FIVE WITH A FALCON: Peter Elliott, Professional Writing and English Studies (ENGL '26)

In this episode of Five with a Falcon, Peter Elliott (ENGL '26), talks about how his  Professional Writing concentration and major in English Studies have been integral to his sense of belonging on campus -- while his liberal arts course have provided the perspectives he needs to grow as a writer.  A junior from Petersham, MA, Peter's poetry has appeared in the Fitchburg State University literary journal, Route 2 .   He's also an active member of the Writing Club on campus where he and fellow scribes commune over their written words.

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Episode transcript available here.

Episode produced by McKenzie Calvao and edited by Adam Fournier. Both are members of the Perseverantia staff, and film/video production students in the Communications Media department.

Click here to learn more about Perseverantia. Join us for programming updates on Instagram. Or reach out with ideas or suggestions at podcasts@fitchburgstate.edu.

Transcript

[ Five With theme begins ]

Prof. Kate Jewell (host):
Welcome to Five With a Falcon. Would you please introduce yourself?

 [ 0min 19sec ]

Peter Elliott (ENGL ’26):
Hi, my name is Peter Elliott. I am an English major here at Fitchburg State University. I'm concentrating in the Professional Writing track, and, yeah, -- that's the basics of it.

 Prof. Jewell:
So can you tell us a little bit about your career at Fitchburg State?

 [ Five With theme fades out ]

Peter:
So I should say right now that I'm approaching the end of my sophomore year, and so far I have really been going to town on my gen eds. You know, all my gen ed classes, I've taken a good amount of English related classes. You know, like classes within my major, but I started with the gen eds, even though I knew what I wanted to do when I got in here, the way I view English, like any career in professional writing, is you need perspective.

 So I've taken my math class. I've taken the Honors Philosophy requisite. I've been taking classes that are outside my major or outside of my concentration just to get those different perspectives, and I feel that'll influence my writing in the future.  I decided to be a writer for that very [reason.

[ 1min 30sec ]

I love worrying about different perspectives. I love utilizing different perspectives. different perspectives. I love learning about what other people are. thinking or how they see the world. I just love interacting with other people, and I feel like being a writer is a very good way of doing that.

Prof. Jewell:
So where do you find a sense of belonging at Fitchburg State?

Peter:
Well, for starters, I definitely feel a sense of belonging in the English department. The English department at Fitchburg State is very small. There's not too many students in the department. I suppose that is kind of a detriment because it does not help the English department to be so small.  However, the professors are very caring and willing to give a little extra help to students if they need it.  And I feel like being smaller as a department like, it definitely makes it easier for them to do that.

 But also, a lot of the other students in the English concentration, whenever people go to an event, it's not overwhelming. It's very easy to talk to other people, just meet people. One event is actually something I am a part of, the Writing Club at Fitchburg State.

 I'm the secretary of that every Wednesday. It's just been wonderful. It's a great place for students to get together and just share their writing or even for writers to just connect with one another and just, once again, talk about perspectives and influence each other's writings going forward. It's, it's wonderful.

[ 3min 14sec ]

There are a lot of great professors in the English department and I wouldn't say that there are any bad classes.  All of them to some degree will create a sense of belonging in the English department. I love that.  

Prof. Jewell:
So what has your greatest accomplishment been so far while you've been here?

Peter:
So I would definitely say getting a poem I had written published in the Route 2 journal, like the School of Literary journal.

Prof. Jewell:
So, so what was your poem about?

Peter:
It's so weird. It's so weird. I don't know how to explain this normally. There is no normal introduction for this poem. In simple terms, in the absolute most simple terms, it was about me stepping outside, seeing a bunch of turkeys, and then a group full of bears just came and like cleaned off all the turkeys in front of me.

 And I just like had to run back and said it was based on a dream. I had, it's just -- I thought that I could make a really good work out of that because this was, I think I wrote this before I had gotten to Fitchburg State. It was like a new, a new experience for me. In my brain, this is going a million miles a minute with like, all of the registration processes, like all forms I needed to fill out.

 I think that's why I just generated that in my head. And so I wrote about it. And the title of the poem is called “Experiences.”  I'd wanted to relate the like insanity and fear of just doing something new. So the poem is about just experiences.  That's what it's about – and, and the fact that it's okay to be nervous when doing new things. 

[ 5min 3sec ]

Prof. Jewell:
So from that starting point of, of jumping into college and having it provoke this trepidation and reflecting that into your art and what ways have you grown and transformed since coming to college, since coming to Fitchburg state from that moment when that poem was generated?

Peter:
I have definitely grown quite a bit as a writer.  I'm going to be completely honest. So my poems before I had gotten here were, I'd say, okay. I mean, of course, I wrote them before I concentrated on English studies, so of course I'm going to look back on them, like the way we look at cave art today, you know?  I don't want to, like, slander my own creations here, but I feel like before I had really, you know, hotten started here my work was just basic.  Like it like captured like the basic emotion.  But it just didn't really hit the spot for me.

 Like I felt I feel like if I had read that out to somebody Like it would be one of those poems where I don't really know what they're listening to we're reading but anyway I learned how to not write like that because I've taken a couple classes at this point that have involved Poetry, to some degree, and now I understand the structure better.

[ 6min 26sec ]

Peter:
The structure of a poem just was not taught to me before, so I was kind of going on like what I thought a poem had to be, and now I don't have to work like that. But also, beyond poetry, I also learned that I'm particularly interested in writing short stories, like short fiction. So I definitely say, due to what I have learned.

 I've read four classes. My range as a writer has definitely expanded as well. I feel like that will influence the quality of my work when I graduate and really get into it.

 [7 min 3sec ]

 [ Five With theme begins ]

 [ 7min 03sec ]

Prof. Jewell:
That's wonderful. Well, Peter, thank you so much for taking the time to sit down and do a brief Five with a Falcon with us.

Peter:
Thank you for inviting me on.

 [ Five With theme fades out ]

[ 7min 20sec ]

[ Perseverantia network theme fades in ]

Helen McGonigle (student):
Hi, my name is Helen McGonigle. I'm a senior and I'm a Dual Concentration in Graphic Design and PRSA.  And you're listening to Perseverantia, the Fitchburg State Podcasting Network.

[ Perseverantia network theme fades out ]