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Amy Billone

Amy Billone

Amy Billone

Professor

416 McClung Tower
Phone: (865) 974-6966
Fax: (865) 974-6926
abillone@utk.edu
Website

Biography

Amy Billone’s areas of expertise include 19th century literature and children’s/YA literature. She also has a background in creative writing. Billone is the author of Little Songs: Women, Silence, and the Nineteenth-Century Sonnet (2007, 2021) and The Future of the Nineteenth-Century Dream-Child: Fantasy, Dystopia, Cyberculture (2016, 2019). She also wrote the Introduction and Notes for the Barnes and Noble Classics edition of Peter Pan (2005). Billone’s poetry collection The Light Changes (2013) earned a Starred Kirkus Review and was chosen by Kirkus as one of the Best Books of 2013. The book won the IndieReader Discovery Award in Poetry in 2014. Billone regularly teaches popular courses on Fairy Tales (English 480) and on Fantasy to Cyberspace: Children’s and YA Lit (English 339).

Education

  • BA, University of Chicago
  • MA, PhD, Princeton University

Publications

Books

  • Little Songs: Women, Silence and the Nineteenth-Century Sonnet. Ohio State University Press (2007, 2021).
  • The Future of the Nineteenth-Century Dream Child: Fantasy, Dystopia, Cyberculture. New York: Routledge (2016, 2019).
  • The Light Changes (Starred Kirkus Review). Knoxville, TN: Hope Street Press (2013).
  • Introduction, Notes, and For Further Reading. Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie. New York, Barnes and Noble Classics (2005).

Representative Articles

  • “‘The music of my nature, day and night’: EBB’s Sonnets as Conversations between Love and Grief, Songs and Silence.” Invited contribution to new volume of essays on Elizabeth Barrett Browning, edited by Simon Avery and Cora Kaplan, Edinburgh University Press (forthcoming).
  • “Children’s Fantasy from Lessons to Laughter and Longing (1830-1914).” Invited contribution to History of Children’s Literature in English, Cambridge University Press, 2024 (forthcoming).
  • “Gender and Sexuality.” 10,000 words. Invited contribution to Fairy Tales from the Long Nineteenth-Century. Bloomsbury, 2021.
  • “Sentenced to Neverland: Michael Jackson, Peter Pan, and Queer Futurity.” Michael Jackson: Grasping the Spectacle, Ashgate, 2012.
  • Substantial entries (between 1000 and 5000 words) on the Sonnet and on Helen Maria Williams.  Invited contribution to Blackwell Encyclopedia of Romanticism (4 volumes).  Eds. Fred Burwick, Nancy Goslee, and Diane Hoeveler (2011).
  • “‘Thy Woman’s Hair, My Sister, All Unshorn’: Elizabeth Barrett, George Sand and the Sonnet.” Victorian Poetry 48:4 (Special Issue on the Sonnet, 2010).
  • “Harry Potter, Vampires and the All-Invasive Genre: The Parasitic Gothic.” Proteus: A Journal of Ideas, Special Issue on Vampires, Parasites and Invaders in Nature and Society 26, no. 2 (Fall 2009): 11-17.
  • “Elizabeth Barrett’s and Alfred Tennyson’s Authorial and Formal Links.” SEL Studies in English Literature 1500-1900 48, no. 4 (Autumn 2008): 779-789. (Also published as a chapter in a book by Johns Hopkins University Press).
  • “Swallowing Sorrow: Women and the Eighteenth-Century Sonnet,” Augustan Studies (2005): 72-91.
  • “The Boy Who Lived: From Carroll’s Alice and Barrie’s Peter Pan to Rowling’s Harry Potter,” Children Literature 32 (2004): 178-202.
  • “Hovering between Irony and Innocence: George MacDonald’s ‘The Light Princess’ and the Gravity of Childhood.” Mosaic: A Journal for the Interdisciplinary Study of Literature 37, no. 1 (March 2004): 135-148.
  • “’Keep my Secret’ Hidden Reference to French Literature in the Poetry of Elizabeth Barrett,” Browning Society Notes 29 (January 2004).
  • “Breaking ‘the Silent Sabbath of the Grave’: Charlotte Smith’s Quiet Gaze At Grief.” Silence, Sublimity and Supression in the Romantic Period. Ed. Fiona Price and S.J. Masson, (New York: Mellen Press, 2002).
  • “Cette Blanche Agonie’: Baudelaire, Mallarme, and the Ice of Sound.” Nineteenth Century French Studies 29:3-4, 2001, 287-301.
  • “In Silence like to Death’: Elizabeth Barrett’s Sonnet Turn.” Victorian Poetry 39, no. 4 (2001): 533-550.
  • Translation from the French: Chrétien, Jean-Pierre, “Burundi: The Obsession with Genocide,” Current History: A Journal of Contemporary World Affairs, Vol. 95, No. 601 (May 1996): 206-210.

