Welcoming New Professor Sarah Ghazal Ali
by Anna Šverclová ’23
After an exciting and lengthy search for the next poetry professor, the Macalester English Department is pleased to announce the hiring of Sarah Ghazal Ali!
According to her website, “Sarah Ghazal Ali is the author of THEOPHANIES, selected as the Editors’ Choice for the 2022 Alice James Award, and forthcoming with Alice James Books in January 2024. A 2022 Djanikian Scholar, her poems appear in POETRY, American Poetry Review, Pleiades, the Rumpus, and elsewhere. Sarah is the editor of Palette Poetry and lives in Lewisburg, PA where she is a Stadler Fellow at Bucknell University.”
Here in the English department, we are beyond excited to have Sarah join the Mac community. Sarah was the final candidate to present her job talk and sample class during the search last month. As a participant in the sample class, I was intrigued by her conversational, interactive, exploratory teaching style, and I think she will be an incredible fit for Macalester! To celebrate her hiring, I decided to reach out and ask Sarah Ghazal Ali about her feelings on the hiring process, and on coming to work for Macalester.
How was your experience in the hiring process?
Sarah: I had a lovely, lucky experience at Macalester. Everyone I met—from students, to faculty, to strangers passing by—was remarkably kind and welcoming, and not once did I feel overwhelmed or in over my head. I had invigorating conversations with students, and I think that speaks to the kind of vibrant community the English department has created here, one in which it’s clear that students are comfortable and willing to make their voices heard. Also, I’d be remiss to leave out how delightful Jan Beebe was as a tour guide, timekeeper, and overall friendly face during the process!
How would you describe your teaching style?
Sarah: I would describe my teaching style as question, play, and experiment-oriented. I prefer to position myself as a fellow learner alongside my students, and to emphasize that learning is a lifelong, unending process—it’s never finished, and I’m not an authority in the classroom so much as a guide or facilitator during that process.
What are some topics/classes you are excited to teach at Mac?
Sarah: I’m hoping to teach a course on form and infidelity, about the vast range of poetic forms that have developed over time and how poets have adhered to or broken them in innovative ways. I’m also eager to teach a broader course on literary obsession, and the way obsession can be an engine for research, revision, and generating work across genres.
What are you most excited about in coming to Macalester?
Sarah: I truly can’t wait to work with students. My visit was a short few days, but I got a great sense of just how intelligent, eager, and energetic students are at Macalester. I’m so looking forward to getting to know the student body better.
Thanks again to Sarah Ghazal Ali for agreeing to this interview, and welcome to Mac! We can’t wait to have you!