Two UNM English Alumna Reunite in Washington, DC

Two of the English Department’s recent graduates reunited for a poetry reading at Marymount University. In a moment of alumna networking, Leigh Johnson (PhD 2011) and Erika Sánchez (MFA 2010) were happy to work together again—this time in Washington DC. Erika gave an excerpted reading of her poetry manuscript at Marymount University in Arlington, VA, where Leigh is an Assistant Professor of Literature and Languages. The November 1, 2012 event was well attended by fifty students and faculty from the Marymount community. Students appreciated Erika's "frankness" in answering questions and her "beautiful grotesque" images.

Erika is a poet, feminist, and freelance writer living in Chicago. She is currently the sex and love advice columnist for Cosmopolitan for Latinas, a reader for Another Chicago Magazine, and a contributor for The Huffington Post, AlterNet, and NBC Latino, Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Pleiades, Drunken Boat, Witness, Anti-, Rhino, Hunger Mountain, Crab Orchard Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Copper Nickel, Southeast Review, and others. She has written book reviews for Kirkus Reviews and her nonfiction has been published in Jezebel and Ms. Magazine. She has appeared on American Public Media, the Jack Gravely Radio Show, and Huffington Post Live. She is working on her memoir and a poetry manuscript.

Leigh is in her second year as a tenure-track assistant professor at Marymount University. She teaches Early American Literature, American Multicultural Literature, composition, and gender studies to undergraduates. This semester, she's teaching the introduction to graduate studies course. Her article "Covert Wars in the Bedroom and Nation: Motherwork, Transnationalism, and Domestic Violence in Black Widow’s Wardrobe and Mother Tongue" is forthcoming from Meridians: feminism, race, transnationalism.

Congratulations to both graduates on their continued success and sustained collegiality!