English

Since completing my English-MA in spring 2017, I generally define myself as an educator, artist, and author. Those three labels are not isolated, however, as all equally influence whatever I’m doing. In early 2020 I started my educational art business, Sight into Insight, which focuses on the relationship of word and image, an interest I was able to develop further during my time in ETSU’s English-MA program. I’ve been fortunate enough in these first few years of the business to have already earned a number of grants for varying projects.  
 
My work as a visual artist after graduating—which has been exhibited nationally, accepted in a permanent collection, and published internationally by academic journals/magazines/textbooks—is a prime example of the fluid ways my English-MA has helped me to succeed, allowing me to articulate complex theories involving the arts such as those I studied in the program. While the venture into the art world was an unexpected accessory to my business, I’d argue it has been as relevant a byproduct of my experiences studying graduate-level literature as my published creative writing, which includes two poetry chapbooks and two children’s books. The liminal space of my visual art and creative writing is especially animated by my work in education, whether teaching writing in a classroom or workshops, creating digital content for libraries to assist students in understanding analytical aspects of literature, or composing a series of paintings to better illustrate a regional figure’s life based on their extant letters.  
 
My collective goal has always been to prevent my work from being strictly an academic conversation trapped within a circle of a dozen people and to instead make it a part of culture from which everyone can benefit. I recently began my doctoral degree in a distance program at University of Jaén, Spain, which supports my objectives, but it’s my time spent in ETSU’s English-MA program that especially prepared me for this miss