"BYU's English department pushed me as a writer, which means it pushed me as a thinker, because those two go hand in hand."
What is your job/position?
Author
Describe the path that you took from your BYU English degree to your current career, highlighting the important realizations and turning points that paved the path for you.
Middle School English Teacher, then an MA at BYU, stay-at-home mom, Adjunct faculty at BYU, Lecturer at the University of Maryland (teaching academic writing), currently a full-time author
What are the specific skills that you cultivated as an English major that you now use in your professional life? And how do you use those skills in ways that set you apart from your colleagues?
BYU's English department pushed me as a writer, which means it pushed me as a thinker, because those two go hand in hand. Also, going through the secondary ed program added an additional layer of critical thinking. It's taking everything you learn as an English major and then adding the lense of how do I teach similar skills to young people? Doing that is hard work. It requires new ways of seeing, analyzing, and synthesizing what we know and becoming deeply creative in finding ways to teach that knowledge. So this base helped me become a really good writer/thinker and then a really good teacher--and teaching itself? That's golden. Teaching teaches the teacher a whole new way of seeing the world. I LOVED teaching. I'm writing full-time right now and I love this, but I know I'll go back to teaching at some point and even now, if I get a chance to teach a workshop or speak at an event, I love to do that and I draw on my BYU experience.
What are some of the surprising ways in which your English degree has helped you in your life?
Hmm. I don't know if I can think of something surprising. We were asked to write a lot and we became good solid writers. Maybe it's the way that solid foundation is helping me even now as a fiction writer now. Probably in ways I can't pinpoint. One lovely surprise has been the way BYU faculty have continued to be a support in unexpected ways. One example: After I published my debut novel two years ago, I reached out to Chris Crowe to let him know and to thank him for his mentorship. He was on my graduate committee twenty years ago. I doubt he remembered me, but Chris has reached out in support of my new writing career, recommending me for two different teaching/speaking opportunities at BYU. One of these was reading at the English Reading Series today. We had lunch together afterwards with some other faculty. So something surprising? A mentor who is still mentoring me twenty years later! What a gift.
What do you wish you had known as an English major? Is there any advice you'd like to share with current students?
Write every day, every day, every day. Read widely. Write more. Read more. Become adept at taking criticism about your writing. Your writing is not your baby. Become good at critiquing the work of others. This will make you a better writer.
Contact:
joani@joanieliott.com