Kyler Johnson recently won a Fulbright to teach English as an ETA (English Teaching Assistant) at the university level in Brazil. He plans to start a bilingual Portuguese-English Writing Center and a community literary magazine there. He has served the Rhetoric Department as both a Writing Fellow for three years and a Writing Center tutor for two, He has been helping Professor Carol Severino, one of his Fulbright recommenders, recruit the latest cohort of Fellows because he knows and mentors many student writers through his work on the Translate Iowa Project.

Kyler recently presented at a Writing Center conference with Carol and five other fellows. The night before they went to the conference Kyler's aunt, Mary Beth Simmons, Villanova University's Writing Center Director, emailed Carol to remind her that she and Mary Trachsel had taken her and other Writing Center tutors and Rhetoric TAs to the same conference in 1995!  

Kyler wants to bring the world together through the power of language. At Iowa, he has pursued a major in English and Creative Writing with minors across Portuguese, Chinese, French, and Translation for Global Literacy (He also knows German). Varying his literature coursework across languages—studying contemporary Native American Literature, Quebec Literature, Lusophone Children's Literature, and Old English—he has conversely centralized his writing practice in Creative Nonfiction. His writing explores language, culture, and history and is intermixed with personal narrative. He wants his readers to journey through time and space through his work.

For a great interview with Kyler and to read more about his plans while in Brazil, see the International Programs website here.