Words Matter (Spring 2025)

Volume XIV, Issue II

Table of Contents

• Chair’s Note
• Mihaela Moscaliuc, Ph.D., Selected as a Member of the 2025 Class of Guggenheim Fellows
• Toni Morrison Day Welcomes Keynote Speaker: Autumn Womack
• Department of English hosts Sixth Annual Toni Morrison Day
• Acclaimed Author Akhil Sharma Visits Monmouth University
• Visiting Writer’s Series: Andrew Martin
• A Reading by Poets Katie Farris and Ilya Kaminsky
• Brother Austen Poets-in-the-Classroom Series—The Final Chapter
• Senior Spotlight: Grad School Bound
  • Interview with Meghan Reilly
  • Interview with Ashley Zingillioglu
• From Dublin to the Cliffs: A Writing Retreat in Ireland
• English Departmental Award Winners
• Congratulations to the Winners of the Spring 2025 Graduate Creative Writing Awards for Prose and Poetry!
• MA and M.F.A. Manuscripts Defended
• Graduate Symposium – April 29, 2025 and M.F.A. Reading – May 2, 2025
• Department Student Achievements
• Faculty News
• Congratulations Sigma Tau Delta Members and Spring 2025 Graduates
  • Spring Inductees
  • May 2025 Graduates
• Pictures from the Semester

Chair’s Note

Each year, as the Spring semester ends and I look back at all that our students and faculty have accomplished over the past academic year, I find myself at a bit of a loss trying to decide what to focus on in this column. Should I try to impress upon our newsletter’s readers the degree to which our students achieved unprecedented levels of success in securing spots on the programs of regional and international conferences, in bringing home campus honors like the Undergraduate and Graduate Library Awards and first and second place in the Center for Entrepreneurship’s Hawk Tank Competition, and in gaining acceptances to prestigious graduate programs at institutions like Harvard, Columbia, UPenn, NYU, UNC-Charlotte, UDelaware, Rutgers, and Seton Hall? Should I use my allotted space to help ensure that everyone appreciates what a big deal it is that our faculty are being recognized with Guggenheim Fellowships and are being listed as finalists for honors like the PEN/Faulkner Award? Or should I trust that all of these impressive accomplishments will receive their just due elsewhere in the newsletter and focus on some particular challenge that the English department is presently facing? Fortunately, thanks to what I hope the students in my EN373 (Art of Persuasion) class would recognize as the rhetorical figure of paralipsis, it isn’t necessary to choose, and having preliminarily gestured toward these various topics that I feel are important by indicating that I’m not going to talk about them, I am free to turn to what I would like to focus on: namely, our department’s gratitude to two colleagues who will be leaving us at the end of this year and our excitement about two new colleagues who will be (re)joining us in the Fall.

It is difficult to overestimate the impact that Heide Estes, Ph.D., has had on the English department over the course of her 27+ years at Monmouth University. Estes, who will be retiring at the end of this academic year, came to Monmouth in 1998, and she earned tenure and promotion to the rank of associate professor in 2005 and promotion to full professor in 2013. She collaborated with Prescott Evarts, Ph.D., to write the proposal for the English department’s M.A. program and served as the program’s director for its initial nine years, and she helped to set new standards for scholarly productivity in our department, having published two highly-regarded books and nineteen peer-reviewed articles and having been instrumental in establishing the new subfield of medieval scholarship known as medieval ecocriticism. With her innovative and challenging teaching, her energetic service to the department and the university, her passionate advocacy for climate and social justice, and her example as an internationally recognized scholar in the humanities, Estes made Monmouth University a better, more intellectual, and more ethically responsible and responsive place. We are thrilled to share that Estes will remain affiliated with Monmouth University’s Department of English as faculty emerita, and we wish her good health and ample opportunities to enjoy the outdoors and spend time with Catherine at their new home in Maine. She will be greatly missed and impossible to replace.

