I thought the best thing to do today was to drop in the text of a thread I’ve posted to social media, just in case you didn’t see it, so I could finally explain all my allusions to the chaos of life right now. If you’ve seen this on Twitter or Instagram or Facebook or LinkedIn already, feel free to skip! But thank you for reading, and for caring, no matter how you read it.
Back with real stuff next week.
When you're a full-time professor at a college that doesn't award tenure, the way employment (ideally) works is that every spring, you receive a two- or three-year contract. This rolling contract is a way of confirming that you don't need to go on the academic job market (as cyclical as the earth's revolutions around the sun) in the fall, which is immensely time-consuming and sucks attention away from the work of teaching, writing, and advising.
This year I don't have a new contract at King's, because of the financial troubles of the institution; that means that, barring intervention, my contract runs out July 31, 2024 -- *on paper*.
However, the crisis the institution faces now -- a development the ramifications of which only were made clear to faculty about a month and a half ago -- means that, barring a miracle, King's won't be honoring my contract past this semester. And, as with many faculty contracts, there's no severance built into the agreement.
In other words, in about 8 weeks I almost certainly need a new way to pay my bills.
I also work as a full-time staff writer at Vox, but media salaries (and, before that, freelance fees) being what they are, I've always relied on full-time teaching for the majority of my income, all the way back to 2010, when I joined the full-time faculty at King's. In other words, I've always had a "day job."
Now, the challenge ahead is to try to figure out how to make up the difference. I'm not going to be leaving New York, but unless something unexpected comes through, I will probably be forced to leave teaching. Adjunct work is not a viable substitute, and in my field there are almost no full-time jobs (and there's an overabundance of qualified candidates).
Why post all this here? Because I'm actively looking for work of all kinds. My writing, editing, and teaching experience is extensive; my background is multidisciplinary (tech writing, arts and culture nonprofits, internal and external communications, film criticism and programming, professional development, educational design); I've published several books; I'm an excellent speaker and conversation moderator; and I'm open to possibilities of many kinds, both in NYC and remote.
I think my CV speaks for itself, but if you've got questions or want to chat about ideas, I'd love to talk. Ghostwriting, copywriting, copyediting, programming, and beyond — I am probably interested. Here’s my CV, and here is a shorter resume.
Enjoyed this? If you’re feeling it, I won’t object if you buy me a cup of coffee. Writers need fuel.
I’m so sorry. This is just wrong. I hope a viable path opens up soon.
I've been at my current employer a few years now and have been quite enjoying the environment. For what it's worth it looks like they have a remote "technical content manager" position open here: https://newrelic.careers/careers/JobDetail/Technical-Content-Manager/3133 . If you do apply I can try tracking down whoever is doing the hiring to make sure you get noticed.