{"id":695,"date":"2024-03-04T19:33:08","date_gmt":"2024-03-04T19:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/?p=695"},"modified":"2024-03-05T15:48:59","modified_gmt":"2024-03-05T15:48:59","slug":"meaghan-canavan-is-wcsus-latest-connecticut-poetry-circuit-poet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/2024\/03\/04\/meaghan-canavan-is-wcsus-latest-connecticut-poetry-circuit-poet\/","title":{"rendered":"Meaghan Canavan is WCSU\u2019s latest Connecticut Poetry Circuit Poet"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Meaghan

Meaghan Canavan<\/p><\/div>\n

As a student at John Jay High School in Hopewell Junction, New York, Meaghan Canavan developed her love of literature. As a\u00a0Professional Writing<\/a>\u00a0student focusing on journalism and public relations at\u00a0Western Connecticut State University<\/a>, she took it to the next level by being named one of five Connecticut Poetry Circuit Poets for 2023-24.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I\u2019ve always been interested in writing,\u201d Canavan said. \u201cGrowing up, my best subject was English in school, and I was always devouring books. My love of reading eventually transferred to writing, although I definitely still love the former as well. It wasn\u2019t until my last two years of high school, though, that I realized it was actually something I could pursue as a career.\u201d<\/p>\n

As her 2020 high school graduation approached, Canavan began to consider her college options.<\/p>\n

\u201cWCSU\u2019s writing program is why I chose to attend the school,\u201d she explained. \u201cMany universities only offer an English major with some writing classes on the side. But when I saw that Western had a major for it \u2014 along with offering New York residents in-state tuition \u2014 it really felt like a win-win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now in her senior year, Canavan has been involved with several of the university\u2019s many student publications. \u201cI\u2019m the treasurer for the Student Publications Club, and I help contribute to things such as the school\u2019s newspaper, The Echo, and its literary journal, Black & White,\u201d she said. These on-campus experiences will translate well to Canavan\u2019s end goal of working at a publishing house or magazine focusing on the editorial process or writing of some kind. \u201cI like writing my own stuff, but I\u2019d love to help share the work of others as well,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n

Canavan said poetry didn\u2019t really come into her life until her junior year at WCSU, when she started taking poetry classes. \u201cI\u2019d always liked reading it, but it wasn\u2019t until I was studying the subject that I began to feel connected enough to write it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Canavan\u2019s introduction to poetry writing came from WCSU Professor of Writing\u00a0Dr. Brian Clements<\/a>, a highly respected published poet and editor of poetry anthologies. \u201cDr. Clements is the one who nominated me for the opportunity to be a Connecticut Collegiate Poet,\u201d Canavan said. \u201cI selected 10 of what I believed to be my best written poems, and together we narrowed it to five. Those five poems were then sent in as examples of my work.<\/p>\n

\u201cA big reason I received this opportunity in the first place was because of not only Dr. Clements, but the Writing Department as a whole,\u201d Canavan continued. \u201cThe professors are always looking out for students and will send us many opportunities involving scholarships, contests, internships, etc. A lot of the acknowledgments I have received have been through their recommendations, and they are to thank for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clements expressed his pride in Canavan\u2019s accomplishments. \u201cThe faculty of the Department of Creative and Professional Writing couldn\u2019t be prouder of Meaghan and all of our students,\u201d he said. \u201cTo have a WCSU Writing major selected for the Poetry Circuit for the third year in a row alongside students from Yale, Wesleyan, Quinnipiac and Trinity College speaks to the talent and dedication of our majors as well as the success of our department\u2019s unique approach to teaching writing. Like all WCSU Writing majors, Meaghan has studied writing in multiple genres, journalism\u00a0and publication design, and, in fact, started off in the program as a fiction writer with little past practice in poetry. Recently, she was among the group of students who launched the department\u2019s online culture and arts magazine, \u2018The Howl.\u2019 We celebrate Meaghan\u2019s success and can\u2019t wait to host the Circuit on campus again this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Canavan is the third WCSU Professional Writing student selected as a Connecticut Poetry Circuit Poet.\u00a0Isabella Bullock<\/a>, of Westport, was chosen in 2022-23 and\u00a0Michelle Rochniak<\/a>, of Wallingford, was selected in 2021-22. Canavan is looking forward to her responsibilities on the Connecticut Poetry Circuit. \u201cMy main goal is to represent myself and the school well,\u201d she said. \u201cI want to demonstrate that I\u2019ve put a lot of time into my work, so I want to improve my public speaking to try to communicate this well.\u201d Many of her poems are written in the first-person, and explore the relationships between herself, others and the world.<\/p>\n

In addition to Canavan, this year\u2019s winning student poets are Mia Alexander from\u00a0Wesleyan University, August Bishop from Quinnipiac University, Alexa Schwartz from the University of Hartford and Saidie Zeiner-Morrish from Trinity College.\u00a0WCSU and Quinnipiac are the only universities that have had a student selected as a Connecticut Poetry Circuit participant for three years in a row.<\/p>\n

The Connecticut Poetry Circuit was established in 1968 to continue the work of the New England Poetry Circuit, which was founded in 1964 by the Academy of American Poets and Holly Stevens, daughter of the acclaimed poet and Hartford insurance executive Wallace Stevens. Each year, the Connecticut Poetry Circuit enlists a panel of poets to judge a statewide contest of college-student poets. Five student poets are selected to tour the circuit each spring and will read their work at a number of universities and events.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Western Connecticut State University changes lives by providing all students with a high-quality education that fosters their growth as individuals, scholars, professionals and leaders in a global society. Our vision: To be widely recognized as a premier public university with outstanding teachers and scholars who prepare students to contribute to the world in a meaningful way.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a student at John Jay High School in Hopewell Junction, New York, Meaghan Canavan developed her love of literature. As a\u00a0Professional Writing\u00a0student focusing on journalism and public relations at\u00a0Western Connecticut State University, she took it to the next level …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":696,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[15,16,6],"class_list":["post-695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-success-stories","tag-creative-and-professional-writing","tag-poetry","tag-success-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/success-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}