This also seems like an appropriate place to officially share with the broader campus community that Associate Professor Alex Gilvarry has accepted an offer to join the creative writing faculty at Cornell University and will be leaving Monmouth University at the end of the academic year. Shortly after having published his debut novel, “From the Memoirs of a Non-Enemy Combatant”, in 2012 with Viking/Penguin and having been named one of the National Book Foundation’s “5 under 35” for 2014, Professor Gilvarry was brought to Monmouth as an Artist-in-Residence. After having served in that capacity for two years, Gilvarry was hired as an assistant professor of creative writing. On the basis of his outstanding teaching and mentoring of the English department’s creative writing students, his strong track record of service to the department and the university, and the publication of his second novel, “Eastman Was Herewith” (Viking/Penguin) in 2017, Gilvarry earned a promotion to the rank of associate professor in 2021. The English department is especially appreciative of the leadership that Gilvarry demonstrated in helping to bring the 2016Norman Mailer Conference to Monmouth University and in coordinating the Visiting Writers Series for two years and directing our new M.F.A. in Creative Writing Program for three years. We wish Alex all the best in his new creative writing teaching position in Ithaca and will miss his presence around the department and at our Visiting Writers Series events. Thankfully, I also have the pleasure of sharing the good news that our AY2024-25 artist-in-residence, John Vercher, will be returning to Monmouth next year as an assistant professor of creative writing (Fiction) and that Brittany Biesiada, Ph.D, who has been serving as an emergency instructor for the past several years, will be remaining with the English department as a full-time (renewable) lecturer. I would like to publicly thank the members of the search committees that were tasked with conducting the national searches that were required to fill these two positions. and coordinated their candidates’ campus visits in a highly efficient and professional manner. I sincerely hope that the members of the Assistant Professor of Creative Writing Search Committee (Ken Womack, Alena Graedon, Mihaela Moscaliuc, and Veronica Davidov) and the Lecturer Search Committee (Courtney Werner – Chair, Sue Starke, and Jeff Jackson) know how much their hard work and professionalism is appreciated! And speaking of things that are greatly appreciated, I would be remiss if I were to sign off without once again acknowledging the generous gift/donation in support of creative writing that has provided funding for our Brother Austin Poets-in-the-Classroom Series, our recent student trip to Ireland, our FA24 and SP25 Graduate Creative Writing Prizes for Prose and Poetry, and various other creative writing enrichment initiatives (including student travel to poetry-related events). We are incredibly thankful for this anonymous donor’s support, as well as for all of the various ways in which each of you support our department. Thank you for taking the time to read our SP25 newsletter, and best wishes for a productive and relaxing summer break!

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Mihaela Moscaliuc, Ph.D., Selected as a Member of the 2025 Class of Guggenheim Fellows

Austin Morreale

Mihaela Moscaliuc, Ph.D., professor in the Department of English and graduate program director at Monmouth University, poet, and translator, was recently named a Guggenheim fellow for the Class of 2025. One of only one hundred fellows selected to receive the prestigious award in 2025, Moscaliuc joins the ranks of exceptional artists who’ve received Guggenheim Fellowships over the years, including the writers Gwendolyn Brooks, Theodore Roethke, E.E. Cummings, and Zora Neale Hurston.

“The news was humbling and slightly numbing (but in a good way). I was too excited to react or even share the news,” said Moscaliuc. “It’s a huge honor to join the 2025 cohort of fellow artists, scholars, and scientists, and to be part of this 100-year-old tradition.”

Moscaliuc will use her fellowship to work on a new body of poetry and nonfiction, centering on cross- cultural beliefs and practices related to death and mourning. She will travel to Latin America and Europe to research the rituals, narratives, and spiritual scaffolding that frames loss and remembrance.

The Guggenheim Foundation has supported over 19,000 artists, scientists, and scholars since the early 1925, dedicated to their mission of adding “to the education, literary, artistic, and scientific power of this country, and also to provide for the cause of better international understanding.” (Senator Simon Guggenheim, 1925.)

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Toni Morrison Day Welcomes Keynote Speaker: Autumn Womack

Meghan Reilly

Monmouth University’s sixth annual “Toni Morrison Day” began with a speech delivered by Princeton professor and Toni Morrison scholar, Autumn Womack, Ph.D.

President Patrick F. Leahy provided opening remarks in which he specifically commended Monmouth’s “first-rate” department of English, which organizes the event yearly. The tradition started after Morrison’s death in August 2019 and the then Department Chair Susan Goulding, Ph.D., wanting to make an event to honor the literary icon’s enduring influence.

Goulding, associate professor of English and former English departmentchair, said, “Toni Morrison is one of the most important American writers we have, and the legacy she gave us should live not only in her works but in celebrations and recognitions that extend her legacy.”

Womack’s keynote speech was entitled “Toni Morrison and the Power of Storytelling: Or, How to Achieve a Breakdown,” tying into this year’s event theme. Womack specifically mentioned the timeliness of the event considering the continued scrutiny and recent attacks on fields such as African American Studies.

In Morrison’s 1993 speech for the Nobel Prize in Literature, she mentions that “unmolested language surges toward knowledge, not its destruction.” This functioned as a segue to Womack’s discussion of banned books, particularly Morrison’s own. Morrison’s novels The Bluest Eye and Beloved have been frequently challenged by book regulations as well as her 1998 novel, Paradise. Womack explains that this novel particularly was banned by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, which accused the novel of having “information designed to achieve the breakdown of prisons through inmate disruption such as strikes, riots, or security threat group activity.”

This is why Morrison’s novels depend so heavily on what Womack refers to as “the activation of the readerly subject.” This is when readers become an active participant in what they are reading, an uninterest in what a text should mean to what it could mean. Readers should consider their reactions to a text and why they feel that way.

When curiosity is piqued, Womack believes that is what produces conversation, consideration of what is on and off the page, and become open to what a text can become. Curiosity, however, is what is considered troublesome. As can be seen in the banning of Paradise, the Department of Justice considered free thinking dangerous but as Morrison sees it, her literature is working. When stories can stir conversation in this manner, there is true engagement between a writer and reader.

