Graduate Student Spotlight

Graduate Student Spotlight

 

Christine Imperial

Christine Imperial in front of a fruit tree with black shirt on

 

Christine Imperial is a PhD Cultural Studies student at UC Davis. As the winner of the 2021 Gournay Prize, her first book "Mistaken for an Empire" was published with Mad Creeks Books, an imprint of the Ohio State University. Imperial holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the California Institute of the Arts. She has forthcoming publications in The Kenyon Review, POETRY, Poets & Writers, and other esteemed journals.

Mistaken for an Empire, published by Ohio State University Press, 2023

“As an adult, [Imperial] attempted what no one else had done: translating[‘The White Man’s Burden’] into Tagalog. These efforts led Imperial to reflect on her many (often disorienting) moves between the U.S. and the Philippines as well as the pain that translating the poem, alongside her own fractured experiences, represented.…Kipling’s ‘burden,’ Imperial suggests, is far more nuanced than many believe.… An intriguing and provocative book.” —Kirkus

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