Katy Masuga (born 1975) is an American writer.

Biography

Katy Masuga is an American writer near Paris, France. Masuga grew up in the San Bernardino National Forest of southern California. She received a B.A. in Philosophy with a Special Option in Religious Studies from

Cal State East Bay California State University, East Bay (Cal State East Bay, CSU East Bay, or CSUEB) is a public university in Hayward, California. The university is part of the 23-campus California State University system and offers 136 undergraduate and 60 post ...

in tandem with

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, an M.A. in Comparative Literature from the

University of Colorado, Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University of Colorado syst ...

, a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature with a joint Ph.D. in the Program in Theory and Criticism, both from the University of Washington, Seattle. Masuga teaches for the Fall in Paris program of the Comparative Literature of Ideas Department at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

, Seattle. She was on the faculty of

Skidmore College Skidmore College is a private liberal arts college in Saratoga Springs, New York. Approximately 2,650 students are enrolled at Skidmore pursuing a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science degree in one of more than 60 areas of study. History Sk ...

in Paris for 4.5 years (2012-2016) and held a postdoctoral teaching and research position at the New Sorbonne University (2015-2016), focusing on the intersections between literature and science. Masuga was the program coordinator for Trinity College in Paris until its dissolution in 2020 due to the pandemic. Masuga studied philosophy and literary theory and criticism under

Mikkel Borch-Jacobsen Mikkel Borch-Jacobsen (born 1951) is a Professor of Comparative Literature and French at the University of Washington in Seattle, and the author of many works on the history and philosophy of psychiatry, psychoanalysis and hypnosis. Born to Danis ...

, notable figure in the field, in particular on the history and philosophy of psychoanalysis, especially in regard to Le Livre noir de la psychanalyse ("The Black Book of Psychoanalysis") to which he was a major contributor. After numerous periods in Paris beginning 2001, Masuga moved permanently to France in 2010, invited by counterculture figure

Jim Haynes James Almand Haynes (10 November 1933 – 6 January 2021) was an American-born figure in the British "underground" and alternative/counter-culture scene of the 1960s. He was involved with the founding of Edinburgh's Traverse Theatre, the pape ...

to live at his atelier in Paris, where she regularly participated in his famous Sunday dinners, sometimes cooking for up to 100 people. He remained like family until his death in January 2021. With Tamara Helenius, she is co-founder of Sappho Road a women's knowledge exchange in English based in France. Her brother is the folk musician Ed Masuga.

Writing

Katy Masuga is a fiction writer and a scholar in the field of

literary modernism Literary modernism, or modernist literature, originated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and is characterized by a self-conscious break with traditional ways of writing, in both poetry and prose fiction writing. Modernism experimented ...

. She is a specialist on

Henry Miller Henry Valentine Miller (December 26, 1891 – June 7, 1980) was an American novelist. He broke with existing literary forms and developed a new type of semi-autobiographical novel that blended character study, social criticism, philosophical ref ...

. Among Masuga's publications on Miller are two books: ''Henry Miller and How He Got That Way'' (

Edinburgh University Press Edinburgh University Press is a scholarly publisher of academic books and journals, based in Edinburgh, Scotland. History Edinburgh University Press was founded in the 1940s and became a wholly owned subsidiary of the University of Edinburgh ...

, 2011), which examines the influence of six major authors on Miller's work, and ''The Secret Violence of Henry Miller'' (

Camden House Camden House, Inc. was founded in 1979 by professors James Hardin and Gunther Holst with the purpose of publishing scholarly books in the field of German literature, Austrian Literature, and German language culture. Camden House books were publish ...

Boydell and Brewer Boydell & Brewer is an academic press based in Woodbridge, Suffolk, England, that specializes in publishing historical and critical works. In addition to British and general history, the company publishes three series devoted to studies, edition ...

, 2011), which presents an in-depth analysis of Miller's subversive writing. Masuga has written on various topics from

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish novelist, dramatist, short story writer, theatre director, poet, and literary translator. His literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal and tragicomic expe ...

and language games to profiles of

Shakespeare and Company (bookstore) Shakespeare and Company is an English-language bookstore opened in 1951 by George Whitman, located on Paris's Left Bank. The store was named after Sylvia Beach's bookstore of the same name founded in 1919 on the Left Bank, which closed in 1 ...

in Paris to the overlooked vegetarianism of the Creature in

Frankenstein ''Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' is an 1818 novel written by English author Mary Shelley. ''Frankenstein'' tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a sapient creature in an unorthodox scientific ex ...

