Jacob was born and raised by her Indian Malayali parents in New Mexico, where many assumed she was Native American, as one didn’t find many Indian Americans in New Mexico. She graduated with a BA from Oberlin College in 1996 and earned her MFA from The New School (NSSR) where she is currently a visiting professor at the MFA Creative Writing Program. Not to mention, she is also a founding faculty member of the MFA Creative Writing Program at Randolph College in Virginia.

On February 10th, faculty and students from the English Department as well as several alumni were lucky enough to get the opportunity to listen to Jacob read from her upcoming novel, We Killed Anji Alexander. In the chapter Mira shared, the main character, Anji, has to decide whether to hide behind the white-passing identity that she has created or perform in her Indian heritage because of the way diversity is currently fetishized. The reading was followed up with a Q&A.

Prior to the reading, a small group of students got the opportunity to meet with Jacob. In that period, she had the opportunity to connect with Montclair undergrads while covering topics such as passing and identity as well as the identity crisis faced in this novel. Most of the students who attended had read Mira’s Good Talk and enjoyed the opportunity to meet with the author.

When asked about her writing process during the Q &A, she discussed the concept of letting the characters come to you and tell you who they are. She described the feeling of a character standing over her shoulder telling her what to say and the way she viewed the writing process as a topographic map. Of the diverse projects she’s taken on, she said, “I think of it as divided into quadrants. I have just conquered this quadrant with this project. But what’s in the quadrant that’s diagonal? What’s over there? What’s the little glimmer that I see over there? That honestly just felt like oxygen. This one’s just really fun to write. It’s not about me. It’s not about my husband. It’s not about my boss. But it also feels like bloodletting. And it feels really exciting to be able to give that direction to do that.”

One attendee of the reading was Professor and Chair of the English Department, Dr.Jeremy Lopez, who wrote that “Mira Jacob’s reading – an event made possible by the generosity of a Montclair State Department of English alumna donor – was a true delight and, with an attendance of nearly 50 students, faculty, university administrators, and members of the public, the Department’s most successful event of the year. Students really took advantage of the opportunity to speak with Mira in this informal setting, and got a vivid sense of the nature of [the] writerly process and of how a contemporary novelist sees the relation between her work and the world. Montclair State’s proximity to New York means that we have potential access to a wide variety of working literary artists (earlier this year we hosted writer and musician Howard Fishman), and I think that having authors like Mira come speak to students creates a strong sense of community; it reminds us of how full of vitality and passion are the acts of reading and writing–the twin pillars of the study of literature. We very much hope that Mira’s talk is only the first in an ongoing series of distinguished-author visits and we are, once again, so grateful to the alumna donor for making it possible.”

The English Department also wants to thank the CHSS Administrative Team, especially Justine Soto-Rodriguez, for helping to set up the event and make it a success.

Written by by Bella Dicristina, English major

VOCES, created by Latinos of Montclair, is a Latino thought leaders series dedicated to creating an open space to uplift the voices and perspectives of Latino/e authors, artists, elected officials, community advocates, business leaders, and culture makers. Each gathering is designed to create space to reflect on Latinidad at this moment – its complexities, its beauty, and its future.

The event will take place at ĚÇĐÄvlog’s Conference Center and is expected to draw an audience from across New Jersey of community members, students, and literature enthusiasts.

DĂ­az, best known for his celebrated works The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and Drown, has long been recognized for his groundbreaking exploration of identity, diaspora, and belonging. His writing, deeply rooted in the Dominican American experience, has reshaped contemporary literature and inspired a generation of readers and writers to examine the intersections of culture, history, and imagination. In recent years, DĂ­az has extended his voice beyond fiction, contributing powerful op-eds that confront the realities facing American Latinos amid an increasingly polarized political climate.

At this special VOCES event, Díaz will discuss “the intersections of culture, history, and imagination in the context of the current political climate,” engaging in a candid fireside conversation followed by an audience Q&A and book signing.

. ĚÇĐÄvlog students, faculty and staff can attend for free, but must reserve a ticket and show their University ID at the door. Books will be available for purchase on-site.

¶Ů˛ąłŮ±đ:ĚýThursday, December 4
Time: 6:30 p.m.
Location: University Hall Conference Center

About the VOCES Latino Thought Leaders Series

The VOCES Series, created by Latinos of Montclair, is dedicated to uplifting the voices and perspectives of Latine authors, artists, elected officials, community advocates, business leaders, and culture makers. Each gathering creates an open space to reflect on Latinidad at this moment – its complexities, its beauty, and its future. Through intimate fireside conversations, VOCES celebrates literature, identity, community building, and the power of storytelling to inspire social and cultural transformation.

