Divya Victor
victordi@msu.edu
517-884-4449
C646 Wells Hall
619 Red Cedar Rd
East Lansing, MI 48824
FacultyEnglish
Associate Professor
Literary Studies; Creative Writing; Race and Ethnic Studies; Global and Diasporic Studies; Postcolonial Studies
Biography
Divya Victor’s writing, editing, and research focuses on 20th, 21stC, and emergent poetry and poetics, with an emphasis on innovative and experimental forms and poets who undertake representations of trauma, both systemic and intersubjective.
She is the author of CURB (Nightboat Books, winner of 2022 PEN America Open Book Award and the 2022 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award); KITH (Fence Books/ Book*hug); Scheingleichheit: Drei Essays (Merve Verlag); NATURAL SUBJECTS (Trembling Pillow), UNSUB (Insert Blanc), THINGS TO DO WITH YOUR MOUTH (Les Figues). Her work has been collected in numerous venues, including BOMB, the New Museum’s The Animated Reader, Crux: Journal of Conceptual Writing, The Best American Experimental Writing, POETRY, and boundary2.
Her work has been translated into French, German, Spanish, and Czech. She has been a Mark Diamond Research Fellow at the U.S Holocaust Memorial Museum, a Riverrun Fellow at the Archive for New Poetry at University of California San Diego, and a Writer in Residence at the Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibition (L.A.C.E.). Her work has been performed or installed at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA) Los Angeles, The National Gallery of Singapore, the Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibition (L.A.C.E.) and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).
She has been an editor at Jacket2 (United States), Ethos Books (Singapore), Invisible Publishing (Canada) and Book*hug Press (Canada).
She is currently an Associate Professor of English at Michigan State University.
PhD. (Literature) University at Buffalo (SUNY)
M.A. (Creative Writing, Poetry) Temple University
Media Mentions
Divya Victor explores South Asian resilience in award-winning book, ‘CURB’
WKAR Public Media | WKAR News
March 10, 2022
Poet Divya Victor receives Claremont’s $100,000 Kingsley Tufts Award
The Orange County Register
March 4, 2022
Awards and Honors
The Kingsley Tufts Award for Poetry
2022
PEN America Open Book Award
2022
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Just Futures Initiative Grant (Collaborator)
2021
Michigan State University Libraries Digital Humanities Lab Incubator
2021
Digital Humanities/ Public Humanities Seed Grant
Michigan State University
2020
Humanities and Arts Research Program (HARP) Grant
Michigan State University
2019
Special Commission, The Press at Colorado College
Colorado College
2018
Engaged Pedagogy Grant (Claudia Rankine)
Michigan State University
2018
Engaged Pedagogy Grant (Cherríe Moraga/ Amalia Ortiz)
Michigan State University
2018
Department of English Summer Research Stipend
Michigan State University
2018
College Fund for International Travel (CFIT) Grant
Michigan State University
2017
Michigan State University Start Up Research Grant
2017-2022
Nanyang Technological University Start Up Research Grant
2015-2017
Bob Kaufman Poetry Award
2014
Riverrun Foundation Research Grant
University at Buffalo (SUNY)
2012
Mark Diamond Research Fund Award
University at Buffalo (SUNY)
2012
Publications
Curb, Nightboat Books. April 2021.
Curb, The Press at Colorado College. Artist’s Book Special Commission. Colorado, 2019.
Kith, Fence Books (U.S.A), BookThug (Canada). 2017
Unsub, Insert Blanc. Los Angeles. 2015
Natural Subjects, Trembling Pillow (Winner of the Bob Kaufman Award). New Orleans. 2014
Things To Do With Your Mouth, Les Figues. Los Angeles. 2014
University News
![A composite of three different pictures: On the left is a man in a blue shirt, in the middle is a person in a green cap and gown, and on the right is a person with a black shirt and necklace.](https://cal.msu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/56/2024/05/Louis-B.-Sudler-Prize-Winners-Thumb-2-150x150.jpg)
![a woman in a colorful dress sits at the bottom of a flight of stairs. Photo taken by Marco Giugliarelli.](https://cal.msu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/56/2024/01/Divya-Victor-Author-Photo-by-Marco-Giugliarelli-1000x667-1-150x150.jpg)
![Black photo with the wording, 2022 virtual exhibition. Next to the wording are numerous individual portraits of students.](https://cal.msu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/56/2023/01/76CA55E9-4A1B-414C-B32D-A207B0FCC7EB-150x150.jpeg)
![](https://cal.msu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/56/2023/01/English_Books_design_3-1-150x150.jpg)
![](https://cal.msu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/56/2022/08/Twitter-CREATE-Winners-Announcement-2022-copy-150x150.jpg)
![](https://cal.msu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/56/2021/12/CREATE-Student-Exhibition-1-150x150.jpg)
![](https://cal.msu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/56/2021/09/Creategrant-150x150.jpg)
![](https://cal.msu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/56/2021/06/Divya3-150x150.jpg)
![on the very top in black lettering, it says "Michigan State University" and underneath that it says, "with "A creative life during the covid-19" written in small blue letters. underneath is the word CREATE! with large letters that each are a different color and design. underneath in medium red lettering, it says "12 Micro-grants of $500" and underneath that it says "Deadline for proposal submission: June 1, 2021 Funded proposals announced: June 15, 2021" in black lettering](https://cal.msu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/56/2021/04/create-thumb-150x150.jpg)
![a woman with curly hair wearing glasses and a man with short brown hair wearing glasses both wearing flannels](https://cal.msu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/56/2021/02/Stokes-150x150.jpg)
![Colorful banner that says "CREATE!"](https://cal.msu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/56/2020/12/CREATE_FollowUp_Feat-150x150.jpg)
![Create poster](https://cal.msu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/56/2020/07/CREATE_Thumb-150x150.jpg)
![](https://cal.msu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/56/2020/06/divyaheader-1-150x150.jpg)
![four adults standing around a poster and smiling at the camera](https://cal.msu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/56/2020/06/uuraf_2019_thumb-150x150.jpg)