, as well as a dozen stories that blur the line between fiction and non-fiction. Her stories have appeared in various journals including Zone 3, Your Impossible Voice and Gloom Cupboard, and multiple times as a "Letter from Paris" in The Broadkill Review. In 2017, Masuga's research group at New Sorbonne University published their findings on a project entitled "Science and Storytelling" in ''New Developments in ESP Teaching and Learning Research''. Her debut novel, ''The Origin of Vermilion'', was published in 2016 by Spuyten Duyvil Press, New York. It has been called "a careful and complex study of language" in which "light, maps and mirrors make up asuga'sdocumented dreamscapes." Masuga undertook a book tour of the Western United States in spring/summer 2016 for the launch of ''The Origin of Vermilion'', which includes a video-recorded reading for ''Lit in the Library'' at Seattle Central University. Masuga's writing has further been said to "mine the toxic veins of human desire, abandonment, yearning and loss found in histories that span the globe, all of which connect at their deepest points," while giving "the reader new eyes for viewing histories as stories, told by storytellers that influence the beauty, the pain and the revelations within with each turn of time and phrase." In 2016, an interview of Masuga by Hemingway scholar Jeffrey Herlihy-Mera was included in a guest-curated essay collection of ''Interdisciplinary Literary Studies''. In 2018, ''Lingua Franca'', the French-language journal of

The Chronicle of Higher Education ''The Chronicle of Higher Education'' is a newspaper and website that presents news, information, and jobs for college and university faculty and student affairs professionals (staff members and administrators). A subscription is required to rea ...

, published an interview with Masuga, again by Jeffrey Herlihy-Mera. Masuga has also published on altered books, including a profile of Doug Beube in the 2018 spring issue of Book Arts ''arts du livre'' Canada, the magazine of the Canadian Bookbinders and Book Artists Guild. Masuga had a profile of the

Henry Miller Memorial Library The Henry Miller Memorial Library is a nonprofit arts center, bookstore, and performance venue in Big Sur, California, documenting the life of the late writer, artist, and Henry Miller. Emil White built the house for Miller in the mid-1960s. After ...

with Nexus: The International Henry Miller Journal in December 2018. In 2019, Masuga served as translator and voiceover for Air France’s mindfulness and meditation collaboration with Christophe Andre based on his best-selling work ''Mindfulness Day after Day'' (L’Iconoclaste, 2011). She also served as editor and voiceover for the four-yea
ERCcOMICS
project of the

European Research Council The European Research Council (ERC) is a public body for funding of scientific and technological research conducted within the European Union (EU). Established by the European Commission in 2007, the ERC is composed of an independent Scientific ...

(2016-2020) and occasionally serves as editor and voiceover for independent projects for La Bande Destinée including

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

Flow Machines, PANBioRA and the Laboratory of Computational and Quantitative Biology (LCQB) of the Sorbonne. Her second novel, ''The Blue of Night'', was published by Spuyten Duyvil Press in May 2020. Jillian Lauren writes, "Managing to be both heart-wrenching and hopeful, Masuga probes the very depths of what it means to be a survivor, an artist, and ultimately human."

Bibliography

Books
''The Blue of Night'', Spuyten Duyvil Press, 2020. ''The Origin of Vermilion'', Spuyten Duyvil Press, 2016.
''Henry Miller and How He Got That Way'',

, 2011.
''The Secret Violence of Henry Miller'',

Boydell & Brewer Boydell & Brewer is an academic press based in Woodbridge, Suffolk, England, that specializes in publishing historical and critical works. In addition to British and general history, the company publishes three series devoted to studies, edition ...

