Author

Emily Lupita Plum received an M.F.A. in Creative Writing and Environment from Iowa State University. She received her B.A. from Central College. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in publications including The North American Review, International Poetry Review, Poetry International, Lyrical Iowa, and StringTown, and will be anthologized Spring 2008 in Poetic Voices Without Borders2. A bilingual (Japanese/English) collection of her poetry, Water and Stone 水と石, with translations by Niizaki Mitsue, was published in 2004 by Koumyakusya Press.

Emily won the 2008 Marble Faun Prize for the Poem, The William Faulkner-William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition, The Pirate’s Alley Faulkner Society, New Orleans, and has received the John Allen Writing Award; the Phyllis J. Lepke Endowed Graduate Award, Center for Excellence in the Arts and Humanities; and the Pearl Hogrefe Recognition Award for Creative Writing. She has read her poetry at Poetry Iowa!, the Des Moines National Poetry Festival, in the Zanzibar Reading Series, and in the Central College Writers Reading Series. Emily is working on her next collection of poetry, a novel and a memoir.

Artist

Emily Lupita Plum is a glass bead and watercolor artist. She creates one-of-a-kind designs in glass using Italian glass rods and a hot-head propane torch. Emily then fashions these beads into sterling silver earring sets and custom pendant necklaces. Emily’s watercolor creations tell the story of Lupita, a joyful girl on a world journey in search of beautiful moments. Emily uses Japanese watercolors & inks, as well as a unique extraction painting technique she developed during her years living in Japan in order to give her Lupita paintings bright, vivid colors and a playful, delightful feel.

Emily has shown her beads and watercolor artwork at many art shows including the Holiday Art Walk, Art on the Pointe, the Octagon Center for the Arts Community Artists Exhibit, the Octagon Center for the Arts Main Street Art Festival, the U.S. Bank Art Display, the Story City Bank Display, the Waterloo Center for the Arts Juried Art Show, the Quincy Center For the Arts Japanese Art Exhibition. While in Japan, Emily had a solo art show at the prestigious N.A. Gallery that sold out the first day.

Emily is currently working on a new collection and starting a new studio called Strong Plum Studio.

Teaching & Study Abroad

Emily Lupita Plum held a graduate assistantship at the Iowa State University Study Abroad Center where she worked primarily with Spanish-speaking programs in Spain, Mexico, and Peru. She was also co-chair of the 2007 Study Abroad Fair and Coordinator of the Year of Study Abroad Essay Contest.

Emily was the Assistant to the Director of the ISU in Spain, Alicante program, Summer 2006, as well a Teaching Assistant, World Languages and Cultures, for SPAN 195x in Alicante. She has presented papers at the Association for Academic Programs in Latin America and the Caribbean annual conferences including, “Socially Conscious Programming in Pre-Departure Orientation” in Cuetzalan, Puebla, Mexico, 2006, and “Essay Contests: A Formal Forum for Study Abroad” at Yale University, New Haven, CT, 2007.

Previously, Emily was an Assistant Language Teacher of English on the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program in Miyakonojo, Miyazaki, Japan for three years. In Japan she studied Shorei kan Goju ryu Okinawa Karate under Master Jukoh Hirakawa. Emily has also worked as a kindergarten & fourth grade long-term substitute teacher. As an undergraduate, Emily studied on Central College Study Abroad Programs in Mexico (1 year), Spain (1 semester), and Wales (1 semester). She has traveled extensively, most recently to the beautiful country of Turkey.