Selected Poetry

  • “Again” in Plainsongs
  • “First Job” in Still: The Journal
  • “First Trimester” in Outscape: Writings on Fences and Frontiers
  • “Because Sleep Isn’t Mine” in Cotyledon
  • “But” in Small Brushes
  • “Cartwright Gardens, Bloomsbury” in Edgz
  • “Conversation with a Flight Attendant” in Haight Ashbury Literary Journal
  • “Clark 8 Psychiatric” in Pennsylvania English
  • “Cupid” in California Quarterly
  • “Death Valley” in Blue Lake Review
  • “Elegy for Jack Gilbert (1925-2012)” in Blue Fifth Review
  • “Enchantment” in The New Zoo Poetry Review
  • “First Job” in Still: The Journal
  • “Forgetting” in The Hurricane Review
  • “Fox News” in Barbaric Yawp
  • “How Glorious It Feels” in Chiron Review
  • “If Nothing Else” in Red Rock Review
  • “In Response to Your Question How Does Art” in Wavelength: Poems in Prose and Verse
  • “Insomnia” in Chiron Review
  • “Intensive Care” in Pennsylvania English
  • “In This Age of War” in Blue Lake Review
  • “Introduction to Poetry” in ByLine Magazine
  • “Invitation From A Carnival After A Storm” in MÖBIUS, The Poetry Magazine
  • “I Shut My Eyes” in The Blind Man’s Rainbow
  • “Laughing Angels” in Willows Wept Review
  • “Like This” in P.D.Q. (Poetry Depth Quarterly)
  • “Long after Dark” in Bellingham Review Online
  • “Man of Steel” in SLAB: sound and literary art book
  • “On What Might be Any Day” in Autumn Sky Poetry Review
  • “Prayer” in Edgz
  • “Pregnancy” in POETALK
  • “Psyche” in California Quarterly
  • “Question for You” in Verse Wisconsin
  • “Reading Mrs. Dalloway at Juniors Diner” in Knoxville Bound
  • “Shall We” in Bellowing Ark
  • “Sleep” in Abbey
  • “The Gift” in Chiron Review
  • “The Gun Salesman Said” in Chiron Review
  • “The Poet Said” (“I want/to stretch the”) in MÖBIUS, The Poetry Magazine
  • “The Poet Said” (“The gold is right here”) in New Millennium Writings
  • “The Stars Said” in Connecticut River Review
  • “Third Trimester” in Ardent! Poetry in the Arts
  • “This Clear” in Dogwood: A Journal of Poetry & Prose
  • “Toward Cumberland Falls” in Bellowing Ark
  • “What Boys Do” in Verse Wisconsin
  • “When On Long Trips I Stared Out the Backseat Window” in Illuminations, An International Magazine of Contemporary Writing Verse
  • “Why I Did Not Stay to See” in Hiram Poetry Review

Professional Service

  • Member, Hodges Research Award Committee (2022-present)
  • Member, Undergraduate Committee (2022-2023)
  • Member, Peer Review of Teaching (2022-2023)
  • Chair, Retention and T/P Rpt (2022-2023)
  • M.A. and Ph.D. Exam Committee (Grader and Question-Writer) (Spring 2004-Spring 2022)
  • Member, Board for English Education Admissions (Fall 2003, Fall 2006, Spring 2007, Spring 2008, Spring 2013, Spring 2014, Spring 2015, Fall 2015, Spring 2017, Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Spring 2021)
  • Member, Hiring Committee, Chair of Excellence in Poetry (Fall 2018-Fall 2020)
  • Member, Hiring Committee, Assistant Professor of Poetry (Fall 2019-Spring 2020)
  • Member, Hiring Committee for RWL (Fall 2015-Spring 2016)
  • Member, Tenure and Retention Report Committee (2008-2020, 2022)
  • Member, Editorial Board, The University of Tennessee Press (2009-2014)
  • Reader, Writers in the Library (Spring 2003, Spring 2005, Fall 2014)
  • Peer-Observation Teaching Committee (2012-2014)
  • Chair, Academic Policy Committee (Fall 2009-Spring 2010)
  • Member, Academic Policy Committee (Fall 2007-Fall 2009)
  • Member, Appeals Committee (Fall 2009-2010)
  • Member, Undergraduate Council (Fall 2007-2010)
  • Member, College Curriculum Committee (Fall 2007-2010)
  • Member, Undergraduate Essay and Thesis Awards Committee (Spring 2008)
  • Judge, the Ann Hight Gore Essay Prize (Best Undergraduate Essay in English) (Spring 2007)
  • Ph.D. Admissions Committee (Spring 2007)
  • Committee to Write the Poetry Comprehensive Exam (Fall 2005)
  • Committee to Write the Nineteenth-Century Comprehensive Exam (Fall 2005)
  • Judge, Knickerbocker Poetry Prize (Spring 2004)
  • Judge, The Brady Prize (Best Graduate Essay) (Spring 2004)

Awards, Honors & Grants

  • Faculty Development Leave (Fall 2016, Spring 2023)
  • IndieReader Discovery Award for The Light Changes (2014)
  • Kirkus Starred Review and Best Books of 2013 for The Light Changes (2013)
  • Hodges Grant for Research in Lieu of Teaching, UTK, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, & 2012
  • Chancellor’s Research Fellow, UTK,  2010
  • Professional Development Award, UTK, 2003, 2008, & 2009
  • National Society of Collegiate Scholars Faculty of the Year Award Nominee, 2006
  • John C. Hodges Excellence in Teaching Award for Assistant Professors, UTK, 2005
  • Sidonie Clauss Memorial Prize (for the finest dissertation defended in the Comparative Literature Department at Princeton University over a two-year period) 2003  
  • Dean’s Fund for Scholarly Travel, Princeton University, 1998
  • Summer Stipend in the Humanities, Princeton University, 1997
  • Association of Princeton Graduate Alumni Summer Travel Fellowship, 1995
  • Presidential Fellowship, Princeton University, 1993-1999
  • General and Special Honors, University of Chicago, 1993
  • Phi Beta Kappa Society, University of Chicago (1993)
  • Academy of American Poets Award, University of Chicago (1993)
  • Argonne Full Tuition Fellowship, University of Chicago (1989-1993)