Erica Quinones
Erica is an incoming English PhD student at the University of Delaware. She graduated summa cum laude from Washington College in May 2022 with majors in English and German Studies as well as minors in Political Science and European Studies. She was a Sophie Kerr Finalist and was awarded the Eugene B. Casey Medal at graduation. Their current research, which focuses on the (re)defining of queer labels in science fiction, emphasizes the importance of language in social justice. A lifelong writer and musician, they admire multimedia projects that intertwine performance, visual, and language arts. This appreciation appeared throughout her tenures as Editor-in-Chief of Washington College Review and as Editor-in-Chief of The Elm, during which she curated publications that encouraged discussion between words, images, and framing. Beyond her love of creation and curation, she hopes to utilize the skills she honed as a Peer Writing Consultant and Workshop Coordinator to engage young artists whose unique perspectives expand upon and challenge their predecessors’.
Cybaby
Cybaby is a combination of “Cyborg” and “Crybaby.” By undermining the former’s robotic coldness, the oxymoronic sonics highlight the duality that attracts me to the cyborg figure and what I hope to achieve with my art. Cyborgs are often defined as divided, but I’ve always seen them as fighting to unite those identities and become a hybrid. This struggle reflects my own attempts to define my identity as both a white Latina and as a lesbian. But the movement from Cyborg to Cybaby reflects my desire to create art that can move a computer, transforming a figure that is synonymous with coldness into someone that can connect with others to build a future for hybrid peoples.