Student creativity and insight grace the pages of literary journals

Student creativity and insight grace the pages of literary journals

English students earn rare distinction as published authors in academia before earning their degree.

By Janel Shoun-Smith | 615-966-7078 | 05/21/2026

Lipscomb's Department of English & Modern Languages has produced seven published student authors for the 2025-2026 school year, with a combination of poetry and essays published in literary journals.

The consistent success of Lipscomb's student writers is achieved through a combination of individual tailored support and focused curriculum, Dr. Jan Elaine Harris, professor of English and writing, observed.

"Through a scaffolded approach to our creative writing curriculum, we have been able to include advanced writing techniques as well as mentorship/instruction in the publication process," Harris said. "And Dr. Brandi Kellett (chair of the department), has honed a curricular focus on undergraduate research through both creative and scholarly engagement."

Two of the seven published students, Layla al Sadoon (BA '26) and Miller "Mac" Chamberlain (BA '26) received full tuition to enter elite Master of Fine Arts programs, both in the top 20 of the nation's creative writing programs, at the University of Michigan and the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, respectively, said Harris.

Another student in the Advanced Poetry in fall 2025, English major Diane Brown (BA '26), took on a creative experiment in the course that ended up paying off in a big way.

She decided to experiment with stream-of-consciousness writing, and in 2026 the comedic poem she produced, referencing everything from asthma to elves, was selected to be published in The Blue Route, Widener University's undergraduate poetry magazine.

Students in Harris' poetry class are not only required to write one poem a week, but to also submit at least one of those poems to a blind-submission journal with an anonymous and competitive selection process.

Brown's "September," published in May, was inspired by the work of Heather Christle, who also has a stream-of-consciousness style in her poetry.

"I had done stream-of-consciousness once or twice before, but not really very seriously. Now it has really become my style of poetry," said Brown, a Crestwood, Kentucky-native who focused on fiction writing in her English major. "I feel that poetry has improved my fiction as well."

Brown's poem includes a wealth of references to her childhood passions and her life's journeys, including J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, her love of nature and her struggles with asthma.

"People like the poem because it balances humor with sentimentality, but not in a cheesy way," said Brown. "It is an invitation to the reader into the thought process behind all these different ideas that get combined together."

English students published in 2025-26

Allison Aardsma (BA '26)
August Lethargic and alone, I am a choir in redrosethorns

Layla al Sadoon (BA '26)
sara in New Feathers Anthology
sisters' daughter in Rowayat Literary Journal, Issue 13

Diane Brown (BA '26)
September in The Blue Route

Miller "Mac" Chamberlain (BA '26)
Love and Dying in the Nuclear Age in Feral: a Journal of the Arts
An Empathetic Approach, The Life of a Showgirl: Bodes Unwell for Popular Feminism and Combatting Militarized Logic in The Fulcrum

Megan Gables (BA '26)
My Hat Man and Honey, in Belladonna's Garden, Issue 2

Emily Golembiewski, senior
The Limbs of My Family Tree are Splintered and Cracked in Mangrove Literary Journal

Maxwell Kuecker, senior
Composting in The Blue Route