Name: Hattie McLean
Hometown: Athens, NY
Major: English
Minor: Art History
Year: Class of 2016
Her Campus recently sat down with Hattie McLean, the current Editor-in-Chief of Moneta, an art and literary journal of work submitted by Mount Holyoke students, to talk about her involvement with the organization and her interests.
What is Moneta?
Moneta is an initiative on campus to promote literary awareness and a literary community. We publish a journal of student work each semester, which can take different varieties of creative work—so poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and also artwork and that can mean really anything that’s 2-D. And as an organization, we compile these submissions and we also host events on campus in order to offer an outlet for students to share their work, and do other literary exchanges. So, you know, workshops, readings, that sort of thing.
How did you get involved in Moneta?
I joined—it’s kind of hard to remember, actually. It’s sort of new. Apparently “Moneta” was the name of an old literary journal that kind of fell off of the grid. Then a student who graduated here—Emma Ginader—revived it, but it didn’t turn into a publication really until spring 2014. So she and I and a couple other students rallied together a very tiny publication that semester, and didn’t really host any events, we were just getting started then. And then all of last year I was a part of it and it started to gain recognition on campus. But this semester I think we’ve been more involved than we ever have before in terms of how many people know about us, we’ve had a lot of integrated events with other student organizations, like Doing it Live and Story Slam, and we just had our own reading on December 10th… So I guess just the fact that more people actually know who we are is a big change. And that’s something that just comes with time.
As the Editor-in-Chief of Moneta, what has been your greatest challenge in running the organization?
I guess making sure that it’s an exciting project, because it can be sort of long and hard work, going through submissions and doing layout for instance. I mean, it’s a lot of work to get out a whole publication by ourselves!
Are you involved with or have you been involved in anything else in the Five Colleges?
I used to be an editor at Quick Brown Fox, which is the Five College literary journal, so that was my other literary stunt here, and other than that, I’ve been involved in dance here. Mostly at Mount Holyoke in terms of performances, but I’ve taken dance at some of the other five colleges so that’s a way that I’ve interacted with the Five College community.
What’s your favorite type of dance?
Modern, it’s always been modern, but I’m getting into hip-hop lately. I’m trying to take Intro to Hip-Hop next semester. Apparently there’s like a seventy-person waitlist, but we’ll see what happens.
Who is your favorite writer, and who is your favorite artist?
One of my favorite writers is Jeffrey Eugenides, who wrote the most amount of novels that I like equally, like The Virgin Suicides and Middlesex are some of my favorite books. But also I like poets, and I consider some of them my favorite writers. One of my favorites is this woman, Kay Ryan, who works expertly with internal rhyme. And my favorite artist… That’s a hard question to answer, but right now I’m studying this German artist named Anni Albers who was this weaver, and she made these hanging woven things that are really abstract and intricate. They’re super interesting.
First, what do you plan to do after you graduate? And what is your dream career?
I’m still really interested in working with language, but I don’t know if I really want to be a writer as a career right out of school. So I’m thinking of pursuing some sort of entry-level editing job, if I can find one when I graduate. But I’ve also had this idea that I want to pursue graphic design, so I think what I’m going to try to do is take classes over the summer—my mom teaches graphic design. And if I’m into it, which I think I’ll be, I’ll build up a portfolio and apply to school for that or just take classes as I work, I don’t really know how that’s gonna happen, but we’ll see. And my dream job is being a really successful graphic designer for a cool, hip company in New York, maybe, and then being a poet on the side. And maybe finding a way to use graphic design and creative writing in a way, so making some sort of visual book of sorts. That’s a project I’d like to pursue one day.
Have you had any cool writing opportunities on campus?
Oh my god, I took this Magazine Writing class with Catherine Manegold, who is such a kickass professor! That was an amazing writing opportunity. It was a 300-level class, and we had to produce a 20-page article, and I wrote one about heroin, and it was just—a really hard, intense process. But it was wonderful!
Who’s your favorite professor in the English and the Art History department?
Right now, Amy Rodgers is definitely my favorite English professor. I’m taking this class with her called “Trauma in the Premodern World,” so we’re studying Premodern literature and drama, which totally is not my deal, but she’s such an amazing professor, and she’s so invested in her students. And my favorite Art History professor is Paul Staiti. I’ve only taken Intro to Western Art with him, but I go in and chat with him all the time, because he’s just so wonderful and easy to talk to. I recommend his class if you ever want to take an Intro to Art History class.
What is your favorite aspect of Moneta?
I mean having the opportunity to have your work published is really exciting, and also the opportunity to share your work in general is pretty exciting! I didn’t really show my work until I became Editor-in-Chief. I felt like I needed to prove I was legitimate, or something, but it’s actually really exciting and I’ve gotten a lot of feedback that has been helpful for me as a poet. So I guess just establishing myself as a writer and learning that I can call myself a writer by participating in an organization like this.
Artist featured on the cover: Yizhen Huang ‘19
The fall edition of Moneta was released December 10th. Visit Moneta’s Facebook page to read the (free!) web version. If you are interested in submitting art or short writing for next semester’s issue, email moneta.mhc@gmail.com with your work attached, or for more information.