“I really liked how Womack referred to Morrison as a consistent student of craft, although we often like to think of her as a teacher. I find that dedication to remaining a student throughout one’s career is such an important detail to emphasize,” said Zafira Demiri, M.A. student in English. “I’ve always loved being a student, and I know I will never stop being one because the only way to grow is to keep on learning. We should all try to embody Morrison’s ethic in that way.”

When asked to share what she hopes to be the audience’s biggest takeaway, Womack said, “Reading is challenging and that is okay. When readers can take a story, book, or essay into their own hands, this is when true participation occurs.”

Reprinted with permission from Meghan Reilly, The Outlook, Vol. 97 No. 16, February 26, 2025

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Department of English hosts Sixth Annual Toni Morrison Day

Taylor Memoli

Monmouth University’s sixth annual Toni Morrison Day was held on Feb. 21 in Pozycki Auditorium. Toni Morrison Day celebrates the acclaimed American author and editor in a day-long event hosted by Monmouth’s English Department. This year, the event’s focus was “The Power of Storytelling.” This year, the event featured guest speaker Autumn Womack, an associate professor of African American studies and English at Princeton University, and four other events throughout the day. At each event, attendees learned more about Morrison’s work and Black politics.

After Womack’s keynote speech, the lecture “Faculty and Student Composition Panel: ‘Intelligent Struggle is Needed…’: Writing for Racial and Linguistic Justice in the First-Year Composition Classroom” was hosted from 11:40 a.m.–1 p.m. Beth Swanson, M.A., lecturer in the Department of English, moderated the panel that featured presenters Courtney Werner, Ph.D., associate professor and director of First Year Composition; Linda Sacks, MAT, lecturer; and Jennifer Harpootlian, M.A., lecturer.

Werner introduced the panel, discussing the first-year composition’s (FYC) dedication to challenging their students to learn and analyze topics they might never have been confronted with before. Werner also mentioned how each FYC syllabus includes a values and anti-racism statement so students can understand the core values of these classes.

Swanson discussed how her FYC class was tasked with watching Jordan Peele’s “Get Out” in an attempt to make her students analyze the film and the messages behind any movie, especially Peele’s psychological horror. The speech featured her FYC student, Jessica Mendez, who read her in-class paper regarding the themes of “Get Out” and how they relate to the current-day struggles of the Black community. Sacks’s presentation focused on her class assignment on climate change. Her FYC students had to write a paper on the topic using a social epistemic approach. Sacks read a paper from her student Emma Vilardi, who could not attend the event. Vilardi’s paper focused on climate privilege and how fast fashion contributes to the climate crisis. Lastly, Harpootlian discussed how her class created partner presentations covering the topic of social justice through the music of different generations and genres. Her presentation featured two of her FYC students, Kailyn Bloch and Kristen Sarnicola. The two presented their slideshow which compared the songs “Dear Mr. President” by Pink and “The Bigger Picture” by Lil Baby.

The next event at 1:15–2:15 p.m. was “Toni Morrison Book Discussion: The Origin of Others.” This event was moderated by Lynn Siracusa, Ed.D., lecturer in the Department of English, with panelists Joe Torchia, M.A., lecturer in the Department of English; and Noel Belinski, MAT, Lecturer in the Department of English. The three discussed Morrison’s book “The Origin of Others” by examining certain chapters. They also applied Morrison’s messages and stories to modern-day society and examined them from a more critical lens. Siracusa started off the lecture by discussing the books forward by Ta’Nehisi Coates, discussing that Morrison is not just about race, but power. Belinski discussed the first chapter of “The Origins of Others” by asking the audience for other examples of “The other” in different societies and media as well as discussing the sanitization of slave literature over time. Lastly, Torchia talked about chapter two and how “othering” can bring power, value, and/or rank to the person doing it. Society values difference because it affords certain individuals power and rank.

The “Toni Morrison Day Digital Poster Contest and Toni Morrison Day Creative Writing Contest” was held next from 2:15–3:15 p.m. The winners of both of these events were announced by Kurt Wagner, University librarian, and Zafira Demiri, senior English major and editor-in-chief of The Monmouth Review.

The Digital Poster Contest winners were Katharine Tito and Daniel Martin. Both won a certificate and their posters were hung in the library for the remainder of the semester.

The winners of the Creative Writing Contest were Rachel Melillo, Carlee Migliorisi, and Kia Womack, who all had the chance to read their poetry to the audience.

This event also featured students from Asbury Park High School’s Project Right Now. This program connects Asbury Park High School students with mentors from Monmouth University to prepare these students for their college careers and future. Three students’ poems were read to the audience, titled, “Our World is on Fire,” No Way Out,” and “Scaredy Cat.”

The last event from 3:30–5 p.m. featured Monmouth’s artist-in-resident, John Vercher. Vercher read from his latest novel, “Devil is Fine” and answered questions from Lauren DeFelice, Hana Vozzo, and Melaina Carrara from the Sigma Tau Delta English Honors Society E- Board. During the Q&A, Vercher spoke about how he has drawn inspiration from Morrison and her work. He referenced Morrison’s quote, “If there’s a book you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it,” and how he has used that to propel his career as an author.

