3rd Year Student Profile: Erin Reardon

Erin Reardon

Erin really thinks she's more Southern than not, but is met with "But you don't have an accent....?" comments often enough that she'll lay claim to both her Midwestern- and Southern-ness depending on the convenience of the situation.  Born in Ohio and raised in Georgia, Erin, when she stops to think about it, never really imagined that someday she would be in grad school, in the desert--New Mexico!--of all places.

In fact, most of her fiction writing 'career' has come about by happenstance--she liked to read, so why not be an English major in college?  She liked to write too, so let's make that a concentration in creative writing.  Wait, there's another whole degree out there where I can keep learning to be a writer?  Sign me up, she thought. 

Erin did not know what she was getting into.

The MFA has been hard, but Erin is grateful for the writers--both her instructors and fellow students--she's been privileged to work with here.  She has spent the last two and a half years teaching freshman composition and developmental English classes at Dona Ana Community College and has discovered, much to her surprise, that she is rather fond of teaching.

Erin hasn't yet been published--she keeps putting submitting off until her stories are "good enough," whatever that is (Erin is astoundingly good at procrastinating).  And she is not nervous AT ALL about her reading on February 11 with Rosa Alcala.