Happy Saturday! Today’s interview is with Professor Rebecca Meacham who has been the face for many new additions to the English Department here at UWGB. From continuing to run the literary journal “Sheepshead Review,” to launching the new BFA degree, she has created many unique opportunities for students at UWGB over her time here.
One of her most recent notable accomplishments is having her nonfiction piece “Feather Rousing” nominated by Gigantic Sequins for a pushcart prize! Check out her interview.
First tell me a bit about yourself and anything you’d love the students here to know. Hobbies, family, where were you before UWGB, etc
I grew up in Toledo, Ohio, which is the hometown of Gloria Steinem, and which was ridiculed in a song by John Denver, breaking my heart, since his was the first concert I attended at age 6. I went to college and two grad programs in Ohio. My whole family originates in Columbus, where my Uncle Don was such a Buckeyes fan that he drove a van custom-painted in scarlet and grey.
Also, I never was an English major until my PhD program, which is a bad time to start. In college, I majored in American Studies, and then I attended an MFA program in Fiction, where I developed an emphasis in Multiethnic Literature. So I’m always kind of catching up on what English majors already know.
If you would have a superpower, what would it be and why?
The ability to create freshwater, to catch amazing seafood, and to channel wi-fi and communicate across the world telepathically.
What is your favorite piece of literature?
Beloved, by Toni Morrison.
What is the coolest thing you’ve ever done?
So I’m old and have had a pretty great life. With friends, I’ve backpacked across Europe, camped in Utah, and sold homemade beads at Grateful Dead shows. My college chorale sang Carmina Buranawith the Cincinnati Ballet and Bernstein’s Masswith the Illinois Philharmonic. I’ve researched archives at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem. Thanks to my mom, I’ve seen “Hamilton” with the original cast on Broadway. I know it’s corny, but I gave birth to the funniest, smartest kids in the world who, for now, like hanging out with us. Recently, for the book festival I help organize, I rode on a Green Bay fire truck with writer Susan Orlean, and I shared a crème brule with Margaret Atwood and a puppet. Even more recently, a program I created, the Writing and Applied Arts BFA, made it through approvals at all branches of our campus, all 13 UW colleges, and the UW Board of Regents, and now is the only degree of its kind in the UW-System. And now it has 31 students enrolled— and our first graduate walks December 2019!!
What is your favorite part about UWGB?
The students! UWGB students are the most hardworking, innovative, and good-hearted people I’ve encountered every semester since 2002. My colleagues and the staff are pretty wonderful, too. Also, tunnels.
If you were stranded on a deserted island, what three things would you have and why?
Well, since my superpower is the ability to create freshwater, fish well, and to connect via telepathy and wi-fi with the whole world. So my three things are a sailboat with a motor, fuel enough to get me to land, and an endless supply of podcasts on an iPhone that never dies.
Who has inspired you in your life?
My parents. My mother started law school at age 38 and became the second woman ever hired by her law firm in the 1980s. She was such a tough negotiator that a nurses’ union once sent her a bag of coal for Christmas. My dad was a controller at a major corporation until he retired at age 55 to a house in the woods on a lake. He’s now 82 and does 10,000 sit ups each year on his birthday. Plus whatever number he’s aged to.
Both my parents grew up dirt poor and became successful people who remain generous and giving. They’re cynical of systems of privilege. They’re also huge readers, lifelong learners, and very darkly funny.
What is the funniest thing that has happened to you recently?
Here would be an example of darkly funny: we have two cats. While the girl kitty is sweet and makes Yoda-like noises, our boy kitty is the hunter. And we live in the country.
And this is how I found myself standing on our upstairs hallway carpet, on Halloween morning, staring down at the face—and only the face—of a mouse.
What did you want to be when you were younger?
As a kid, a “joke-teller” and a carpenter.
