Gina Mingoia is an English professor, author, and poet. She chatted about her inspirations as a writer, poet, and being a part of the digital age.
First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt once said: “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” A woman that embodies this wise quote is Gina Mingoia.
Professor Mingoia earned her BA degree in English from St. Joseph’s College (now St. Joseph’s University, New York) and her MA degree in English from Long Island University Post.
Her research seeks to explore the connections between gender and grief in literature and the impacts of grief on writing processes.
She has previously studied the interconnectedness of interpersonal relationships on university students’ writing processes and experiences.
How does it feel to be a professor, author and poet in the digital age? (Now
with streaming, technology, and social media being so prevalent)
Actually, it feels pretty good. The digital age brings its own complications, of course. As a composition professor, I never thought I would have to worry about students having open access to a computer program that will write an essay for them, for one thing. But all these digital tools have actually proven to be really good lesson fodder.
One thing I teach about is the relationship between a writer and their reader, and how that relationship needs to be taken into account when thinking about how to craft your writing. That’s something that AI is not very good at!
I have students use generative AI with my essay prompts to see how much stronger their own writing is than that of AI, and it has really helped them to understand the importance of the writer-reader relationship and, I think, it has boosted their own self-confidence as writers, too.
Social media has been so helpful for understanding rhetorical situations. Students are living in an era where they innately understand how to write different posts depending on which social media platform they’re using and who is in their audience, and they already know how to use multimodality to communicate that message.
My job has become all about transference: Social media has already taught them a lot of the concepts that I teach, so now my job is just making them aware of this innate knowledge and helping them use this knowledge as a tool in all writing situations, not just online.
What inspires your poetry?
My poetry book “The Dust Settles” was written almost entirely about my grief after my dad died from cancer in 2017.
Every poem in that collection was written unintentionally— I never sat down with the intention of writing a poem, but as I was driving or running or doing some kind of mindless work, the poems just kind of wrote themselves in my head.
Actually sitting to write them down became a way to document those thoughts and kind of relieve my head of the burden of holding onto those particular thoughts.
Writing poetry was also a way to bear witness to my own experiences of grief and be fully present throughout my grieving process.
I write poetry to cope with these things, but I still wouldn’t call myself a poet. I’m just a griever with a coping mechanism.
You are also a PhD student at Stony Brook… are you excited about your forthcoming doctorate? (What are you doing your dissertation on)
I am extremely excited about my forthcoming doctorate!
This semester, I have my oral exams, and then I’ll begin my dissertation next semester, which will probably take several years to complete.
My literature research is focused on the relationship between grief (internal affect) and mourning (outward, ritualistic expression), and especially looking at how each is permitted or prohibited in different situations.
I’m especially interested in the ways that grief is stigmatized in popular culture like movies and television shows, and the ways that stigmatization of grief both reflects and shapes our cultural perspectives on grief and grievers (and makes it harder for grievers).
Because of this social prohibition of grief, a lot of grievers (including me) feel the need to mask their grief, but this only perpetuates the stigma around talking about grief, and it just makes grievers feel like they are the only one who isn’t “getting over it.”
We need to talk more about grief. So I try to do that in my own life and writing, and I try to push against the silencing of grievers through my research.
What do your plans for the future include?
It is so cliche, but I’d like to do something that makes the world a little bit better, or
makes life a little bit easier for people. I plan to use my research on grief and mourning to create some kind of public outreach program to support people grieving and try to destigmatize grief.
I’ve juggled some different ideas like an annual event, a kind of grievers’ cafe, a grief writing group, or something like that. I’m still trying to figure out how to use my research and skills toward more pragmatic ends.
To try to have a bigger impact on destigmatizing grief in general, though, I’ve been toying around with the idea of making my doctoral dissertation a public-facing book instead of a strictly academic book.
Then, in the more immediate future, once I graduate, I would also really love
to get a more permanent position at a teaching institution like a liberal arts college.
Teaching, interacting with my students, reading their writing, and seeing their growth
throughout the semester is the best part of my job, and I plan to really embrace that
once I’ve earned my PhD.
Were there any moments in your life or career that helped define you?
Obviously losing my dad was one of the most life-changing moments for me, and it
launched me on this lifelong quest to understand grief and advocate for grievers.
I think it was a childhood of loving reading and writing that encouraged me to use
literature and composition as my tools to understand grief and advocate for grievers. I spent every summer when I was growing up going to the library.
My dad took me to the library on a weekly basis so I could check out as many books as the library allowed, and then I binge read—sometimes forgetting to eat and sleep because I was so lost in a book.
Those summers really made me love reading, and it wasn’t long before I started
writing my own stories. Growing up in a house that valued reading (and the public
library!) was really a gift because it gave me all the tools I needed to cope with hard
times later on in my life.
Now, I value teaching so much because I’m able to share these “tools” that I love so much with my students!
How did it feel to be a part of the 2024 Ethnic Pen Workshop this year at Bay
Shore High School… What did you love the most about that? Why is that so
important to you?
I absolutely loved being a part of the Ethnic Pen Workshop!
It was such an incredible experience getting to work with so many fantastic students and teachers.
Teaching is y favorite part of my job, so it was wonderful to get to pop into a few high school classrooms.
I worked with the students on genre transference— we freewrote, then edited the freewriting into a neat prose piece, and then edited the prose piece into a poem.
Afterwards, some brave and talented students shared their work with their peers,
and it really opened up some great conversations about writing and creativity.
It was such an honor to work with these students, and it was such a pleasure to get to hear them share their writing.
What is your advice for young and emerging authors, educators, and poets?
Don’t be the one to tell yourself no. Almost every major accomplishment in my life has been something that I thought for sure wouldn’t work, but I figured was worth a shot anyway, and it worked.
I thought for sure I would not get into a PhD program, but I figured I would apply and let Stony Brook University tell me no— but they said yes.
I thought for sure I wouldn’t be hired as an English instructor at St. Joseph’s University, but I figured I’d let them deny me— but they hired me.
I thought for sure publishing my poetry collection wouldn’t work, but I figured I would try it and let someone else tell me no— but no one did. Don’t stop yourself from trying just because you think it won’t work.
What does the word success mean to you?
Success to me is happiness. To me, the most important thing in life is relationships: my relationships with my family and my friends, and my relationships with my students.
My research on grief and mourning is all about relationships, and I try to build my composition classrooms around positive peer relationships. Success is all about relationships for me.
A successful future for me would be one in which I have happy and healthy relationships with family and friends, foster respectful and supportive relationships in my classroom, and have done something to help form a community of grievers or help our culture at large to respect and support grievers.
Her book “The Dust Settles: Grieving through Poetry and Prose” is available on Amazon by clicking here.
