Marnie Leonard
Graduate Programs Assistant

image by Jill Salahub
image by Jill Salahub

How would you describe your work in the English Department? I provide information, documents, data, and other details that support the activities of our faculty and our students in our academic programs, and assist those interested in our graduate programs with the application process.

What do you enjoy most about your work? The people! Our faculty and students are dynamic and focused, creative, caring, and fun.

Why are the Humanities important? The Humanities encourage us to read more and write more, and in doing so, we learn about who we are and who we can become.

What or who inspires you? Our English department faculty and our students inspire me. The faculty bring their knowledge and their dedication both to their field and to their students; the students convert classroom information into retained knowledge that fuses with the rest of the “data of living” they’ve collected and enhances their own lives and the world.

What are you currently reading, writing? I recently finished reading Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens and am currently rereading The Known World by Edward P. Jones. I’m also writing two short stories and a longer piece of fiction.

When you’re not working, what do you do? I write literary fiction, get together with friends, and garden.