Meghan Miraglia is a poet, editor, book nerd, eldest daughter, sister and student. “Work/house,” her debut chapbook printed in-house at SSU, explores the narratives of pauper inmates living in Ireland around the time of the Great Famine. Her work appears in The Santa Clara Review, The Broadkill Review, and others. She is the recent winner of the 2023 Claire Keyes Undergraduate Poetry Prize, and winner of the 2022 Earth Days Creative Writing Contest for her speculative memoir, “Logging Period Symptoms in the Apocalypse. ”
As of March 2023, Meghan is a senior who will graduate in May with her BA in English. Meghan is also currently working toward her M.Ed (also at SSU). She dreams of becoming a super-cool professor, and intends to publish a few collections of poetry/essays.
Why did you choose to major in English?
I chose to major in English after a come-to-Jesus conversation with my senior-year AP Literature teacher. Until that point, I had actually planned on going to school for occupational therapy. I had arrived early to my teacher’s class so I could show her a Freudian psychoanalysis of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. By that point, she had already given me copies of Kerouac’s Dharma Bums and Big Sur after finding out I’d already read On the Road, and had recommended works by Joan Didion to feed my hunger for 60s lit. The previous year, in my AP Language class, I had devoured Wuthering Heights, The Scarlet Letter, Jane Eyre and The Great Gatsby – half of which were not required texts.
My AP Lit teacher simply looked at me and said, “What are you doing? Why are you going to school for OT? You should be studying English”. And I realized I had spent my entire life denying the fact that I genuinely, obsessively, wildly loved taking apart novels and critically engaging with complex texts. I had always known I liked to read…but there was something deeper to this “like.” Literature and storytelling are deeply radical and revolutionary things: I had irrevocably fallen in love with them.
I rush-applied to Salem State a few days before the application closed. I did it in an hour, during my study hall. If I was going to college, I was going to study something I loved. I was going to study books.
What are some of your favorite English classes?
I’m not kidding when I say every single English class I have taken at SSU has been my favorite. The mega Shakespeare nerd in me wants to say that “Shakespeare I and II” were my favorite, but the budding Buddhist within wants to say “Mindful Writing.” Freshman year, I took “Reading Closely” with Professor Walker, and spent a semester frolicking through New York City with Walt Whitman. I loved every second of it. I loved engaging with timeless classics like Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight with Professor Taylor in “British Literature I,” but I also thrived in Professor DeCiccio’s “Writing Center Practicum,” where I fashioned a tutoring pedagogy from the work of acclaimed theorists. In Professor Lindholm’s “Grammar and Style” course, I wrote an 11-page paper on the need for inclusive God-talk. And in my directed study with Professor O’Neil, I produced a 56-page manuscript of poetry for my Honors Thesis.
Do you have any memorable experiences as an English major? Are there any activities you recommend?
I don’t know how to answer this question without turning it into an essay. I recommend taking advantage of SSU’s proximity to organizations like MassPoetry and the Gloucester Writers’ Center: I have been able to do some incredible work with those organizations during my time as an English major at SSU. I definitely recommend getting involved with Soundings East, our international literary magazine. Being the poetry editor for its 45th issue has been an absolute honor, and I encourage folks to sign up as readers for their preferred genre, as it will certainly help further develop your literary taste. The SSU Writers’ Group, which I founded along with a few friends, is a safe and welcoming space for writers of all genres. Folks can try their hand at running a meeting, to get a taste for literary leadership. Definitely tutor at the Mary G. Walsh Writing Center: tutoring has made me a better educator and writer. Al and Bill are the absolute best.
Memorable experiences include representing SSU at the 2022 Intercollegiate Undergraduate Poetry Festival, winning the 2023 Claire Keyes Undergraduate Poetry contest, working with MassPoetry to plan and run one of the few in-person events for the 2021 Massachusetts Poetry Festival, and reading at Trident Booksellers in Boston for the March U35 reading. Opening for Naomi Shihab Nye when she came to SSU for the Writers Series back in November of 2022 was absolutely life-changing. Producing Work/house (my debut chapbook and Honors Thesis) is a core memory for me: I am so grateful to have had the ever-talented, always-incredible Professor O’Neil as my thesis advisor.
How has the English major changed you as a person?
I am a better thinker, reader, writer, planner, leader, scholar, editor, and human being because of my English major.
What do you want to do with your English major? What are your future plans?
I am currently enrolled in SSU’s 4+1 program, and am double-majoring in English and secondary education. I will spend another year at SSU, completing my M.Ed and fellowshipping with a local middle or high school. My goal is to become a university professor, and I dream of getting my MFA and PhD. I also dream of publishing a few collections of poetry, and perhaps a book of essays.