Faculty and Staff

Biography

Martha Brenckle is a full professor at the University of Central Florida where she teaches FYW and Rhetorical Theory.  Her scholarship has been published in the Journal of Basic Writing, CCC, the WPA Journal and Pedagogy and Culture. She writes poetry and fiction and has published most recently in Massachusetts Review, Xavier Review, Clockhouse Review, FEMSPEC, Estuary, Broken Bridge Review, Monchila Review, and Alembic. In 2000, she won the Central Florida United Arts Award for Poetry. Brenckle is a former performance poet and has performed her monologues on lesbian life in Orlando, Tampa, Atlanta, New Haven, New Orleans, Chicago, San Antonio, and Baltimore.  Street Angels (2006), her first published novel was nominated for a Lambda Award and a Triangle Award. A screenplay turned film, Untold, which she co-wrote with Gina M. Garcia won Audience Choice and Best Feature Film at the Central Florida Film Festival, August 2014; Official Selection in Orlando Film Festival, October 22-25, 2014; Shortlisted for Melbourne Film Festival, Melbourne, Australia, April 2015. A poetry manuscript--Hard Letters and Folded Wings--is published by Finishing Line Press, October 2019.

Education

• Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Composition from Lehigh University (1993)
• M.A. in Creative Writing/English from Southern Connecticut State University (1990)
• B.A. in English from Southern Connecticut State University (1989)

Research Interests

• Queer Theory and FYW
• Gender Studies and Feminist Theories
• SOTL in Information Literacy and Undergraduate Research
• Assessment 
• Fiction
• Poetry

Recent Research Activities

Brenckle, Martha. "Room to Breathe." In Too Much is Not Enough: The History in Harriett Lake’s

Closet. Kristina Tollefson and Jody Ozimek,eds.Florida Historical Society Press, 2017.

Brenckle, Martha. Hard Letters and Folded Wings. Finishing Line Press, 2019.

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Selected Publications

Books

• Hard Letters and Folded Wings. Finishing Line Press, 2019.

Articles/Essays

• with Jonathan Alexander, Will Banks, and Samantha Blackmon. Cruising Composition Texts: Negotiating Sexual Difference in First-year Writing Readers.The Journal of the Conference on College Composition and Communication 61.2 (December 2009): 269-296. Print
• with Kristina Tollefson. The History in Harriet Lakes Closet. Theater Design and Technology (Fall 2009): 46-54. Print.
• “Making Sense of the ‘loose baggy monster’: Assessing Learning in a GEP Program is a Whale of a Task.” The Journal of General Education 53.1 (2004): 1-19.
• “Cartography and Adoption: Identity and Difference Beyond the Politics of the Comfort Zone.” Review of Education/Pedagogy/Cultural Studies. 25.2 (April-June 2003): 139-152.
• “Bi, Butch, and Bar Dyke: Pedagogical Performances of Class, Gender, and Sexuality” (with Michelle Gibson and Deborah Meem). The Journal of the Conference on College Composition and Communication 52.1 (September 2000) : 69-95. Reprinted in Feminism and Composition: Critical Sourcebook. Kirsch, Gesa E. et all, editors. Boston: St. Martin’s Press, 2003: 466-487. Reprinted in Teaching Composition: Background Readings 3rd ed. Boston: Bedford St. Martin’s Press, 2007: 536-558.
• “When Working Class Students 'Do' the Academy: How We Negotiate With Alternative Literacies.” Journal of Basic Writing 16.2 (Fall 1997): 3-16.

Book Sections/Chapters

• “The Story of Fox Girl: Writing Queer about/in Imaginary Spaces.”  Sexual Rhetorics. Johnathan Alexander and Jacqueline Rhodes, eds. New York: Routledge, 2015.

• with Marck McBeth. Renaming Curiosity/Resisting Ignorance: Interviewing Queerness. Listening to Our Elders: Working and Writing for Change. S. Blackmon, C. Kirklighter, and S. Parks, eds. Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, 2011. Print.
• Transforming Assessment: University of Central Florida, General Education Case Study (with Kristina Tollefson). Case Studies in Assessing General Education. Marilyn Bresciani, editor. Boston, MA: Anker Publishing, 2007: 186-200.

Creative Publications

• “The Mills, Fall River, Massachusetts”; “The Invention of Triage”; “Aiding the Rebellion”;“Amelia Earhart”; and “Necessary Work.” Lost Coast Review 5.2 (Winter 2014): 12-18. Print.

• with Gina M. Garcia. Untold (screenplay and film production).  Traveling Buddha Productions, 2013.  DVD.

  Premiered at Central Florida Film Festival, August 30, 2014.  Won Best Florida Feature Film and Audience Choice Awards.  Official Selection in Orlando Film Festival, October 22-25, 2014.  Shortlisted for Melbourne Film Festival, Melbourne, Australia, April 2015. 

