Lei's intro

Hello!

I'm Lei, a second-year grad student in the Nonfiction Writing Program.

My favorite kind of writing bridges paradoxes or different worlds: science and religion, spirituality and skepticism, humor and profundity, realism and idealism, mind and heart.

I'm teaching for the first time this year an Interpretation of Literature course called Life Lessons, drawing on the few years I spent in Shanghai prior to Iowa, where I was a coach for Chinese high school students to help them figure out what they wanted to do in college/life. I've also worked short stints as a science journalist; a researcher of consciousness; a private investigator (very boring--only sounds cool); a translator; and a fact-checker.

Outside of class/work, I like weird non-dogmatic meditations, flowing movement styles (I'm a huge dabbler in dance/martial arts despite being supremely clumsy), and procrastinating via home decor (I really like to help people organize/beautify/throw stuff away!!! without actually cleaning anything).

Lei

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