I’m an educator and writer focused on feminism, women’s literature, and class. I blend personal experience, literature, and feminist theory to show how our personal experiences are collective in nature, rather than individual. I typically read and write about works in translation, connecting women’s experiences across nations. To get the good sense of my voice and concerns, check out my essay on Nanae Aoyama’s A Perfect Day to Be Alone or the essay A #MeToo Novel That Must Be Read #WithYou about Kang Hwagil’s Another Person. My most favorite recent novel is Claudia Piñeiro’s Elena Knows.

My first book is University for a Good Woman: Reflections on Gender, Labor and Class in American Higher Education, a memoir about my struggles in graduate school. It was published this past October with Lived Places Publishing and includes most of my writing and thinking about the university.

Currently, I am a What’s New in Translation columnist for Asymptote Journal. I also teach memoir and feminist craft classes at Hugo House in Seattle. Previously, I earned my PhD at the University of Washington with a dissertation rooted in feminist literature. I’ve published other personal and review essays about literature, travel, and feminism with various outlets such as Public Books, Oh Reader, SOLO Travel, Full Stop, and Twentieth-Century Literature.

I am currently working on a semi-autobiographical novel about a girl’s life from childhood to adulthood in twenty-first century America.

Here’s my mostly up-to-date CV.

Contact: giffel (at) posteo (dot) net