It Shouldn't Have Been Beautiful harkens back to an early affinity for proverbs and riddles and the proto-poetry found in those forms. Taking on epic subjects—time and memory, metamorphosis and indeterminacy, the complicated nature of beauty, wordless states of being—each poem explores a bright, crisp, singular moment of awareness or shock or revelation. Purpura reminds us that short poems, never merely brief nor fragmentary, can transcend their size. Her poetic language is an instrument of a unique thinking that seeks to explain that nothing is just what it says.

Lia Purpura is the author of three collections of poems, The Brighter the Veil, Stone Sky Lifting, and King Baby, and three collections of essays, Increase, Rough Likeness, and On Looking, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. She is the recipient of Guggenheim, National Endowment for the Arts, and Fulbright Fellowships as well as three Pushcart prizes, among other honors. Her work appears frequently in The New Yorker, as well as in The Paris Review, Orion, Agni, Best American Essays and other publications. She is writer in residence at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

May F. Chung is a native North Carolinian and attended NC State for her BA in English Education and ESL) as well as her Masters in Sociolinguistics. Prior to teaching English at UMBC, she taught Composition at her alma mater, the English Language Institute at UMBC, and at the Community College of Baltimore County, Catonsville Campus. She also has previous experiences with working with English language learners from elementary school to college-aged students in the United States, China, and Guatemala. May is currently a PhD student in Language, Literacy, and Culture at UMBC. Her research interests include dialect awareness and education, Asian American language practices, teacher education of pre-service teachers, and linguistically and culturally diverse teaching practices for English language learners.

Bruce Miller received his MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College and has spent the last sixteen years teaching all manner of Composition, Literature, and ESL courses both in the United States and abroad. When not teaching or writing short fiction, prose poetry, or articles on music for various publications, he can be found either playing fiddle on his porch or traveling, occasionally documenting traditional music in Uganda, Senegal, India, or elsewhere.

We welcome these two new members of English Department team and the valuable contributions they are sure to bring to our UMBC community. 

Philip Hiotis is a native Baltimorean who received his BA in English Literature from UMBC in 2012. He is currently completing his Master’s degree in the Texts, Technologies, and Literature MA program. Philip is also fluent in Greek, spending several summers in Greece throughout his life.

Victoria Rudacille was born and raised in Bel Air, Maryland. She received her BA in English Language and Literature from Stevenson University, where she was the Student Assistant to the Chair of the English Department. She is currently an MA student in the Texts, Technology, and Literature program.

Philip and Victoria will be serving as Writing Fellows for several of our Composition courses this semester. They are a welcomed and valuable addition to our English Department team.