Shaun O'Reilly
I’ve arrived to Reno from Irving, TX, where I grew up in the sprawling suburbs of the Dallas/Ft. Worth metroplex. I became intrigued with Emerson and Thoreau through a high school project for which I assembled and performed a monologue based on excerpts of Walden. In the process of memorization and performance, I discovered a deep passion: I enjoyed spending time mulling over nature literature on my own, and also the time creatively communicating aspects of transcendentalist (and other) writing to students in uniquely memorable ways. This encouraged my undergraduate work, a BA in English from the University of Texas at Arlington, and now my move to study Literature and Environment in Reno. My current interests are Transcendentalism, posthumanist concepts of wildness, new agrarianism, and Ecotheology. As I begin my graduate studies here in the Great Basin, I am newly stirred by Thoreau’s words in Autumnal Tints, “Let your walks now be a little more adventurous; ascend the hills;” indeed, I am delighted to give it a try.
For more information, contact Shaun at oreilly.shaun.at.gmail.com