Profile: Angela Siew

Angela Siew has been the administrative associate to the chair in the Writing, Literature and Publishing Department for almost three years. As an alumna of the department, she enjoys working alongside the faculty and staff who contributed to her great experience in the Creative Writing MFA program.

Some of her duties include managing the departmental budget and processing financial paperwork. She assists with expense reports for faculty and staff and processes payments to guest speakers for classes and WLP Series events, as well as cash prizes for the department’s end-of-year awards. She also submits financial forms for the literary journal Redivider, which is run by WLP graduate students.

Siew is involved in the hiring and training processes for the department’s front desk assistants each semester. These assistants greet and direct traffic, answer phones, and record events for social media, among other duties.

Communications is a substantial component of her job. She oversees the work of graduate student assistants who manage WLP’s social media accounts: WLP Town Crier on Facebook and Emerson WLP on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. She and the assistants also publish an e-newsletter three times a year that includes highlights from social media and other news items submitted by WLP faculty, staff, students, and alumni.

With the help of a graduate student assistant, Siew coordinates logistics for 6 to 10 events per semester. They reserve spaces, book travel/lodging (or set up/provide technology for Zoom meetings in the current climate), coordinate book sales with the Emerson bookstore (and now the local Porter Square Books), and promote the events to the community. Reading Series events feature well-established authors for Q&As and readings. Publishing Series events feature panels or conversations with publishing professionals. Scholar Series events feature Emerson and other local faculty who present their scholarly work. The department also hosts Writers of Color alumni events; faculty book launches; and awards ceremonies for the Senior Writing Awards, Graduate Student Awards, and WLP Student Employees of the Year.

Siew grew up near Princeton, New Jersey, and attended Brown University, where she obtained a BA in American studies. She currently lives in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston. Her favorite hobbies include reading and traveling. Having concentrated in poetry during her MFA program, she likes to read as much poetry as she can. Just a few of her favorite poets are Li-Young Lee, Ocean Vuong, Wislawa Szymborska, and Ellen Bryant Voigt. She’s currently “half-completing” the Sealey Challenge (created by poet Nicole Sealey), which challenges people to read a chapbook/full poetry collection every day in the month of August. She also loves reading books by comediennes such as Tina Fey, Mindy Kaling, and Ali Wong.

Every month or so, she travels to Connecticut to visit her nephews. They play outdoor games and word games, and she enjoys taking photo portraits of them.

Siew is an Italophile: She speaks Italian and has gone to Italy every summer for the past five years to study, work, or travel. She especially loved her visits to the Amalfi Coast and the Dolomites. She’s also enjoyed her trips to Morocco and Croatia in recent years. Once the pandemic is over and travel is safe again, Chile is on her short list. She taught English there a decade ago and is overdue for a visit with her host family, with whom she is still close.

Nancy Howell (Communications and Marketing)