Kay L. Retzlaff
| Title | Professor of English |
|---|---|
| Telephone | (207) 262-7760 |
| kay.retzlaff@maine.edu | |
| Address | Belfast Hall, Room 218 |
| Bio |
Dr. Kay Retzlaff, professor of English, has taught literature, writing, and women’s studies at UMA since 1994. She regularly teaches Introduction to Literature, Introduction to Mythology, Irish-American Literature, Native American Literature, American Literature through the Civil War, American Literature since the Civil War, Myth and Fantasy, Creative Writing, Professional Writing, and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies courses. She volunteers as a teacher for Penobscot Valley Senior College. Her research interests include Irish and northern European myth, Irish literature, women in mythology and religion, and eighteenth- and nineteenth-century American writers, especially Benjamin Franklin and Edgar Allan Poe. Her most recent publication is Duet, a collection of poems in collaboration with artist Susan Camp’s photographs. Her poems have appeared in Plainsong, Potato Eyes, The Prompt, Common Ground Review, Feile-Feste, and Theories of Her: An Experimental Anthology. She published Redefining Irishness in a Coastal Maine City, 1770-1870: Bridget’s Belfast (Routledge 2022), a social history of Irish immigrants in Belfast, Maine. The journal Maine History published “Belfast Maine: Irish Identity and Acceptance in a Small City on Penobscot Bay.” Maine History (2017). Her book review essay on three Ireland into Film offerings from Cork University Press appeared in the Celtic Studies Association of North America newsletter. Her article on the á was published in Ulidia 2. She is also the author of two books on mythology: Ireland: Its Myths and Legends (Friedman 1998) and Women of Mythology (Friedman 1999). She edited Vietnam Memories: A Cookbook, by Bich Nga Burrill. She was invited to teach literature of the American Civil War at the International Summer School, Chonnam National University, Kwangju, Republic of Korea, summer 2015. She studied Old Irish at National University of Ireland-Galway in 2011. Conference Presentations “AI in the First-Year Composition Classroom” with Robert Kellerman and Jessica Winck, Faculty Institute, UMA, Augusta, ME, May 2026. Celtic Studies Association of North America, St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Nova Scotia, 7-10 May 2026. “Laughing on the Inside: Satire, Status, and the Irish in the Nineteenth-century US,” New England and Mid-Atlantic Chapters American Conference for Irish Studies, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, North Adams, MA, November 7-8, 2025. “Twilight of the Sioux: From the Indian Wars to Wounded Knee,” 44th Annual Neihardt Spring Conference, Bancroft, Nebraska (Winnebago Nation), April 24, 2025. . “‘A Touch of Class’: The Field House as Microcosm,” New England/Mid-Atlantic Regional American Conference for Irish Studies, Boston College, October 13-15, 2023. “Straddling Liminal Space and Time: The Power of Boann,” Association for the Study of Women and Mythology annual conference, Syracuse, NY, May 4-6, 2023. Other Presentations “Luck of the Irish: Insider v Outsider,” Penobscot County Genealogical Society, Bangor Public Library, Bangor, ME, March 2026. “Saint Patrick’s Day Meets Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion,” UMA Research Colloquium, March 5, 2026. Conference Attendance Association for the Study of Women and Myth, devoted to “Becoming Inanna: Awakening to the Living Presence of the Goddess through the Descent Myth,” by Dr. Annalisa Derr, August 21, 2025. Public Service “Disturbers of the Peace: Writers who Dared,” volunteer teacher, Penobscot Valley Senior College, fall 2025. “Western Literary Tradition,” volunteer teacher, Penobscot Valley Senior College, six sessions live and via Zoom, fall 2024. “Is This a Private Fight?”: Irish Writers in a Postcolonial World,” volunteer teacher, Penobscot Valley Senior College, spring 2023. “Disturbers of the Peace: Writers on the Offensive,” volunteer teacher, Penobscot Valley Senior College, spring 2022. |
| Selected Publications | Scholarly Publications Book review of Jo Radner, Wit and Wisdom: The Forgotten Literary Life of New England Villages. In Maine History, 2023. Redefining Irishness in a Coastal Maine City, 1770-1870: Bridget’s Belfast. Routledge, 2022. Duet, a book of poetry and photography, in collaboration with artist Susan Camp. 2022. Creative Work A chapter of poetry and introductory essay in Mothers, Mothering, Land, and Nature, ed. Jessie Carson, Jodie Hawkes, and Pete Phillips, May 2026. |
| Education | B.A. University of Nebraska-Lincoln |