My name is Micaela Macario, and I am a first year graduate student in the MALAS program. For those who don’t know, MALAS stands for Master of Arts in Liberal Arts and Sciences. I was born and raised in San Diego (Chula Vista to be exact), but have been blessed to travel all over the country playing collegiate softball. I spent my first two years of undergrad at the University of Central Florida where I loved people, but not my environment. I made the decision to come back home, and have never been happier.
Throughout high school and college, I have always had the dream of becoming a nurse. I worked as a Certified Nursing Assistant in nursing homes over summers, where I later discovered that I have deep rooted passion for advocacy, especially in healthcare. I also worked as a Care Coordinator for a startup home care business that truly believed and implemented culture-centered care. My goal is to one day revolutionize Western medicine by including patient narratives, cultures, and experiences into healthcare and treatment plans.
Beyond my academia and career aspirations, I am a huge sports fanatic, especially when it comes to the Padres. If you are a dodger fan, I will not hate you, but I might give you a dirty look every once in a while. I love trying new coffee shops as I practically run on caffeine. So if anyone has any cool spots, please let me know!
All in all, I extremely excited to learn beside everyone!
Hello! I’m Jessica Johnson and I’m a third year, expecting to graduate in the spring. I was born and raised in Orange County, California. Since, I haven’t lived anywhere else for more than a month, I would definitely like to move around places. I hope to go to grad school in Washington and then teacher English abroad (hopefully in Italy). My grandma is full Italian, but her parents wanted to Americanize her, so they never spoke to her in English. Unlike the rest of my family, I’m pretty interested in language, especially learning languages, so I would like to eventually speak fluent Italian. Don’t worry, I’ve already started learning on Duolingo! Should take me places.
To be honest, I still don’t have a set plan for life. I would love to also become a therapist, which means I’m in the wrong major. But, I can always start again later down the line. Aside from that, writing is my least expensive pastime. Writing is not easy, so I like solving something that doesn’t necessarily have a right or wrong answer. Traveling is my most expensive pastime. I mentioned in class that I would love to travel to every country, so might as well start off early with the small paychecks I get. So far, I’ve been to around 14 countries, so I have a long way to go but I am so excited about it!
To help fund my passions, I am currently a Writing Mentor in the RWS department. I’ve been a mentor since my freshman year, and it has genuinely been one of my favorite professional experiences. However, because of recent budget cuts, I am also working at San Diego Mesa College in the tutoring centers on campus.
I am also the co-President of the Creative Collective Magazine on campus. We are a student art magazine, and we print a collection of student art every semester. If you are interested in joining or collaborating, definitely reach out to me!!
I’m also a runner in the Women’s Run Club! It’s super fun (not in the heat). I’ve met a lot of great people there, so if you’re into running, I highly recommend you join. It is a very chill vibe, so don’t expect them to force you to sprint hills. However, if you like running long distance, I would totally run a half marathon with you!
Hi everyone, I’m very excited to be a part of this class and contribute to a first-time(and hopefully not just one-time) course on the importance and pertinence of books. Retrospectively, the Digital Age has just dawned, yet technology keeps growing exponentially year after year. The topic of AI and its effects has been impossible to avoid, and I, along with many people, worry and have an anxious weariness about just how this will impact our lives, especially writing and all physical and digital media. With that being said, I am glad to know this class confronts all of that and more!
My name is Josue Martin and I’m a fourth year standing student; I was born in San Diego but raised in my hometown Tijuana– our neighbor city right across the border. I did not start my academic journey in SDSU initially as I am a transfer student from Southwestern Community College. After high school, I was not sure what it was that I wanted to do with my life so I explored several majors and classes– ultimately, I took a gap year and spend it working several jobs. I worked several gigs such as: warehouse, construction and teacher’s aid. During my time as a SCIA and BIA I had the opportunity to work with several amazing groups of students–by then I realized what I wanted to do professionally. Afterwards, I finished my major pre-requirements and transferred to State. Also, with the help of my employer I was able to obtain certain permits to work as a substitute teacher– I continue to help my students not as an aid but as an educator. Although my job may be mentally draining, I am delighted to see their progress academically and behaviorally.
In my free time I enjoy spending time with my friends and family– we typically like to explore new beer pubs and cafes. Though, I also enjoy music festivals and concerts. Just recently, I went to Baja Beach Fest which is a Latin Reggaeton festival in Rosarito– it is a 35 minute drive from Tijuana; I love meeting and hanging out people who share similar interest as me. I am excited to work and collab with everyone in this class!
I think the title really says it all, don’t you? That’s my name. I’m originally from what used to be a very, very small town west of Austin called Dripping Springs, Texas. I lived in Birmingham, Alabama for about five years before coming to SDSU to start my MFA in 2023.
That’s me showing you what the bottom of Bridalveil Fall looks like. I go outside a lot.
