English Department Students and Graduates
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Student and Graduate News
Lindsey Schaffer '20, Chapbook Publication
Lindsey Schaffer, 2020 Minnesota Street Summer Creative Writing Fellow, shares her work with CSBSJU. She notes, as fellows, we took part in many exciting opportunities including virtual visits with editors from Grey Wolf and Coffee House Press. The experience culminated in a portfolio of 30 pages showcasing writing from each genre and a reading presented by The Literary Arts Institute. As a result of this opportunity and my Writing Essays course with Matt Callahan, my essay was accepted for publication through the online magazine Chronically Lit.
"After graduating from CSB with a degree in English I was accepted into the Museum Education Master's program at Tufts University. I have found that English and museum studies uniquely inform one another because ultimately constructing an exhibition is just another form of narrative building. Additionally, being in museums has always inspired my writing. When I studied abroad in Greece, I wrote a poetry chapbook called 'City of Contradiction' which explored the places I visited and the art I reflected on. It was recently accepted by Selcouth Station and will be published later this year. I hope that as I begin my career in the museum field, I will continue to make space to refine my writing." -LS
Katherine Wagner '21, Assistant Project Editor
"Essentially my job as the assistant project editor is to take an initial pass through the book—translating the Italian as best I can, and then comparing what I think it says to the existing English translation. I take note of places in the text where the English loses some of the musicality, intent, or flow of the original Italian text. I then send these notes to Professor Jessica Harkins, and we work through them together to rewrite the English translation. She’s much better at the Italian than me (though I am learning!), and I serve as a sounding board and brainstorm partner. It’s been a very eye-opening experience, especially since we began this project last March—right after the pandemic started. But even if progress is slow sometimes, or we find ourselves working asynchronously, I’m proud of the work we’ve been doing and grateful Jessica gave me chance to work on it with her!"
Kayla Porter '19, Finding a second (temporary) home in France
College of Saint Benedict graduate Kyla Porter ’19 spent six months teaching in Gap, France as part of the Teaching Assistant Program in France (TAPIF). Porter, an English major and French minor at CSB, taught in Gap from October 2019 to March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic ended her stay in France. In this story, Porter talks about her time in France and how being in Gap was exactly the place she needed to be. Read the full story here.
Caroline Osborne '20, Education Update
Caroline Osborne has recently been accepted to the St Thomas School of Law and will begin classes there this fall (2021).
Andrea Gomez '20, Novel Publication
Andrea has recently finished the first draft of a novel! She has also started working with an organization called Novelly. Novelly is an ed-tech nonprofit on a mission to social engagement and conversations on issues the youth care about. Andrea will be a mentor to students and aid them in their writing process as well as teach them how to put their work online for others to see.
James Heidelberger '20, His ‘Call of Duty’ sent him to the video gaming industry
Heidelberger, a 2020 graduate of Saint John’s University, was a Squad Lead Tester working with the Emu Team for Activision, a video gaming company based in Santa Monica, California (he recently was reassigned to a new project, so his current job title and duties are in flux). Read the full story here.
Zoe Huot-Link '21, 2020 Minnesota Street Summer Creative Writing Fellow
Zoe has been busy publishing her work, including one of the poems she read at the Manitou fellowship this summer, Temptress. This poem as well as her essay Words From No-Man's Land is also being published along with another of her poems written in 2019, called Reflection. Both poems have been published in For Women Who Roar. https://www.forwomenwhoroar.com/poetry/2020/9/17/reflection-temptress.
Zoe also has artwork, Justice for George Floyd which was published in a book called, Resistance, by Writing for Peace.
Ray Mulvey '21, Writing Internship
Writing intern, Ray Mulvey, creates virtual firearms history exhibit at the Morrison County Historical Society museum in Little Falls, MN.