Vercher also discussed his shift into satirical and absurd writing. He stated that it is “liberating” to write in this genre and that it’s “a space I’m going to stay with… [it is] fun to explore.”

With that, the Sigma Tau Delta E-board provided the audience with closing remarks and thanked their co- sponsors Intercultural Center, Office of the Provost, Wayne D. McMurray School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Leon Hess Business School, School of Social Work, Guggenheim Memorial Library, Monmouth Review, Sigma Tau Delta for another successful event celebrating art, literature, and the legacy of Toni Morrison.

Reprinted with permission from Taylor Memoli The Outlook, Vol. 97, No. 16, February 26, 2025

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Acclaimed Author Akhil Sharma Visits Monmouth University

Veronique Manfredini

Monmouth University’s Visiting Writers Series welcomed award-winning author Akhil Sharma for a special reading and discussion on Feb. 3, 2025. Sharma, recipient of the 2001 PEN/Hemingway Award for An Obedient Father and the 2016 International Dublin Literary Award for Family Life, shared insights into his creative process and the challenges of the writing profession.

During the event, Sharma read a historical fiction short story centered on William Shakespeare. He explained his approach to the genre, noting that “the way historical fiction works is that you can’t say anything that is probably untrue,” while adding, “I wanted to make it feel like everything was true” so he “fiddled” around with it until he got it right.

Sharma emphasized the importance of passion in storytelling, stating that “so much of what makes fiction interesting is the life that you put in it. It’s your excitement for it. The story.” He encouraged attendees to keep their commitment to the things they write very low, “there are so many other things that are worth writing.” “You’re going to write many stories, each of them will leave an impression on you.”

He spoke candidly about the financial realities and the “astonishing pressure of money: facing writers today. “Being a writer is squeezing every dollar,” he remarked, “I don’t care if the story is great, I just want to know if I can make money” from it.

The author highlighted how in India, “writing is not an important form” because music serves as the dominant art form, where the novel didn’t emerge until the 1890s. Language is very important, the choice of words and phrasing is what moves the text forward. He highlighted how “the experience of theater represented [in this short story] is the experience of watching theater in India” where “people rush into the theater with sticks to beat you” if they don’t like what you’re doing.

His discussion about language and writing made his insights particularly valuable for emerging writers seeking to find their own distinctive voice and place in contemporary literature.

Visiting Writer’s Series: Andrew Martin

Jacqueline Collo

The English Department held its final Visiting Writers Series event, welcoming Andrew Martin, on March 10 in the Julian Abele room. Before the reading, Martin gave a craft discussion to Associate Professor Alena Graedon’s Craft Seminar class.

Andrew Martin is the author of the novel “Early Work”, a New York Times Notable book, the story collection “Cool for America”, and the forthcoming novel “Down Time”. His works appears regularly in The Paris Review, The New York Review of Books, and Harper’s Magazine, and his stories and essays have also been published recently in The Atlantic, The Yale Review, McSweeney’s, The New York Times Book Review, and elsewhere. A graduate of the University of Montana’s MFA program, he teaches in the Writer’s Foundry MFA at St. Joseph’s University and in the Mountainview MFA program at Southern New Hampshire University.

In her introduction of him, Graedon called Martin’s writing the “wittiest, wisest, silliest,” creative work that is “hilarious, illuminating, moving, and “dirty” all at once. Martin doesn’t shy away from writing about humans who make mistakes and have a desire to connect with others and live a full life, and it is his willingness to write messy people that makes his work so compelling to both hear and read. There is no doubt that Martin pulls from both the world and life around him, which he confirmed when he stated that his “work has sort of aged with” him and the life he has led. Attendees were rewarded with a delightful conversation on Martin’s writing processes and experiences, banter, and a reading from his yet-to-be-published novel. It was certainly a night worth remembering and learning from going forward.

A Reading by Poets Katie Farris and Ilya Kaminsky

Dorothy Doyle, ‘23 M, ‘25 MFA

On a cold Tuesday evening in February the campus community was treated to a moving, memorable evening in the Julian Abele room in The Great Hall with the poets Ilya Kaminsky and Katie Farris. Farris, whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The Nation, Poetry, and other publications, began the evening with readings from her memoir-in-poems, “Standing in the Forest of Being Alive”, which was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Poetry Prize and was one of Publishers Weekly Top 10 Poetry Books of 2023. A breast cancer survivor, Farris’ collection includes not only devastating reflections on illness and the idea of facing one’s mortality, but it also contains moments of tender realism and unexpected humor. Farris is an engaging, funny speaker, and the audience was moved by her humorous, off the cuff comments as well as the eloquent, raw expression of her experiences and her ability to face even the most terrifying moments of cancer treatment with self-awareness and candor. As she says, “One must train oneself to find, in the midst of hell, what isn’t hell.”

