324-O Curtiss Hall 513 Farm House Ln Ames IA 50011
Phone:
505-385-0176
Bio
Zachary Calhoun is an author from the high-desert mountains of New Mexico. He received a PhD in Philosophy from Tulane University (New Orleans, Louisiana) after receiving a BA in Liberal Arts from St. John's College (Santa Fe, New Mexico). He is now an MFA candidate in Creative Writing and Environment at Iowa State University, where he regularly teaches courses such as Public Speaking, Fiction, and Creative Writing.
His doctoral research in philosophy focused on the development of historical-materialist and environmentalist ways of thinking—from Rousseau, Kant, Toussaint, and other actors in the Haitian Revolution and the French Revolution, all the way up to later modern philosophers like Marx, Goldman, Fanon, and environmental philosophers like Hans Jonas. His research has been published in The Review of Metaphysics and Pli.
His fiction—typically set in the American Southwest—brings those same intellectual histories to life in speculative stories that center working-class struggle, climate change, queer identity, and the strategies of survival and resistance that allow communities to find a space for happiness and freedom in their collective existence. His stories often feature non-textual forms of writing (photography, music, illustration, and archival documents) while foregrounding questions of time, class politics, and environmental history.