The Words: September 2024
Letter from the Editors
by Birdie Keller ’25, Callisto Martinez ’26, Jizelle Villegas ’26
Hello Macalester English family, and welcome to a new and exciting year of The Words! We are Birdie Keller ‘25 (they/them), Jizelle Villegas ‘26 (she/they), and Callisto Martinez ‘26 (they/them), and we are your 2024 – 2025 senior newsletter editors! Click here to read more about us and our plans for The Words this year!
A Warm Welcome from The Words: Introducing Professor Sarah Ghazal Ali
by Sarah Tachau ’27
The most recent addition to the English Department faculty, Professor Sarah Ghazal Ali, began teaching her first classes this semester. Specializing in poetry, her courses include ENGL 150: Introduction to Creative Writing and ENGL 280: Crafts of Writing: Poetry; Form and (In)fidelity. Read The Words’ interview with Prof. Ali here!
Looking Forward (and Backward) to Literary Salons
by Callisto Martinez ’26
This year, the English department will be continuing our Literary Salons — faculty-inspired events featuring local authors, English department alums, and current faculty. These events, which take place in Old Main’s fourth floor lounge on select weeks after our Coffee House on Wednesday, provide an opportunity to connect through literature and poetry. Click here to read more about past and upcoming literary salons.
The Words Chats with Matt
by Sarah Tachau ’27
This fall, the English Department welcomed Professor Matt Burgess into his new role as chair. Returning from his semester-long sabbatical, Matt dove back into the classroom, teaching ENGL 150: Intro to Creative Writing, while carving out time for his newly acquired administrative duties. We stopped by his office hours to chat about his creative work and sabbatical-side-tasks, improv included, as well as his first few weeks as chair. Read our interview with Matt here!
Storygraphs for the Student Workers
by Ahlaam Abdulwali ’25
With the start of the new school year, the newsletter editors wanted to find a way to introduce the new (and old) student workers. A fun fact? Boring. A syllabus for a class about their lives? Done before. Instead, we had each student worker write a storygraph for their fictional memoir. If you want to learn more about Birdie’s non-mysterious life or Cal’s love for Warrior Cats, you can read the storygraphs here!