Faculty Spotlight: Jean Preston

English professor dedicates life to inspiring students to write.

Jean Preston, adjunct professor of English and director of the Carthage Writing Center, graduated from Carthage in 2002 with a major in English and an emphasis in creative writing. She worked as an administrative assistant for the Natural Sciences Division and took classes at night.

"I decided on English as a major because of my love of reading and literature," said Prof. Preston. "My second semester I signed up for Creative Writing and it sucked me in."

Prof. Preston went on to get her Masters of Fine Arts from the University of Southern Maine Stonecoast Writing Program. The process involved sending work back and forth to her faculty mentor in the writing program and collaboration with another Carthage alumnus.

"I was contacted by a Carthage graduate who was studying for her master's in publishing at Emerson College in Boston," Prof. Preston recalled. "She had to design and publish a manuscript for her senior project, and I had to write a manuscript for mine."

The partnership resulted in Prof. Preston having a book of published poetry — titled "All the Queen's Horses" — upon graduation from her graduate program. Since then, her work has been featured in the Solitary Plover, Pleiades, Verse Wisconsin, and the Journal of the Association for the Research on Mothering. Her series of poems titled "16 Mothers" was featured last spring in the H.F. Johnson Gallery of Art as a part of the exhibit “Creating in the Wild Zone.” The exhibition celebrated Women's History Month and showcased creative work by female faculty members at Carthage.

In 2011, Prof. Preston received a nomination for the Jade Ring Award. Her poem, "To My Friend, Sutje, In Thailand," was chosen as an honorable mention from 200 submitted works.

Since she first came to Carthage in 2002, the most noticeable change that Prof. Preston can see is the growth in numbers — both of faculty and students. She says that the spirit of the College, though, hasn't changed.

As a professor primarily of Heritage Studies and secondarily of the English Department, the major changes that she has seen are to the Heritage curriculum and the initiation of the Visiting Writers Series within the English Department.

Prof. Preston says that a major strength of the English Department is that the professors "are cohesive and work well together." Opportunities to work with Writers in Residence such as Richard Meier and travel to Stratford, Ontario, for the Shakespeare Festival each year she says are "very positive and important experiences for English majors."

Her favorite classes to teach are Heritage and Creative Writing. She loves that the freshmen she encounters in Heritage are still excited about experiencing college life.

"The curriculum is challenging," she said of the Heritage program. "And I really work hard to make connections to their lives and to their world.”

— Elizabeth Reinhardt, '12

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The Brainard Writing Center

The Brainard Writing Center is a free resource available to all members of the Carthage community. Students receive help choosing writing topics, formulating a thesis statement, organizing their thoughts, and polishing drafts. Tutoring is available for students of all majors, at all levels of ability, and in any stage of the writing process.

The Writing Center is located on the upper level of Hedberg Library. Appointments are strongly recommended. Call the Writing Center at (262) 552-5536, or send an e-mail to writingcenter@carthage.edu.

The Writing Center also provides an online tutoring service. Students submit drafts and questions via the Internet and receive a detailed response within three business days. Those wishing to register for the service should contact the Writing Center for details.