Sonya Huber

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Sonya Huber is an American essayist and writer of memoir and literary nonfiction. She is an associate professor of creative writing at Fairfield University. [1] She is the author of Pain Woman Takes Your Keys and Other Essays from a Nervous System, Cover Me: A Health Insurance Memoir, Opa Nobody, and other books. Huber's essays have appeared in Creative Nonfiction, Brevity, Hotel Amerika, LitHub , The Rumpus , River Teeth, among other literary journals, and in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Chronicle of Higher Education, the Washington Post, and the Washington Post Magazine.

Contents

Early life

Sonya Huber was born in Evergreen Park, Illinois, in 1971 and grew up in New Lenox, Illinois.

Education

Huber earned a BA at Carleton College in 1993 and a Master of Arts in journalism from the Ohio State University in 2000 through the Kiplinger Fellowship in Public Interest Journalism and a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing at the Ohio State University in 2004.

Career

Huber began teaching writing Fairfield University in Fairfield, Connecticut, in 2011 and as of 2018, was an associate professor there. [2] [3] She formerly taught at Georgia Southern University and Ashland University.

She published Cover Me: A Health Insurance Memoir in 2010, [4] and was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. [2] She wrote Pain Woman Takes Your Keys and Other Essays from a Nervous System five years after her symptoms began. [5] In 2011, she published the textbook The Backwards Research Guide for Writers: Using Your Life for Reflection, Connection, and Inspiration. [1] In 2008, after researching archival German records, she published the creative nonfiction book Opa Nobody, about the anti-Nazi activist work of her grandfather. [2] [6]

In March 2020, she contracted COVID-19, with months of ongoing symptoms. [7]

She served as guest editor for Experiences of Disability, a special issue of Brevity in September 2020. [8] She is the editor of Dogwood: A Journal of Poetry and Prose and has served as a nonfiction editor for Literary Mama .

Activism

A disability advocate, Huber was one of the creators of the 2017 online Disability March. [9] [10] She has been vocal on the topics of disability and for treatment and support for chronic pain patients. [11] [12] She served on the Community Leadership Council of the National Pain Advocacy Center. [13] She was active with Jobs with Justice between 1998 and 2004.

Awards

Works

Non-fiction books

Essays

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References

  1. 1 2 "Sonya Huber". Fairfield University. Retrieved 25 May 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Lang, Joel (December 23, 2018). "Defying fences, doors and mud, intrepid author explores her adopted city, Bridgeport". CT Post. Retrieved 25 May 2021.
  3. Weiss, Laura (Aug 7, 2016). "Art Collaboration Helps Homeless Veterans". Fairfield Citizen.
  4. 1 2 "Cover Me". Kirkus Reviews . June 28, 2010. Retrieved 25 May 2021.
  5. 1 2 Leahy, Anna (September 28, 2018). "What Does It Mean To Live With A Body That Can't Be Fixed?". Buzzfeed News. Retrieved 25 May 2021.
  6. 1 2 3 Zimmerman, Kevin (August 4, 2016). "Fairfield University professor charts Hillary Clinton's life in new book". Westchester & Fairfield County Business Journals. Retrieved 25 May 2021.
  7. Brindley, Emily (December 27, 2020). "Damaged nerves, scarred lungs, exhausted bodies: Some COVID-19 patients face a long haul that can last for months". Hartford Courant. Retrieved 25 May 2021.
  8. Brown, Keah; Huber, Sonya; Montgomery, Sarah Fawn (September 12, 2020). "Experiences of Disability: Our Guest Editors in Conversation". Brevity Blog.
  9. Vargas, Theresa (Jan 24, 2017). "They Want a Voice: Disabled People Who Couldn't Go to the Women's March Found a Way to Be Heard". Washington Post.
  10. Wanshel, Elyse (January 20, 2017). "People With Disabilities Can Virtually Join The Women's March". Huffington Post.
  11. Srinivasan, Sujata (Nov 19, 2019). "Opioids Backlash Leaves Some in CT Struggling with Chronic Pain". Middletown Herald.
  12. Schumer, Lizz (July 10, 2019). "How to Disclose a Disability to Your Employer (and Whether You Should)". New York Times.
  13. "Our Community Pain Council". National Pain Advocacy Center. 2021.
  14. "Winner 3rd Annual Terrain.org Nonfiction Contest Issue 31". Terrain. 2013.
  15. "2017 Foreword INDIES Winners". Foreword Review of Books. 2017.
  16. "2018 Independent Publisher Book Awards Outstanding Results". Independent Publisher. 2018.
  17. "FY 19 Award List" (PDF). CT Office of Arts & Culture. 2019.
  18. Wilke, Taylor (June 2019). "Solidarity in Sickness: Review of Sonya Huber's Pain Woman Takes Your Keys". The Rumpus.
  19. "Best Books of 2018". New Statesman. Nov 14, 2018.
  20. Hahn, Wendy Besel (July 4, 2016). "Barrelhouse Reviews: The Evolution of Hillary Rodham Clinton by Sonya Huber". Barrelhouse. Retrieved 25 May 2021.
  21. "Opa Nobody". Publishers Weekly . March 3, 2008. Retrieved 25 May 2021.
  22. "OPA NOBODY". Kirkus Reviews . January 1, 2008. Retrieved 25 May 2021.
  23. Hollmichel, Stefanie (November 1, 2020). "The Best of Brevity: Twenty Groundbreaking Years of Flash Nonfiction". Library Journal.
  24. Huber, Sonya (Mar 2, 2013). "How The Trophy for Showing Up Is Earned". New York Times.