Meet English major and published poet Glory Stevens ’27

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Meet English major and published poet Glory Stevens ’27

Glory Stevens in blue shirt and wearing glasses stands in front of library stacks.

"It’s a really particular form of vulnerability, but it’s not one I find myself afraid of. Art is like a cycle."

Glory Stevens ’26 was sitting waiting for class to start when she peeked down at her phone and saw a new e-mail.

She breezed through the message, then suddenly stopped, turned to a classmate, and quietly let out: “I just got accepted for publication.”

At that moment, Stevens was a published poet.

This spring, her poem “shower curtain” was published in Folio, a well-established literary magazine founded at Holy Name University in 1959 that receives submissions from undergraduate writers across the county.

Distinguished Professor of English Gary Leising, who encouraged Stevens to submit her work and mentored her through the process, believes Stevens is one of the most gifted writers to emerge from Utica University over his twenty years in the English department.

“She probably has the most distinctive voice as a writer of any student I’ve taught,” he says. “She’s developed the way that she wants to write and she does that well. There’s both a pride and stubbornness, a good kind of stubbornness, to it. I think she’s really good at figuring out what she wants the poem to be and how she wants to say things – really having this trust in her own voice and in her own inner-critic.”

We sat down with the English major and discussed her achievement and what comes next.

When and how did the idea of publishing your work come about?

It all just happened quickly. It’s something I never really thought about, honestly. I never particularly felt I would or I wouldn’t.

I remember I took a poetry class with Dr. Leising a couple of semesters ago. At the end of the class, he mentioned, maybe in passing, that any of the students could talk to him if they wanted to consider publishing their work. So that put it in the back of my mind. And then I took his Sylvia Plath course this semester, I just approached him one day after class and was like, ‘Do you want to help me try to publish a poem?’ I think the time just kind of came, and I was ready to try it and see what would happen.

At first, I wanted to publish a collection, and obviously the first step of getting a book published is just publishing individual poems. So that was where he had me start. And then in one of our meetings when we were sending out poems to publishers, he said that next semester, which will be my last semester here, I can do an honors tutorial with him. The goal at the end (of the tutorial) is to have a collection out for publication.

What was it like when you learned your poem was accepted for publication?

I was really excited. It was nice to see that other people thought it was worth publishing or being read.

Were you confident it was publication worthy?

I think the only right answer is, I didn’t know until I sent it out. Part of why I wanted to do it was to see what would happen because you never know. At the risk of sounding cliché, I just write because I love it and I want to. It’s not any less or more valuable if it’s being published, but it’s also exciting to have others read something of mine. Maybe they relate to it. Maybe they don’t. I think poetry has a way of finding people when they need it. So kind of my hope for anything I would ever write is that someone reads it when they needed to hear it.

What was the process like, both in terms of selecting the poem and then waiting to hear back from the publisher?

There were four different publishers I sent to, and I sent a different assortment to each one. I mean the one that got published I had written like two days before. I was just going on gut feeling. I tried to read a little bit of what the given publisher is publishing just to get a taste of what would be up their alley. But honestly my thought going in is if somebody doesn’t accept whatever it is that I decide to put there, it might just not be the right place for it anyway. It’s not really a testament of my ability to write. It’s just information, and then you move forward. I’ve always been proud of my voice and my writing, so I wasn’t going to be crushed if I didn’t get published.

What inspired you to write “shower curtain”? Can you talk about that creative process?

Honestly, my creative process in general is pretty underwhelming. I get ideas for poems and draft them either in my journal or my notes app on my phone. From there, I mess with it until I have a finished product that I'm happy with. I wrote "shower curtain" on my bedroom floor at some point a couple months ago

There’s a certain amount of vulnerability inherent with poetry – the two almost go hand in hand. You write things that you might not share with your closest friends, and then you’re putting your words out there for everyone to read. How do you summon the courage to embrace being so emotionally open?

It’s a really particular form of vulnerability, but it’s not one I find myself afraid of. Art is like a cycle. There are people who write and I read their writing and it’s personal, it’s intimate, and I relate to it deeply. And it’s helped and impacted me. And then I write things that are maybe personal and intimate, and there’s someone out there who’s going to read it and relate to it. I think poetry is something that you never really have to feel scared of. I understand that fear and I get it conceptually, but it’s not something I fear. I mean if you publish a bunch of poetry and none of it is vulnerable, what are we really up to? I think that’s what gives it its charm. That to me is less scary than not writing and not getting my words out of my head.

Shifting gears, what brought you here to Utica University?

I live right down the road in Whitesboro – a really long journey. I have two older brothers who go here. They’re both in the Physical Therapy program though, so we’re not exactly intermingling. I took Intro to Creative Writing here when I was still in high school for AP credit. I really enjoyed it, and I enjoyed meeting everyone in the department. I just didn’t want to leave, I guess. So here we are.

What has it been like working with Dr. Leising?

It’s great. He’s just very excited about what he does. I can tell he’s happy to be working with me on this. You can just tell in his energy, and that definitely makes a difference.

When I took poetry with him, that was one of the first times I actually experimented with form. I’m very much a free-verse writer. I kind of just write whatever. I don’t really think about it. I’ve never been against form, I just never really got into it. He kind of brings that technical aspect that I’ve never really thought about. He’s very supportive, but he also gives feedback. It’s a good balance.

He – and, really, the faculty as a whole, especially in the English department – provides a lot of very close support, whereas at bigger environments you are a little more distant from people. I mean, (Professor) Nicole (Lawrence) started class on Monday by telling the class that I published a poem and giving me a shoutout. The professors understand and remember what it was like to be where we are as students, and what I appreciate about them is they try to be the mentors and professors that they would’ve looked up to when they were students. Anything they do is not about personal gain. They’re genuinely trying to help us as students. At the end of the day, we are kind of just friends who are supporting and helping each other out where we can.

What’s next?

Hopefully by the end of next semester I’ll have a collection to publish. I’m anxious to see where the tutorial ends with Dr. Leising. That would be super exciting, honestly, if I could get a collection out there. I’m also working to publish an academic article that I wrote in one of my other classes. I try to do as much variety as I can. I don’t particularly have ambitions to write a (novel) or whatever, but I try to keep the doors open. Half of English and the Arts is networking and meeting people and being connected, and so I’m thankful for all the people I met here. And I guess you never know where you’re going to go, but I’ll try to keep publishing, for sure.