Things kicked off with a night of poetry. But these weren’t your stereotypical poets. Maggie Glover ‘05 and Paige Hill Starzinger both have full-time jobs, not related to poetry, but each just recently published their first book of poems.
Despite visiting campus together for the Beck Lecture series, the two women have radically different work.
English professor David Baker introduced the two poets, describing Glover’s poetry was “direct and voice-driven.” He joked that, “It is best to read Maggie Glover with a seatbelt on.” He said that Starzinger’s poetry was “visual art, likely to splinter and the product of a researcher.” He again joked that listeners should still keep their seatbelt on for Starzinger’s reading.
They spoke in the Barney Davis board room on Thurs. Feb. 6 at both 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. The event was originally scheduled for Wednesday but was moved back a day due to classes being cancelled. The afternoon talk focused on their careers as English majors while the evening meeting was a poetry reading.
Glover is currently the Director of Brand Marketing at Ipsy, a beauty website, and lives in San Francisco. After getting her MFA in poetry at West Virginia University, she was part of the fashion startup website called ModCloth. She read eight of her poems from her book How I Went Red including one about her admiration for Marc Jacobs and another one called “Refrain” that she wrote while staying in a hotel on what she called a “writer vacation.”
Starzinger read six of her poems from her book Vestigial. Some of her poems were about living in New York City. Starzinger added that her “poems are built like nests” and that “they often have braided narratives.” In their afternoon talk, Glover presented on the marketable skills that English majors inherently possess and how those skills can translate into the job market. When an audience member asked how she finds time to write with her job, she joked that, “I don’t have dogs or children so I have time to write poetry.”
Starzinger displayed some of her work from her time at Vogue. She said that she “loves to hire poets, writers, Buddhists, and history majors because they bring their passion to their work.” She explained how writing captions for fashion magazines can be a challenging and fun job for English majors.
Isabel Randolph, a sophomore from Columbus, Ohio thought it was really cool to listen to Glover and Starzinger.
“I really enjoyed the opportunity to hear them because I’m an English major who wants to go into business, so it was super relevant,” said Randolph “I thought they were fun and personable and I liked getting their tips about things like combining work with writing.”
Glover and Starzinger were not only inspirational in their careers but also in their poetry.
“And I like both of their poetry styles so that was pretty cool as well,” Randolph added.
Caroline McCauley, a senior from Hartville, Ohio, attended the afternoon talk about the poet’s careers.
“Paige Starzinger’s and Maggie Glover’s presentations on their careers not only gave insight to the fashion and beauty industry, but also touched upon how to find success in any career,” she said.
She found Starzinger’s remark “The smaller your frame of the reference, the smaller your range” to be helpful, and McCauley added it was “applicable to all aspects of my daily life and wise words to live by.”
Debbie Gillum Wakefield 