, 2011. Anthologies
"When storytelling meets active learning: an academic reading experiment with French MA students." Beaupoil-Hourdel, Pauline; Josse, Hélène; Kosmala, Loulou; Masuga, Katy; Morgenstern, Aliyah. In Cédric Sarré, Shona Whyte (Eds), ''New developments in ESP teaching and learning research''. pp. 109–129. Research-publishing.net, 2017.
"Sylvia & Co." ''The Bookshop & 20th Century Literature.'' Ed. Huw Osborne. Bloomsbury, 2016.
"Reading with a Knife, or the Book Art of Subtraction: Brian Dettmer and Doug Beube's Altered Books." ''Mixed Messages: American Correspondences in Visual and Verbal Practices''. Eds., Sarah Garland and Catherine Gander. Manchester UP, 2015.
“Henry Miller’s Titillating Words.” ''Henry Miller: New Perspectives''. Eds. James M. Decker and Indrek Manniste. Bloomsbury, 2015.
“Miller's Henry and Henry's Paris.” ''Paris in American Literature: On Distance as a Literary Resource''. Eds. Jeffrey Herlihy & Vamsi Koneru. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2013.
“Locke’s Child in the Carnivore’s Kitchen.” ''Frankenstein Galvanized''. Ed. Claire Bazin. Red Rattle, 2012. Stories
“Shine on You Crazy Diamond.” The Broadkill Review. Vol. 9, Issue 3, March/April 2016. “The Flophouse.” Sleepy House Press, July 2015.
“Letter from Paris: Ça va?” The Broadkill Review, July 2015.
“Letter from Paris: Your Writing Life after Being Left.” The Broadkill Review, May 2015.
“Art Untied.” Gloom Cupboard, April 2015.
“Letter from Paris.” Your Impossible Voice, April 2014.
“Biking at Night.” Your Impossible Voice, December 2013.
“Groucho Marxism.” Spaces: “The State of the Art.” dougNovember 2013.
“My Lydia Davis Encounter.” The Telegram Review, September 2013.
“Paris Perspective.” Linden Avenue Literary Journal. Issue 9, February 2012.
“Ferlinghetti Motel.” Zone Three. Issue 48, (Fall 2008): 79-80. Essays
“The Henry Miller Memorial Library.” ''Nexus: The International Henry Miller Journal''. Vol. 12, (2018): 143-176.
“Teaching American Literature in Paris: An Interview with Katy Masuga.” By Jeffrey Herlihy-Mera. ''Lingua Franca''. 21 June 2018.
“Profile: Doug Beube.” n English and French.''Canadian Bookbinders and Book Artists Guild: Book Arts arts du livre Canada'', 2018. “Transcendent Correspondence.” Eds. Jeffrey Herlihy & Vamsi Koneru. ''Interdisciplinary Literary Studies: Imagining Exile and Transcultural Displacement'', 2016. “Beckett, Wittgenstein and Blanchot : Language Games from Text to Theatre”. ''Miranda'', n°4 Samuel Beckett: Drama as philosophical endgame? / L'épreuve du théâtre dans l'oeuvre de Samuel Beckett: fin de partie philosophique? Eds. Nathalie Rivère de Carles, Philippe Birgy. June 2011.
“Illusion of Force and Speed in Henry Miller.” ''Deus Loci: Lawrence Durrell Journal''. Vol. 11, (2010): 76-107.
“Henry Miller and the Book of Life.” ''Texas Studies in Literature and Language''. V. 52, N. 2, (2010): 181-202.
“Crossing Brooklyn Bridge: An Ekphrastic Correspondence between Walt Whitman, Hart Crane & Henry Miller.” ''Nexus: The International Journal of Henry Miller''. Vol. 7, (2010): 101-126.
“Henry Miller, Deleuze and the Metaphor of China.” ''The McNeese Review''. 47, (2009): 79-102.
“Transgressing the Law of Literature.” ''Nexus: International Henry Miller Journal''. Vol. 6, (2009): 209-39.Masuga, Katy. “Transgressing the Law of Literature.” ''Nexus'', 2009
/ref>
“Entries on D.H. Lawrence’s ‘Snake’ & ‘The Ship of Death’.” Eds. James Persoon and Robert R. Watson. ''Facts On File Companion to British Poetry, 1900 to Present''. New York: Facts on File, 2009, (432, 445-7).
“Henry Miller and the Concept of a Minor Literature.” ''Journal of Literary Theory and Cultural Studies''. Vol. III, No. 4, (2008): 1-14.
“Henry Miller's Painterly Eye.” ''Journal of Humanities''. Vol. 34, (Apr 2008): 173-212.

References

External links

* Official Katy Masuga Websit

* Katy Masuga's Academia.edu Profil

{{DEFAULTSORT:Masuga, Katy 21st-century American writers University of Colorado Boulder alumni Living people 1975 births 21st-century American women writers