Chris King

Lecturer in College Writing
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    • College Writing Program
    • MSC 1096-153-122
    • Washington University
    • 1 Brookings Drive
    • St. Louis, MO 63130-4899
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    Chris King teaches the Citizen Scientist theme of College Writing. His title is lecturer, and he teaches as a member of the Service Employees International Union.

    Chris also is a civil servant. He serves as public information officer for the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. Wesley Bell, the elected officeholder, is a reform prosecutor.

    Previously Chris worked as a professional journalist for 30 years, while also moonlighting as a rock musician, record producer and arts organizer. He continues to coproduce records at the Toy Box Studio in Nashville for release by Hollywood Recording Studio.

    He was educated at Washington University in St. Louis, the U.S. Navy ROTC program at Boston University, and the Granite City Public Schools, where he was recognized by his peers as both Class Brain and Class Mooch for the boys.

    His personal politics are anti-fascist, anti-racist and pro-feminist.

    Featured Courses

    College Writing: Citizen Scientist

    Being a citizen of a modern democracy increasingly requires making decisions informed by our understanding of scientific consensus and the backing evidence. The stakes of these decisions range from the future of a warming planet to the benefits of vaccinations and GMOs to the persistence of racial bias and gender inequality. Citizen Scientist uses these and other topics at the intersection of civic responsibility and academic research to introduce students to college writing.

    Selected Work

    Why we didn't kill Abacha

    King writes about Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka for Harvard University's Transition magazine.

    The Press in Ferguson

    This article for The New Yorker highlights King's work as the managing editor of The St. Louis American during the 2014 Ferguson protests.

    To disrupt or destroy? Police accountability movement at a crossroads

    King writes about police accountability for The St. Louis American.

    The South Side Of Luck: Go South For Animal Index

    This mini-documentary explores the making of King's second feature film, "Go South for Animal Index."

    Eleanor Roosevelt

    King's rock band, Eleanor Roosevelt, on the Hollywood Recording Studio's website.

    Tear gas used in Ferguson protests

    King is interviewed by Chris Cuomo about the 2014 Ferguson protests for CNN.

    Interview on Recording Studio Rock Stars 

    King is interviewed about his work producing music as an indie rock bandleader, field recordist, and creative director of Poetry Scores, which builds community by translating poetry into other media.

    The Shape of a Man

    The Shape of a Man

    Musician/poet/agent provocateur Chris King discovers some acutely painful sharp angles that contribute to The Shape of a Man. These are poems full of beer, bad guys, car rides, near-talismanic ears of corn, and a laundromat where the speaker’s determined to see his dirty laundry through, all the way to dry—to “pay for / heat, finish something, for once.”

    -David Clewell, second Missouri poet laureate