Celeste Trimble, MFA, Ph.D.

Photo of Celeste Trimble

Associate Professor, Education

Areas of Expertise

  • Reading
  • Literacy

Background

I am originally from California, half Los Angeles, half San Francisco. Before I moved to Olympia, I lived in Tucson, Arizona, for 14 years, teaching 4-8th grade English Language Arts at a small convent school, and high school English on the Tohono O’odham Nation.

I love books. Before teaching, I worked in bookstores, libraries, and in publishing. My B.A. degree from Mills College is entitled “The Book: Its History, Culture, and Creative Form.” This degree was a combination of letterpress printing, bookbinding, book history, photography, and the way that books and reading are a part of our lives and cultures. I followed this up with a M.A. from Camberwell College of Art in London, England, in Book Arts. Still hungry for more education in the arts, I received a M.F.A. In Photography from the University of Arizona.

When I decided to pursue a Ph.D., I chose the department of Language, Reading, and Culture at the University of Arizona because I fell in love with the World of Words Center for Global Literacies and Literatures (wowlit.org), and it was there that I was able to study the intersection of literature, the arts, and education in the field of Youth Literatures.

Currently, my primary scholarly interests within Youth Literatures are specifically Indigenous literatures, queer literatures, and reader response theories. How do teachers, librarians, and parents nourish the joy of reading in youth? How does cultural representation within curricula affect identity development in young readers? How might young people’s literacy practices work as a form of harm reduction and mental self care? Finally, how do gatekeepers such as the publishing industry, libraries, social media, and public schooling affect the reading and writing lives of youth?

Some of my writing about Youth Literature can be found at Wowlit.org: wowlit.org/blog/tag/celeste-trimble.