Ilya Kaminsky is a well-known editor and translator, and the author of the poetry collections “Dancing in Odessa” and “Deaf Republic”, the latter of which won many accolades including best book of the year by The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, Publishers Weekly, The Irish Times, as well as others. With “Deaf Republic”, Kaminsky has written an allegory about an era that bears a striking resemblance to our current one, and hat bears a striking resemblance to our current one, and it serves as both a warning and clarion call. It begins, presciently, with these lines:

And when they bombed other people’s houses, we protested
but not enough, we opposed them but not enough. I was
in my bed, around my bed America
was falling: invisible house by invisible house by invisible house.
I took a chair outside and watched the sun.

In the collection the citizens choose a disability, deafness, as a weapon of protest and as the means to defy a totalitarian regime. As in Farris’ work, there is as Kevin Young in The New Yorker says, “also humor, or at least a profound set of ironies.” As Kaminsky writes in “Soldiers Aim at Us”:

On earth
a man cannot flip a finger at the sky:
each man is already
a finger flipped at the sky.

Like Farris, Kaminsky writes about serious, important issues. And also like Farris, his seriousness is imbued with a bit of humor sprinkled on top with jimmies of hope. Both possess demeanors that are approachable and charming, so that in addition to engagement with the gravity of their subject matters, the audience enjoyed every moment of their visit.

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Brother Austen Poets-in-the-Classroom Series—The Final Chapter

Austin Morreale

Pittsburgh poet, Lisa Alexander, visited Mihaela Moscaliuc’s Poetry Forms class on April 8 as a guest of the Brother Austen Poets-in-the-Classroom series, sharing her poems and insight with the undergrads and graduate students who filled the room that evening. Lisa read from her debut full-length book, Throttlebody (Get Fresh Books, 2024), which was her labor of love for seventeen years. Lisa encouraged the students to “Follow the poem. When I’m working on a poem, everything I do—whether it’s considering references or taking risks—has to serve the poem. I try to block everything out just let the poem be what it wants to be.”

On April 15th, David Rigsbee, author of twenty-three book and chapbooks, editor, and translator, spent time with graduate students and Moscaliuc’s Poetry Forms students during the final 2024-2025 Brother Austen Poets- in-the-Classroom event. Taking requests from the students, David read poems from “Watchman in the Knife Factory: New and Selected Poems” (Black Lawrence Press, 2024). He also shared personal anecdotes, stories about his poetry peers, and artistic acumen garnered over his more than forty years of writing poetry. “Aim for clarity in your poems,” he advised the writers in attendance. “Clarity doesn’t equal simplicity. You want to create an experience for your reader, and you can do that without getting lost in lofty language or self-indulgence. Clarity allows the reader to access your poem.”

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Senior Spotlight: Grad School Bound

We spoke with seniors Meghan Reilly and Ashley Zingillioglu about their experiences applying to graduate school. They shared their insights and advice for those preparing to apply. (Some portions of these interviews have been edited for brevity.)

Interview with Meghan Reilly

What motivated you to pursue graduate studies, and how did you decide on the specific program(s) or school(s) you applied to?

I was motivated to pursue graduate study because in my junior year I dropped my Secondary Education major and realized how much I loved studying English. I did not have a sudden dislike for education but rather I realized I wanted to be an educator at a different level, more specifically in higher education institutions. I knew that to reach these career goals, I would need to earn advanced degrees.

Can you share ways that being an English major at Monmouth helped to shape your decision to pursue a graduate degree, and how it has prepared you for graduate study?

Monmouth’s English department has been instrumental in preparing me for graduate study and advancing my career goals. My experience taking split-level undergraduate/graduate courses was particularly valuable, as it provided insight into the demands of graduate-level coursework and allowed me to network with current graduate students at Monmouth University. Also, I have worked as a writing assistant at Monmouth’s Writing Services for the past two years, which has equipped me with practical tutoring experience directly applicable to my prospective graduate programs. The completion of my Honors School thesis, including the research and accompanying presentations, solidified my confidence in my research capabilities and revealed the potential for further exploration within my project. I am currently working on another presentation of my thesis at Seton Hall’s Undergraduate Literature Conference in late April. What I want to note as the most integral part of my preparations, however, has been the mentorship and guidance I have received from the English department. I have had professors who have taken the time to meet with me privately to share their experiences with me and give me their honest opinions, which has helped me refine my list of grad schools. My academic advisor, Stanley Blair, Ph.D., has been incredibly helpful during this process. Blair has helped me generate a list of schools, proofread personal statements, decide on a writing sample, reach out to the schools for further information, and is currently helping me in the decision-making process. I am so grateful to Blair and the rest of the Monmouth English department for helping with my preparations!

What was your initial reaction when you found out you were accepted to graduate school? How does it feel to take this next step in your academic journey?

My initial reaction was a mixture of excitement and shock. It felt so surreal that the preparations I have done for months leading up to application deadlines had finally had results! As a first-generation college student, being accepted into an undergraduate college, let alone graduate school, was a huge step. When starting this process, I had no one in my family or close friends that could share any guidance on this process, which is why I am so grateful for the support I was given my Monmouth faculty. Taking this next step for me means that I have grown confident in my abilities to succeed and I am working to develop the skills, both academically and personally, to reach my goals.

