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Katya Pilkington

Dr. Bernice Olivas

ENGL 2040

09 May 2021

FINAL PORTFOLIO: COVER LETTER

My name is Katya Pilkington and I am a student at Salt Lake Community College taking

ENGL 2040: Introduction to Writing Studies during the Spring 2021 semester.

My personal academic interests include the fields of Writing and Rhetoric, Gender

Studies with an emphasis on Queer and LGBTQ+ Studies, and Disability Studies. I am interested

in the intersection of queer identities and disability, and how and what we write about those

identities and experiences. I am also interested in creating works of creative writing and art that

focus on queer and disabled identities. Tangentially related to the above interests is my interest in

how we create and study fan works and adaptations - particularly on how fan works (such as

fanfiction and art) create additional spaces for under-represented identities and act as a means of

individuals seeing their own experiences reflected in characters and stories they connect to.

In this portfolio, I present the major texts I created within my Introduction to Writing

Studies course, presented in order of interest. First, there is an essay written using a queer theory

lens on Good Omens characters Aziraphale and Crowley as a method of understanding some of

the subtler nuances of how authors Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett queer the Bible - the book of

Revelations in particular. It is written in a style and voice that pays homage to the writing style

that Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman use within Good Omens and is a mixture between a
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historical-style essay of Michel de Montaigne, an academic essay, and a creative nonfiction

piece. I chose to present this first because it reflects the blurring of genres and topics (mixing

“refined” academia with popular culture) that I aspire to create within my writing - a queering of

writing, if you would. After that comes a piece of academic research focused on the field of

Queer Rhetorics. It includes a short summary of the field - including an overview, some

prominent figures, and current graduate programs within the field - and an annotated

bibliography of a handful of readings from the field of queer rhetorics focusing on why I am

interested in reading them rather than being summaries of the pieces. I put this piece second

within my portfolio to highlight the importance of academic-backed research within my writing,

and because I aspire to obtain a graduate degree in writing studies, disability studies, or, as the

focus of my academic research piece suggests, queer studies (aka queer rhetorics). Next is the

creative writing piece of the course - a series of poems that provide snapshots of the influence of

books, writing, and reading within my life. I chose this piece as my third because, while I value

creative writing, including poetry, my career goals lie more in line with research and academic

essays, with creative writing kept more as a hobby, an outlet, and a set of skills that helps inform

my other writing. Lastly is a short lesson plan focused on designing a writing assignment for a

freshman composition class. While I have thought about teaching in a higher-education field, this

piece came last because my interests lie less in pedagogy and more in research.