About Latinos of Montclair

Latinos of Montclair is a New Jersey–based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to fostering community, celebrating culture, and amplifying the diverse voices of the Latino community through arts, education, and civic engagement. The organization produces signature cultural programs such as the Latino Heritage Celebration, Día de los Muertos Festival, and the VOCES Thought Leaders Series.

Friday, September 19, 11-12:15 p.m.
Panel: Autotheory and Memoir

Please join us for the English Department’s 5th annual Halloween party. Candy and beverages will be provided. Prizes offered for the best and most literary costumes–and try to win the prize for best two-sentence horror story!

Zimmerman will return to campus on Wednesday, September 18 to talk about his experiences after graduation before taking questions from the audience.

Wednesday, September 18
1:30 – 2:30 p.m.
Dickson Hall 177, Brantl Lecture Hall

Images from May 2024 Heterogeneous Ireland Symposium.

Poet and Professor Harryette Mullen of UCLA

Denise O’Shea of Sprague Library and Ellen Flanagan, Vice Consul General of the Consulate General of Ireland, New York

Ashim Dutta ’13, Associate Professor of English, Dhaka University, Bangladesh (M.A. , ĚÇĐÄvlog)

The symposium Heterogeneous Ireland will take place on  the campus of ĚÇĐÄvlog on Thursday May 9th, in Feliciano 140, from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The symposium’s focus is the varieties of people, ethnicities, religions, and literatures in twentieth and twenty-first centuries Ireland and Northern Ireland. The speakers are distinguished academics from Ireland, Northern Ireland, the UK, and the United States.  There is no fee for attendance.  Heterogeneous Ireland has been organized by Lucy McDiarmid, Marie Frazee Baldassarre Professor of English, and it is sponsored by the Frazee Baldassarre Professorship. For more information, write Lucy McDiarmid<mcdiarmidL@montclair.edu>.

SPEAKERS
Lauren Arrington
Abby Bender
Mary Burke
Matthew Campbell
Lucy Collins
Ashim Dutta
Nidhi Zak / Aria Eipe
Adrian Frazier
Nicholas Grene
Geraldine Higgins
Edna Longley
Maria McGarrity
Harryette Mullen
Eve Patten

Apr 11th, 5:30pm
George Segal Gallery
ĚÇĐÄvlog

Making Family Fiction is a public reading and conversation with novelist, filmmaker and co-founder of Black Film Space, Lande Yoosuf. Yoosuf will read from her debut novel, Ko-Foe: The Story of a Nigerian Muslim Family in The New York Diaspora. The conversation will be led by Montclair First-Year Writing faculty and creative writer, Melanie Beth Curran. This dialogue will consider how an artist transmutes their personal identity, family traditions, and community fluency into the fictional form. What difficulties and triumphs arise from this process?

Students, faculty, and the public are all invited to attend. This event will be held at the beautiful George Segal Gallery at ĚÇĐÄvlog. Our conversation seeks to compliment Caroline Garcia’s Dancing on Axes and Spears, currently on view in the gallery space.

For more information visit: 

Making Family Fiction is sponsored by Montclair’s Writing StudiesĚý˛ą˛Ô»ĺĚýEnglish Departments.

MSU Philosophy’s Professor Tiger Roholt will talk about his new book “Distracted from Meaning: A Philosophy of Smartphones” with MSU Honors Program Director Lee Behlman

10 free copies of Distracted from Meaning will be given away in a raffle to MSU students at this event.

Dr. Tiger Roholt, a philosopher at MSU, writes books and essays about meaningfulness, technology, art and music.

“This is no neo-Luddite broadside against smartphones but a clear and careful philosophical exploration of what makes life meaningful and how smartphone use can either serve or undermine such meaning. Taking aim at the heart of our present age, Roholt’s book is consistently insightful and provocative.” – Iain Thomson, Professor of Philosophy, University of New Mexico.

Here’s a book summary from the publisher:
When our smartphones distract us, much more is at stake than a momentary lapse of attention. Our use of smartphones can interfere with the building-blocks of meaningfulness and the actions that shape our self-identity.

By analyzing social interactions and evolving experiences, Roholt reveals the mechanisms of smartphone-distraction that impact our meaningful projects and activities. Roholt’s conception of meaning in life draws from a disparate group of philosophers – Susan Wolf, John Dewey, Hubert Dreyfus, Martin Heidegger, and Albert Borgmann. Central to Roholt’s argument are what Borgmann calls focal practices: dinners with friends, running, a college seminar, attending sporting events. As a recurring example, Roholt develops the classification of musical instruments as focal things, contending that musical performance can be fruitfully understood as a focal practice.

Through this exploration of what generates meaning in life, Roholt makes us rethink the place we allow smartphones to occupy in the everyday. But he remains cautiously optimistic. This thoughtful, needed interrogation of smartphones shows how we can establish a positive role for technologies within our lives.

This event is sponsored by the MSU Honors Program; all are invited to attend!