What are your long-term career goals, and how do you envision your graduate studies helping you achieve them?

After receiving my M.A. degree, I would like to continue schooling to get my Ph.D. degree and work in higher education as a professor and scholar. I intend to use graduate school to find which of my current research interests I can utilize as a potential doctoral specialization.

What advice do you have for English Majors and other students at Monmouth who are thinking of applying to graduate school?

To summarize, applying to graduate school can be as demanding as a college course, so staying organized and timely is key. I found spreadsheets essential for keeping track of deadlines, application requirements, and details like class size and assistantship availability. Starting the search and organizing in the summer allowed me to be ready when application windows opened in late August or September. I also created separate spreadsheets for writing samples, personal statement prompts, and financial details. If possible, find a mentor—especially someone who’s been through the process—to guide you, keep you on track, and offer valuable insights.

Meghan has been accepted to five English M.A. programs including Monmouth University, Montclair State University, Seton Hall University, Rutgers University-N, and University of North Carolina Charlotte. She has decided to pursue her graduate studies at UNC-Charlotte beginning this fall.

Interview with Ashley Zingillioglu

What motivated you to pursue graduate studies, and how did you decide on the specific program(s) or school(s) you applied to?

Based on my experiences in high school, I see much potential in the field of educational technology to help students with autism. Although Monmouth does not yet offer an ed tech undergraduate major, through my English major and three minors, I developed the knowledge, skills, and tools needed to pursue this interdisciplinary field of study at the graduate level. With each university I considered, I researched its faculty, curriculums, and internship opportunities, and then looked for a fit between them and my research interests, creative talents, and entrepreneurship plans.

Can you share ways that being an English major at Monmouth helped to shape your decision to pursue a graduate degree, and how it has prepared you for graduate study?

After gaining research experience from multiple speech-language pathology professors’ projects, my English academic advisor, Stanley Blair, Ph.D., encouraged me to pursue an Honors School thesis. This opportunity enabled me to explore and deepen my interdisciplinary research interests in autism, education, and interactive media. I spoke about my thesis to several English department faculty, and they encouraged my thesis as well as my development as a musician and a future graduate student. In turn, the thesis provided the basis for professional presentations on campus and at regional and national conferences. Also, as an English major with a Creative Writing concentration, I participated in writers’ workshops. Critiques taught me to appreciate the importance of details and to be more welcoming of detailed feedback, even when it is less than complimentary. This was important during the application process, as it helped me craft compelling personal statements and additional essays that were required. Because I was open to Blair’s detailed comments on improving each statement, I could better address each prompt component, providing program faculty with a customized view of my reasons for applying or my goals as a future student in their program.

What was your initial reaction when you found out you were accepted to graduate school? How does it feel to take this next step in your academic journey?

An abundance of excitement and relief, to say the least, with the first two acceptances, and then shock and awe when I was accepted into three Ivy League programs. I cried for about an hour after receiving Harvard’s acceptance letter. I also did several fist pumps (too many to count!) after reading Columbia and Penn’s letters offering acceptance and financial aid. It is still a little hard for me to believe that I have been so fortunate. I knew all along that researching these programs and then developing customized personal statements for each would be a massive investment in my future. I believed in myself, and the English department, along with my recommenders, believed in me as well. All of this has made me feel more confident about the future and welcome the challenges ahead with a smile! I have found that if you put your mind, time, and effort into yourself as a professional, whether it’s music or graduate study, then any goal is possible to achieve! You just have to believe in it! And be prepared to do the work!

What are your long-term career goals, and how do you envision your graduate studies helping you achieve them?

To summarize, my first step after completing my master’s will be to work in the ed tech industry with an educational gaming company. After that, I plan to recruit peer specialists and start my own company focused on developing learning technologies for individuals with autism. Graduate school will help me by providing the skills I need, like multimedia production, instructional design, and website design. I’ll also gain insight into leadership and team collaboration. I’ve already identified faculty who can mentor me, and I plan to work on independent projects that will build my research agenda and portfolio, so I’m ready to launch my company after graduation.

What advice do you have for English majors and other students at Monmouth who are thinking of applying to graduate school?

In summary, here’s the advice I’d give: First, go beyond your degree requirements to stand out. Do extra work and set small goals that align with your bigger objectives. For me, that extra effort paid off through presentations at both regional and nation-al conferences, and it even led to a journal article co- authored with a professor, plus another article from my thesis that’ll be published soon. I wouldn’t have pushed myself this far without Blair’s honest guidance, so I’m thankful for that! Second, start your grad school application process early—at least a year in advance. Research the programs you’re interested in, their outcomes, and the faculty. Tailor your personal statement to include specifics on how certain courses or professors align with your goals. The more detail you include, the stronger your application will be.

Ashley has been accepted to Columbia University, Harvard University, New York University, and University of Pennsylvania. She has decided to pursue graduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania.

