Samhi C. – Staff Writer

skc5908@psu.edu

Who is Professor Aimee Pogson? 

She is a fan of absurdities that only make sense in fiction yet allow us to make sense of the real world when unpacked. She also greatly enjoys axolotls and hobbits. She is a fiction writer who specializes in magical realism, a Behrend alumni, and a current Associate Teaching Professor for Creative Writing and English at Behrend, as well as Co-Editor for “Lake Effect.”

Her writing has been published in “Lake Effect” as part of an award she won. Her work has also been featured in “Berkeley Fiction Review”, “PANK”, and more. Her essay “The Dance I Danced for You” was short-listed for “The Best American Essays” and her short story “Unnatural” was nominated for the Pushcart Prize. “The Sadness of Spirits,” a collection of short fiction in which suffering is explored through magical realism, is her most recent published work. 

The following is her life story. Or more so an excerpt from her life story, as much as I was able to learn from an hour-long interview, as well as being her student for two semesters. 

Childhood, education, and early career 

Professor Pogson grew up in Cranesville, PA, a town about thirty or forty minutes away by road depending on the route you take. Having grown up there, her initial plans for undergrad were to attend Edinboro University. “Everyone went to Edinboro,” she says, referring to her high school class. However, her junior year of high school, she discovered Behrend and decided it was a better fit. 

She graduated from Penn State Behrend in 2006 with a B.A. in English with a focus in Creative Writing and minored in Political Science. While here, she wrote for our beloved “ Behrend Beacon.” She also wrote for “The Albion News” during this time. “The first two or three years, about-ish,” she says. “It was good experience, especially since I was initially interested in journalism. It was based in Albion, PA. I covered municipal meetings, as well as other miscellaneous events. For example, I went to a dog show once.” 

After Behrend, she worked for West County News Journal for a year then went on to earn an M.F.A. in Fiction from Bowling Green University, graduating in 2009. 

She then spent one semester as a part-time adjunct professor teaching Composition at Mercyhurst Northeast and at Behrend. For the 2010 to 2011 academic year, she worked at Mercyhurst full-time but joined Behrend full-time when Eugene Cross left. “I enjoyed teaching when I was in grad school,” she says when asked why she decided to teach. “It kind of spiraled from there, it was a natural progression.” 

She started out teaching the fiction workshop classes, taking turns with Prof Tom Noyes, as well as Intro to Creative Writing and the Modern Novel. Eventually, she began teaching Behrend’s Fantasy Literature course which she offered because of interest in magical realism. She also sometimes teaches the Comparative Literature course. 

“I’ve been with Lake Effect for quite a while,” she says. Working with Lake Effect was a journey that began before she joined Behrend as full-time faculty. Professor George Looney invited her to work on the literary journal while she was still at Mercyhurst. She went from reviewing Nonfiction to Fiction and eventually was promoted to Co-Editor. 

I asked her about Lake Effect student editing and if that was something that existed from when she first started working with the publication. “Been around for a long time,” she says. “Even when I was a student here, it was offered as a class.” 

Why choose writing? 

“I wouldn’t say there was anything that ‘hooked’ me,” Prof Pogson says, “I feel like it was always present… I told stories to the babysitter… I started writing by second grade, my teachers encouraged it.” 

Pursuing it career-wise, however, was a decision made later. In high school, she was interested in science and math. “I was really interested in astronomy,” she says. “Really influenced by my dad who was an engineer… At the time and in his field, he was able to do this with a technical degree from high school. He decided to go to college for his undergraduate degree when I was a kid… He would come home and talk about his classes.” She described how he would share his textbooks with her and how they fascinated her. As she got older, however, she realized it would not be right for her. 

She took Intro to Creative Writing once she came to Behrend and one of her professors told her about grad school and the experience of being a professor. “By my sophomore year of college, it solidified into something I could actually do.” In spite of initially intending to be a journalism major, she decided to switch to English with a focus in Creative Writing. 

Why magical realism? 

“It’s something discovered in grad school,” she says. “I remember there was a story that someone else in the workshop turned in… It didn’t quite make sense… I remember the professor loved it… I guess I stopped thinking of stories as beginning, middle, and end but rather as possibilities… he would call them ‘fictions’ as opposed to ‘stories’.” It was at this point that she began to consider experimentation and finding a new voice in writing.

She connects her Political Science studies with her interest in fantasy and magical realism: “A lot of fantasy is drawing on those real world politics and social dynamics.” 

Favorite authors, literary  works, and genres 

In terms of reading, Prof Pogson does not restrict herself to magical realism. “I’m really open to everything… I get really bored with ‘romance’ novels… I guess I don’t really think about fiction as genres… there’s a lot of crossover… I just read what catches my attention.” 

“I have too many favorites,” she says when asked about specific works. “I think recently, I really enjoyed ‘The Shipping News’ by Annie Prouxl… I like hope, hopeful it was… it’s about one person’s potential for change… I guess that ties together a lot of what I like to read.” She adds that she likes works that incorporate humor and are well-written. 

Favorites of her own literary work 

“Obviously, the one I’m working on right now,” she says. “That’s the one I’m most excited about… I’m currently revising a messy novel and working on short stories.” 

She notes that, of the ones she has already written, “Unnatural” has a “special place in [her] heart.” She talks about how it was partially a reaction to a book she had to write a review on, a nonfiction piece in which a man is kayaking and researching salmon. 

She also talks about “Red Ballooning”: “it just kinda came to mind I guess… It was more of a feeling… Thinking of sort of an October-y story and I was reading a lot of Amy Hemple.” 

One last word 

At one point, when I asked what kinds of students usually join her Fantasy Lit class and her experience with them, Prof Pogson told me: “I enjoy teaching any student that’s interested in learning… I’m happy when students say ‘I’m really excited about this.’”

A final note from the writer: 

The following, I want to make clear are not her words but rather my own sentiments following Pogsons’s remarks: Majors and minors and career plans aside, student interests should guide their class choices as much as possible, and as long as a student has an interest in learning and in the subjects they are learning, it will not matter what academic background they come from or whether or not they plan on practically using the knowledge they gain in the class. They, the professor, and classmates will have a good semester and it will be time well-spent. 

So, students, take advantage of those gen eds and the times when you get to choose between multiple classes to fulfill a requirement for graduation. Even if you feel like you have no choice, be optimistic and be ready to learn. If not for that, then what else are we pouring millions of hours and dollars into our education for? For that matter, in and out of school, and this is for all of our readers, students or not, if we remain life-long learners, we will,  in spite of all the ups and downs, have lived lives well-spent.