Dr. Elissa Zellinger is Associate Professor of English and Associate Chair of the Department of English at Texas Tech University. She is the author of Lyrical Strains: Liberalism and Women's Poetry in Nineteenth-Century America (University of North Carolina Press 2020). Her next book project combines public poetry, US monuments, and the discourse of professionalism to explore the racialized rationale underpinning memorialization in the United States. 

Ph.D. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Book

Lyrical Strains: Liberalism and Women's Poetry in Nineteenth-Century America (University of North Carolina Press; November 2020).

Publications

"The Poetic Acts of E. Pauline Johnson." ESQ: A Journal of Nineteenth-Century American Literature and Culture, vol. 65, no. 2 (2019), pp. 73-122. 

“'Force them into fair dealing': Poetic Professionalism in Elizabeth Akers Allen's Letters.” Legacy: A Journal of American Women Writers, vol. 35, no. 1 (Summer 2018), pp. 65-91. 

“Stephen Crane and the Poetics of Nostalgia.” Texas Studies in Literature and Language, 57.3 (September 2015): 305-324. 

“Edna St. Vincent Millay and the Poetess Tradition.” Legacy: A Journal of American Women Writers, 29.2 (December 2012): 240-262. 

Awards

2023  Institute for Faculty Excellence, Office of the Provost, TTU  

2023  Alumni College Fellow, Humanities Center, TTU

2020  Helen Jones Foundation, Studio E, “Lubbock's Untold Stories: A Living History”  

2019  Faculty Award for Service, English Department, TTU

2019  Departmental Excellence in Teaching Award, Teaching, Learning, & Professional  
Development Center, TTU

2018  Alumni College Fellow, Humanities Center, TTU

2015  Research Support Grant, Maine Women Writers Collection, University of New England,  
Portland, ME 

 

Associate Professor, Director of Graduate Studies
Nineteenth-Century American Literature

Email: elissa.zellinger@ttu.edu