, 2022
2021     Harry J. and Richard A. Hocks Dissertation Fellowship, 2021-2022
2021     Mary-Joe Purcell Fellowship, 2021-2022
2020     English Dissertation Year Fellowship, 2020-2021
2020     Donald E. and Mary Frances Hayden English Fellowship, 2020-2021
2020     The Judith A. and Richard B. Schwartz Award, 2020-2021
2019     Mary-Joe Purcell Fellowship, 2019-2020
2019     Elizabeth T. Barnes Memorial Graduate Fellowship, 2019-2020
2019     Graduate Student Best Paper Award, 1st Place, 2019
2018     Mary-Joe Purcell Fellowship, 2018-2019
2018     Graduate Student Best Paper Award, 2nd Place, 2018
2017     Elizabeth T. Barnes Memorial Graduate Fellowship, 2017-2018
2016     Donald E. and Mary Frances Hayden English Fellowship, 2016-2017

Creative Awards:

National:
2019     Pushcart Prize nomination for “Tilt,” December 2019
2018     Pushcart Prize nomination by Contributing Editor Joseph Hurka, December 2018
2018     “Drive” selected as a “Memoir Magazine Notable Essay,” April 2018

Selected Publications

Publications:

Refereed Journal Articles:
2019     Heringman, Noah and Heather Heckman-McKenna. “Commentary for Plate 1.57, Engraving of a Hypocaust Found at Lincoln.” Vetusta Monumenta. 12 June 2019.

2016     “Redefining Love in Atwood’s ‘Variation on the Word Sleep.’” The Explicator, vol. 74, no. 2, 2016, pp. 92-98.

Book Reviews:
2022     Book Review for Placing Charlotte Smith, forthcoming in Aphra Behn Online.

Refereed Headnotes: 
2022     Biography for Mary Julia YoungJackson Bibliography of Romantic Poetry, 28 March 2022.

Literary Journal Publications: 
Creative Nonfiction:

2022     “April 18th 2012; Echoes.” Past Ten, 18 April 2022. 

2021     “Fall.” The Carolina Quarterly, 71.1, 2021.

2021     “Chroma.” The Journal, 44.3, 2021.

2019    “Tilt.” CutBank, 90, 2019.

2018     “Target.” Open: Journal of Arts & Letters, 26 June 2018, web.

2018     “Drive.” Newfound, vol. 9, no. 1, 2018.

2016     “Securely Bound.” Bacopa Literary Review, vol. 8, no. 1, 2016, pp. 158-162.

2014     “Bus Ride.” Eckleburg, May 2014, web. 

Fiction:
2016     “Second Memory.” Inwood Indiana: Reaping, vol. 10, no. 1, 2016, p. 118.