The Perfect Storm & Bonfire of the Vanities

Rebeka Fergusson-Lutz

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I spent most of my formative years covered in Elmer's glue, glitter, tempera paint, and felt scraps. Because I was an only child until age 10 and grew up in rural Upstate New York, before the arrival of cable television, I was forced to entertain myself without gadgets and battery-operated toys. I painted rocks, sewed clothes for my Barbie dolls, and built model cars. I took art classes throughout high school and eventually chose to study art history (alongside English literature) at Boston University. I have taken studio art classes and specialized workshops through the years, but I remain largely self-taught.

Because I spend most of my days with young people, attempting to engage them in literary and rhetorical approaches to the big questions facing society, I am primarily inspired by conversations that arise during class. Teenagers are irreverent and honest and insightful, and occasionally disrespectful, which is what I hope that my literary and artistic work can be.



Rebeka is a full-time professional high school English teacher and part-time semi-professional creative person. Her primary breadwinning comes from teaching English language and literature at the high school and college levels. Over the past 17 years, she has taught in the United States (Washington, D.C.), Romania, Qatar, Oman, Honduras, and China. When she’s not writing lesson plans and grading papers, however, she works as a freelance writer, editor, and researcher. When not chained to her laptop with those side-hustles, she experiments with drawing, painting, sewing, printmaking, collage, and various combinations thereof.