Writers@Grinnell brings alumni back to writing roots
Scarlet & Black 2025-03-05
On Thursday, Feb. 20, Writers@Grinnell kicked off the semester with a series of events featuring three alumni speakers — Emily Mester `14, Clare Mao `14 and Steven Duong `19. Mester, Mao and Duong engaged with students at a roundtable titled, “Is a Creative Writing MFA worth it?” co-sponsored by the English SEPC at noon. Later that day, Mester and Duong read to students from their debut novels, “American Bulk” and “At the End of the World There Is A Pond” respectively, at 4 p.m. in JRC 101.
“We had discussed previously potentially working with Writers@Grinnell to co-host some event, and Professor Hai-Dang Phan had already been in contact with the speakers,” said Ellie Cierpiot `25, a member of the English SEPC. “He suggested we do a roundtable in collaboration for this event,” she said. Cierpiot and Raffay Piracha `25 co-hosted the Q&A.
This roundtable brought together alumni from different parts of the literary world — Mester specializes in essays, Duong in poetry and Mao is a literary agent who represents Mester. Duong and Mester both attended the Master of Fine Arts (MFA) program in creative writing at the University of Iowa, while Mao started her career as a literary agent in New York City.
Professor Hai-Dang Phan, associate professor of English and director of Writers@Grinnelll, was intentional about bringing these alumni together. “I wanted to give current students the opportunity to see recent-ish grads come back,” he said, “and give them a sense of some of the possibilities of becoming a writer and entering the publishing world.”
For all three alumni, coming back to Grinnell meant returning to the origins of their literary careers. Duong was first introduced to writing poetry as a second-year student in former Professor Ralph Savarese’s introduction to poetry class. He found the strict nature of poetry a bit frustrating at first, but took to the genre’s constraints as the class progressed. “Something about those restrictions shape you in ways that you would have not gone without them,” he said. Duong also credits his Grinnell professors for drawing him to poetry. “I thought Savarese was just a really good teacher and was really engaging,” he said.
As an English major, it was really nice to see that people from Grinnell can get published and succeed. They can write these beautiful things and have the support from Grinnellians.
— Lorelei Balmer `28
As with Duong, Savarese had a large impact on Mester’s writing journey. Mester started writing poetry in high school, but it was not until she took a class with Savarese that she discovered creative nonfiction. “He showed me that essays were not just academic papers or articles, they could be just as, sort of, literary and juicy as poems or stories,” said Mester. She went on to do a Mentored Advanced Project (MAP) with Savarese in nonfiction, where he told Mester about creative writing MFA programs. “I had no idea that you could go to school for it [creative nonfiction], let alone that it could be fully funded,” she said. Essays from her MAP with Savarese went on to become her graduate school application materials that earned her acceptance to the University of Iowa’s MFA program.
Mao, who majored in History and Chinese, became involved in the literary world by taking a few English classes at Grinnell. “I had, notably, two really good professors — Dean Bakopoulos and Ralph Savarese,” she said. “They really respect you, and meet you where you’re at, and push you that way,” said Mao. Mao would also frequently attend Writers@Grinnell events. “I think the program is great,” she said, “They brought a lot of really cool, amazing authors.”
For some students at Grinnell, attending the reading gave them hope for the future. “As an English major, it was really nice to see that people from Grinnell can get published and succeed,” said Lorelei Balmer `28, “They can write these beautiful things and have the support from Grinnellians.”
Reflecting on their experiences at Grinnell, the panelists were grateful for their time here. “I absolutely never would have gone to graduate school, or written the book, or written nonfiction if not for Grinnell,” said Mester. “It was at Grinnell that I really fell in love, as it were, with writing,” said Duong.