• "You Don’t Know What It’s Like.” Telling Truths. Sheena Wilson, ed. Toronto: Demeter Press, May  2014: 96-101. Print.

• “City Chickens.” Clockhouse Review. (Summer 2013): 180-196. Print.

• "Wool Skirts. In Unruly Catholic Women Writers-2. Eds. Anna M. Kothe, Jeana Del Rosso, and Leigh Eicke. NY: SUNY Press, forthcoming 2012. Print.
• Feathers. In 15 Views Looking at Orlando. Nathan Holic, ed. Orlando, FL: Burrow Press, 2012. Print and Online.
• Farmers Wife, Navigating the Heart, Moon Scales, and White Marsh Island, October. Monchila Review (Spring 2012): 68-71. Online and Print.
• “Eve’s Garden” and “Her Chinese Robe.” White Pelican Review. (Spring 2008): 9, 41.
• Sunday Afternoon at the Museum of Natural History. Broken Bridge Review (Fall 2008): 125. Print.
• “Reflection in a Well House, Tuscumbia, Alabama, 1987.” White Ink. Rishma Dunlop, Editor. Toronto: Demeter Press, 2007: 300.
• Street Angel. Waterbury, CT: Fine Tooth Press, 2006. Print.
• “Pumpkin Picking.” The Alembic (Spring 2003): 27.

Awards

Research

College of Arts and Humanities Competitive Sabbatical Award. UCF. Fall 2018.

College of Arts and Humanities Competitive Sabbatical Award. UCF. Fall 2007.

 Award for Excellence in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. UCF. 2007. ($5,000 base raise.)

Creative Writing Awards

  Second Prize, Yellow Jacket Press Chapbook Contest for Necessary Work, August 2013

  Finalist, Gival Press Poetry Award for “Nana’s Wedding Dress,” August 2007

 Second Prize, Frank O’Hara Chapbook Award for The Dream Factory, June 2007

 Nominated 2007 Lambda Literary and Triangle Awards for Street Angel

 Finalist, ForeWord Magazine 2006 LGBT Book of the Year Award for Street Angel

 Finalist, Frank O’Hara Chapbook Award for “Framing the Moon,” June 2002

 Semifinalist, 2001 Emily Dickinson Award for “Waking the Dead,” June 2002

 Finalist, Glimmer Train Press 2001 Poetry Open for “Doorways,” May 2002

 Florida Literary Arts Alliance Individual Artist Award for Poetry, October 1999

 Honorable Mention, Explorations 1996 Poetry Prize

 Finalist, Michael Egan Fourth Annual Poetry Contest, May 1996

 Finalist, Richard Eberhart Poetry Award, December 1995

 Honorable Mention, Hemingway Fiction Contest, July 1989

 Teaching

Teaching Incentive Program Award. UCF College of Arts and Humanities. 2011. ($5,000 base raise.)

Teaching Incentive Program Award. UCF College of Arts and Humanities. 2004. ($5,000 base raise.)

Teaching Fellow, UCF Academy for Teaching, Learning and Leadership, Spring 2003

Kristina C. Brockmeier Faculty Award, Armstrong Atlantic State University, May 1997

Professional and Community Service

University Award for Excellence in Professional Service. UCF. 2014

College of Arts and Humanities Award for Excellence in Professional Service. UCF.  2014.

College of Arts and Humanities Award for Excellence in Professional Service. UCF.  2007.

Activities

“The Smallness of Things.” Crosswinds Poetry Journal (May 2020)

 “Centerville Shoe Store, 1965” and “7,000 pairs of shoes left behind.” In The 64

Best Poems of 2018. Carlos Steward, Ed. Black Mountain Press, 2019: 78-79. Print.

“Constructing Border Quilts.” Bryant Literary Review, v. 20, 2019: 128-129.

 "Home On Your Back” and “Phantom Limbs.” Burningword Literary Journal (January 2019): 4-5, 7. 

“Cranston, Rhode Island 1964.” The Sea Letter Journal (Summer 2018): 17-19. Online and Print.

“Heartbreak in Cape Canaveral.” Florida English Journal (Spring/Summer 2017). Print.

"The Mornings After" and "Phantom Limbs" In Resilience: Remembering Pulse. Ed. Keri Watson. UCF Art Gallery: June 2017, 8 & 26.

"Voices Before Marble: The Narrative Significance of Temporary Memorials." In Resilience: Remembering Pulse. Ed. Keri Watson. UCF Art Gallery: June 2017, 66-67.

Courses

• Spring 2026
• Fall 2025
• Summer 2025
• Spring 2025
• Fall 2024
• Summer 2024
• Spring 2024
• Fall 2023
• Summer 2023