Associate Professor, English and Director, Cropper Center for Creative Writing
- PhD, University of Utah, Literature & Creative Writing, Fiction Emphasis
- MA, University of California, Davis, English, Creative Writing/Fiction
- BS, University of California, Davis, Biological Sciences
Halina Duraj joined USD after receiving her PhD in literature and creative writing from the University of Utah in 2010. She also holds a B.S. in biological sciences and an M.A. in creative writing from the University of California, Davis. Her debut collection of short stories, The Family Cannon, won Augury Books' Editors' Prize and was published in 2014. Dr. Duraj teaches literature and creative writing, and she is the Director of the Lindsay J. Cropper Center for Creative Writing.
Scholarly Work
Halina Duraj's debut short story collection, The Family Cannon, was published with Augury Books (New York) in 2014 and was a finalist for the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses Debut Fiction Award. Her stories have been published in The Sun, The Harvard Review, Fiction, Witness, and other journals; her story, "Fatherland," was awarded a 2014 PEN/O. Henry Prize. She has been a writer-in-residence at Hedgebrook and Yaddo. Her fiction publications include:
- “Dolphins That Spend Mambo.” JuxtaProse, forthcoming Fall 2019
- “Fine-How-Are-You?” Faultline Journal of Arts and Letters, Volume 28, Spring 2019
- “French Hairs I Have Eaten,” Bear Review, Spring 2019
- “Tragedy at Sunrise.” Santa Monica Review, Spring 2018
- “Blood.” Ecotone, Spring/Summer 2017
- “The Crow.” Pilgrimage. Volume 39, Issue 1 & 2, 2015
- "Fatherland," published in O. Henry Prize Stories 2014, Anchor (Sept 9, 2014)
- The Family Cannon (collection of short stories). New York:Augury Books (2014)
- “Blueberries.” The Sun Magazine, Issue 448, April 2013
- “Fatherland” (excerpt). The Harvard Review, Number 43, Winter 2012
Areas of Interest
Duraj's teaching interests focus on fiction writing, the literature of war and trauma, and the intersection of literature, science, and nature.