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From Dublin to the Cliffs: A Writing Retreat in Ireland

Jacqueline Collo

Over spring break 2025, Mihaela Moscaliuc’s Advanced Creative Writing class spent their time honing their craft through exploring Ireland with Niamh Hamill, John O’Connell, and the Institute of Study Abroad Ireland. During their time abroad, the students were given the opportunity to stay in Bundoran, and visit Arranmore Island, Donegal Town, Derry / Londonderry, Yeat’s Country, Dublin, and more.

They enjoyed traditional Irish music showcases and even marched in Bundoran’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade, but they traveled constantly, gathering ideas and learning more about poetry everywhere they went. Even when enjoying their time at the pub attached to their hotel, they found memories relevant to the academic; Lauren DeFelice fondly recalled a “moment antithetical to every bar experience” she had ever had where “everyone gushed about writing, linguistics, reading, learning, and everything language majors love.”

When she was asked to reflect on her most formative moments, craft-wise, Niki Manfredini talked about “watching [Michael Waters, Ph.D.] go through everyone’s poem[s]” and what it helped her learn about critiquing even her own work: “I’m more aware of the mechanics of poetry and what makes a poem more interesting and meaningful.” So, while there were multiple workshops throughout the trip, the most notable for a number of students seemed to be the split workshop. Half of the class joined Mihaela Moscaliuc for a generative workshop with a focus on haibuns while the other half joined Waters for a workshop centered in revision.

The students were also lucky enough to experience multiple readings during their time in Ireland. On March 19th, after a morning visit to Donegal, the students got to meet and listen to Annemarie Ní Churreáin read poems like “Sowthistle,” “Bloodroot,” and “A Villager Speaks of Eithne.” She asked (and answered!) questions and even integrated writing time into her schedule so students could write their own poems reminiscent of her own “Ghostgirl” and “Bog Medicine,” forcing them to think of their roles as witnesses through being poets.

On their first day in Dublin, the students also attended a reading at Club na Múinteoirí where they met and heard from Irish poets Paula Meehan and Theo Dorgan, as well as more familiar poets Sean Nevin, Michael Waters, and Mihaela Moscaliuc. One student present at this reading, Tim Pakrad, calls watching “the triumvirate of our own special guild of poets… recite and enlighten this room that, for the moment, felt like the hospital chamber [they were] born in” their core memory of the trip, and one that was formative to their experience as a poet.

Overall, the trip was not only a highly enjoyable experience for the EN 451/598 students but was enriching for their writing as well. They learned new craft elements constantly—Moscaliuc quizzing them on information from her poetry lexicon—and got to engage with the world around them to become more well-rounded writers. Going forward, they hope to integrate the mythology, culture, language and magic of Ireland into their own work which is something we should all be eager to read and be privy to; Sláinte (Cheers)!

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English Departmental Award Winners

Congratulations to all of our award winners and scholarship recipients!

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Congratulations to the Winners of the Spring 2025 Graduate Creative Writing Awards for Prose and Poetry!

The submissions for the Poetry and Prose Awards underwent a blind reading by judges Katie Farris (Poetry) and Andrew Martin (Prose). The prizes for the graduate awards are funded, in part, by an anonymous donation to the Engiish Creative Writing program.

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MA and M.F.A. Manuscripts Defended

• Dorothy Teevan Doyle, “Wellspring”, Spring 2025
• Morgan Kelly, “The Night Everything Changed”, Spring 2025
• Jenna Lozzi, “Blue Violets”, Spring 2025
• Anna Mancini, “Gangs in the Neighborhood”, Spring 2025
• Veronique Manfredini, “Halo of Fire”, Spring 2025
• Kaitlin McGuire, “Sleight of Hand”, Spring 2025
• Michael Qualiano, “Rubbernecker: Stories”, Spring 2025

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Graduate Symposium – April 29, 2025 and M.F.A. Reading – May 2, 2025

M.A. students gathered in the Guggenheim Memorial Library and M.F.A. students in The Great Hall to share their work. The April event was co-organized by graduate students Jacqueline Collo and Austin Morreale

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Department Student Achievements

Graduate student Zafira Demiri ‘24 was accepted into the Skidmore Summer Institute, and has been awarded a merit scholarship to attend. She also presented at the 2025 AWP Conference in Los Angeles in March.

Senior Meghan Reilly was awarded the 2025 Undergraduate Library Research Award. Reilly also presented at the Seton Hall University Undergraduate Literature Conference in April.

Senior Breanna Guinta and junior Justine Bouton presented at the Seton Hall University Undergraduate Literature Conference in April.

Congratulations to recent graduate, Dorothy Doyle, ‘23M, ‘25MFA, whose chapbook, “Unsolicited Legacy”, was accepted for publication by Finishing Line Press.

Graduate student Carlee Migliorisi ‘24 was awarded the 2025 Graduate Library Research Award. Migliorisi was also awarded a travel grant to support her thesis research at Duke University’s David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library for summer 2025.

