Carlos Hernandez
Professor
English
EMAIL: chernandez@bmcc.cuny.edu
Office: N-751R
Office Hours:
Phone: +1 (212) 220-8268
New York Times best-selling author Carlos Hernandez wrote the critically acclaimed short story collection The Assimilated Cuban’s Guide to Quantum Santeria (Rosarium, 2016), the novel Sal and Gabi Break the Universe (Disney Hyperion, 2019), which won the 2020 Pura Belpré Award, and its sequel, Sal and Gabi Fix the Universe. He’s also written dozens of short stories, poems, and works of drama, usually in the SFF mode.
He has served as lead writer and a game designer on the CRPG Meriwether, as a writer and designer for the installation art of Mary Miss, and as literary curator on the Apple Arcade game Dear Reader, among other video games. As a co-founder of the CUNY Games Network and of the Board Game Designers Group of New York, he’s contributed to the development of many board and card games, both educational and commercial.
Expertise
Multicultural Literature of the United States, Experimental Literature, Creative Writing, Contemporary Fiction
Degrees
- Ph.D. Binghamton University, English/Creative Writing,2000
Courses Taught
- English Composition is the standard freshman writing course. The course introduces students to academic writing. By its conclusion, students will be ready for English 201 and for the writing they will be asked to do in advanced courses across the curriculum. Students completing ENG 101 will have mastered the fundamentals of college-level reading and writing, including developing a thesis-driven response to the writing of others and following the basic conventions of citation and documentation. They will have practiced what Mike Rose calls the "habits of mind" necessary for success in college and in the larger world: summarizing, classifying, comparing, contrasting, and analyzing. Students will be introduced to basic research methods and MLA documentation and complete a research project. Students are required to take a departmental final exam that requires the composition of a 500 word, thesis-driven essay in conversation with two designated texts.
Prerequisite: Pass the CAT-R and CAT-W or Accuplacer tests
Course Syllabus - 6 CRS.7 HRS.NULL LAB HRS.ENG 121 (English Composition & Introduction to Literature in Tandem)
- This course combines English 101 and 201 into a one-semester course. It is designed for students with a high level of reading and writing proficiency. Departmental permission is required.
Prerequisite: Pass the CATW and CATR tests
Course Syllabus - The objective of this course is to sharpen students' creative writing skills in the genres of the short story, poetry and drama, depending on students' interests and ability.
Pre-Requisite: ENG121 or ENG201
Course Syllabus - This course examines how science fiction literature envisions the impact of machine technology on the individual and society. The human/machine interaction will be traced from early myths to contemporary science fiction, including works by Asimov, Clarke, Delaney, Gibson, Lem, Orwell, Vonnegut and Zelazny.
Course Syllabus - This course focuses on the literature of urban America since 1950 and in particular on how contemporary writers use the images and themes of the city.
Course Syllabus - 3 CRS.3 HRS.NULL LAB HRS.ENG 381 (American Literature from the Colonial Era to the Civil War)
- This course surveys American literature from its colonial beginnings to the American Renaissance of the nineteenth century-from Ann Bradstreet and Cotton Mather to Walt Whitman and Herman Melville. Students learn about the cultural milieu that influenced writers, read major and representative works and sharpen their critical abilities.
Course Syllabus - 3 CRS.3 HRS.NULL LAB HRS.ENG 382 (American Literature from the Reconstruction Era to the Present)
- Though English 381 is not a prerequisite, this course begins where 381 leaves off and covers select fiction and poetry from the Gilded Age of the late nineteenth century to the present. Students study major writers and literary movements; and an effort is made to place literature in its cultural context. Works by such writers as Mark Twain, Emily Dickinson, Henry James, T.S. Eliot, Richard Wright, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Toni Morrison may be included.
Course Syllabus - This course focuses on the gradual emergence of the American novel both as a literary form and as a reflection and reinforcement of patterns in the fabric of American life. Representative authors may include Hawthorne, Melville and Stowe from the 19th century; Lewis, Cather, Fitzgerald, Faulkner, Hemingway and Steinbeck from the 1920's to the 1950's; and Wright and Mailer of the 1960's and 1970's.
Course Syllabus - English III consists of the English electives which appear in the catalog as courses numbered English 301 or higher. The literature courses consider, in depth, major writers, literary periods, or genres. The writing courses are workshops where students can develop their writing talents in specialized fields. The English III courses are similar in structure, organization and content to courses at four-year colleges. Students who plan to transfer to four-year colleges are urged to contact those colleges to find out which English electives should be taken at BMCC to fulfill their admission requirements. Prerequisites: ENG 101 and 201, or ENG 121
- In this course, works reflecting the experiences of U.S. Latino/a writers in English are analyzed. Students will read, discuss, and write about fiction, nonfiction, poetry and drama by writers such as Julia Alvarez, Rudolfo Anaya, Gloria Anzaldua, Roberto Fernandez, Tato Laviera, Achy Obejas, Abraham Rodriguez Jr., and Piri Thomas. Note: Crosslisted with LAT 338
Course Syllabus