Recent Master’s graduate and current M.F.A. student, Veronique Manfredini, won second place at the “Hawk Tank” competition hosted by the Monmouth University Center for Entrepreneurship.

Senior Ashley Zingillioglu took first place at the “Hawk Tank” competition hosted by the Monmouth University Center for Entrepreneurship and 2nd place at the Hess Excellence in Scholarship Series. Zingillioglu also presented at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research in Pittsburgh in March. Zingillioglu’s conference presentation, “‘Talking with Friends’: An Interactive Social Story for Students with Autism”, was selected as the recipient of the undergraduate Daniel Walden Prize by the Mid-Atlantic Popular and American Culture Association (MAPACA).

Graduate student Hana Vozzo ‘24 and senior Melaina Carrara presented their work at the College English Association Conference in Philadelphia in March.

Graduate student Gabriella Petrillo presented her work, “Crooked Heaven: The American Nightmare in the Neighborhoods of Colson Whitehead”, at Binghamton University’s English Graduate Conference in March.

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Faculty News

Artist-in-Residence John Vercher’s third novel, “Devil is Fine”, was longlisted for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.

Interim Associate Dean, Professor of English, and Wayne D. McMurray Endowed Chair Kristin Bluemel, Ph.D., published a chapter titled, “Orwell and Feminism” in The Oxford Handbook of George Orwell (Oxfprd UP).

Jeffrey Jackson, Ph.D., presented his work, “Stage Fright: Alfred Hitchcock and the Idea of the Theater”, as part of an invited talk for “‘Interpreting Sexuality and Film on Stage’: Dial M for Murder’s Contexts and Conversations Panel Discussion”, at Two River Theater, in Red Bank, New Jersey, in February. Jackson also presented his work, “Freedom Now Appeared, to Disappear No More Forever’: Teaching Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845) through Critical Literacy in the General Education Literature Survey”, at the Conference of the College English Association in Philadelphia in March.

Alumnus and adjunct faculty member, TJ Spicer, has been accepted to Rutgers Law School, Camden for Fall ‘25.

Lecturers Noel Belinski, Lynn Kraemer-Siracusa, Linda Sacks, and Jennifer Harpootlian, gave a presentation titled, “B- side Remix: Downloading Student Interests, Streaming Student Voices” at the Conference on College Composition & Communication in Baltimore in April.

Mihaela Moscaliuc, Ph.D., was awarded a Pushcart Prize for her essay “Extractions”, a Hawthornden Foundation fellowship for a six-week summer residency in Casa Ecco, Lake Como, Italy, and a two week residency at the Virginia Center for the Arts. Her poems, translations, and interviews have appeared in The Arkansas International, Exchanges: Journal of Literary Translations, and The Journal of the Honduran Academy of Letters. Her co-edited anthology, “Fruits of the Earth: Harvest Poems”, is forthcoming from Knopf in October.

Associate Professor Alena Graedon’s short story “Headless” is forthcoming in the spring 2025 issue of New Plains Review. She was also invited to apply to the Hawthornden Casa Ecco artists’ residency on Lake Como, but she has deferred the application until 2026. Additionally, Graedon was awarded a Summer Faculty Fellowship.

Congratulations to Abha Sood, Ph.D., who was appointed co-chair for the Pearson World Cinema Series for 2025-26. This year, she participated as a discussant for the film Saint Omer. Sood also hosted a teach-in titled, “Exploring Connections: Ecological Connections in the Time of Climate Change” at the Icehouse Gallery in connection with the exhibit, “Ocean Bodies, A Solo Exhibit by Kimberly Callas”. Additionally, Sood conducted a first year composition roundtable discussion titled, “The Impact of Climate Change on Oceans and Ice Caps: Exploring Ecological Connections” as part of Scholarship Week.

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Congratulations Sigma Tau Delta Members and Spring 2025 Graduates

Spring Inductees

• Drew Burnett
• Michael Corbett
• Jacob Dates
• Tara Hurley
• Kayla Kearney
• Erin McGuire
• Valentine Miller
• Branden Van Allen

May 2025 Graduates

• Lauren Bevacqua
• Jillian Bodiford
• Sabrina Burkhard
• Melaina Carrara
• Sabrina Chung
• Madison Connelly
• Lauren DeFelice
• Natalie DellaRagione
• Dorothy Doyle
• Victoria Ferrisi
• Ava George
• Debora Graas
• Breanna Guinta
• Cameron Janovic
• Kayla Kearney
• Morgan Kelly
• Larissa Leonel
• Jenna Lozzi
• Anna Mancini
• Veronique Manfredini
• Erin McBride
• Kaitlin McGuire
• Taylor Memoli
• Madison Monath
• Timothy Pakrad
• Jessica Propst
• Michael Qualiano
• Meghan Reilly
• Sabine Saavedra
• Samantha Saoud
• Milana Shindelman
• Tiffany Smith
• Isabella Sorrentino
• Andrew Vinca
• Kia Womack
• Ashley Zingillioglu

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Pictures from the Semester