I’ve done a number of things with my life. I used to build vintage Harley-Davidsons for a living. I still build them for fun. I ride them all over and sometimes fix them in motel rooms when they break down. I used to be homeless, living in a motorcycle shop called The Dojo. I used to clean septic tanks and grease traps. I used to work the door at a bar at the gnarliest intersection in Birmingham. I used to be an international terrorist of sorts. I used to, and still do, run an annual zine called Locating Troubles with my good photographer pal Liam. But I have always really been obsessed with the written word regardless of what I was doing with my life.
My mother read to me every night when I was a child. Maybe until I was twelve. I can still remember the first book I read and how proud I was: The Berenstein Bears on the Moon (Not Berenstain. I don’t care what they say). I wrote books for school projects and printed them out and illustrated them and bound them in elementary school. Something about the tangible book will always outweigh the worth of the digital book. Every time I publish in print there is a feeling of satisfaction that publishing online will never bring.
After I graduated from Texas State, I traveled to Rojava Kurdistan (Northeastern Syria), and I volunteered as an international member of a Kurdish militia called the YPG. I brought some physical books with me. I had a number to call when I landed in Iraq. I used a copy of The Grapes of Wrath, and I underlined the first time each digit of the phone number appeared in the book to record the name of a contact I was supposed to call who would smuggle me across the Iraqi-Syrian border of Kurdistan. That way, just in case I was detained and searched, it would be harder for them to find or notice any incriminating information on me or the people I was joining. Here I am reading that copy, with its page edges ~*tactically*~ blacked out, near a village called Qereçox.
I later volunteered in Ukraine after the Russian invasion in 2022, and books, physical books, were precious treasure in both places. Kurmanji was a forbidden language in Syria from the rise of Arab nationalism until early this year (2025, yes, really), and in all my time there and to this date I have only ever seen three books printed in the Kurdish language. In Ukraine the thought of printed matter being in Ukrainian was an abomination until Taras Shevchenko rebelled against Russian nationalism by daring to write in Ukrainian and about Ukraine in the nineteenth century.
We used to gather at the internet cafe to pirate books from Library Genesis that we downloaded on our phones. I read War and Peace off my phone in the span of a week this way. There’s a lot of free time in a war. We had a very modest library of printed material in Syria: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts, For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Sun Also Rises, To Have and Have Not, The Man in the High Castle with the first 18 pages torn out, Marx’s Kapital, Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively, Let it Come Down by Paul Bowles, to name the ones I can remember off the top of my head. We devoured those, and any time a new international would come to join us, one of the first questions we’d ask was, “Did you bring any books?”
I’m very excited to take this class and learn more about the history of the book as an object, what makes it so special, how they have been created, what it has meant to so many people, and what it will continue to mean.
Hi everyone! My name is Avery Simone and I am a first year graduate student in the English M.A. program. I completed my BA in English and Comparative Literature at SDSU and am very excited to be continuing my education at the university.
Like most of you I’m sure, I’ve dedicated my education to books and literature, which is why I am so interested in taking this class. My favorite genre is fiction with The Great Gatsby being my favorite piece of classical literature (recognizing that much of the novel’s substance was taken from Zelda Fitzgerald) and If We Were Villains being my favorite contemporary novel. Something I am interested in exploring in this class is how a novel acquires the status of being a classic and how literary “canons” are formed. I’m looking forward to this class with you all!
Additionally, for anyone interested in publishing, writing or a creative outlet, I also run a magazine on campus! Femininomenon Magazine’s mission is to amplify the voices, experiences, and art of women, gender nonconforming, and all creative individuals. Though much of our work centers on female empowerment, all are welcome to join our magazine and submit works to our writing, photography, and/or art teams. Below are the links to the magazine and GroupMe for anyone interested in joining 🙂
Hello all! My name is Allea, and I’m a fourth-year English major. I’m super excited to learn more about books as a medium and the preservation of them in this new digital age. I think archival work is becoming more significant than ever in these times, as information is being warped and presented in a believable way. I cannot wait to learn alongside y’all!
Hi everyone! I’m Myles and I am in my fourth year as an English major and Public Health minor! I’m from Atlanta, Georgia and love reading, tv, and hiking/backpacking. This May I hiked the Grand Canyon rim to rim in one day! It was definitely the most challenging but rewarding thing I have done! I am currently reading Dance, Dance, Dance by Haruki Murakami and some more of Borges’ short stories since I saw we are reading “The Library of Babel” next week. Looking forward to taking this awesome class with y’all!
Hi everyone! My name is Nina, I am a fourth year English and Comparative Literature major, however this is only my second year at San Diego State, I transferred here from Southwestern College after earning my Associates for English.
My goal is to finish earning my Bachelors this year and to hopefully enter an MA program next fall. With my degree I’d like to become a High School English teacher, however currently I am working at SeaWorld as an Educator, Narrator and Tour Guide.
I am so excited for this course and am looking forward to visiting special collections, I am glad to have the opportunity to be able to learn not only from Professor Pressman, but also from everybody in the class through these blog posts and group discussions.
Since this is a class all about books, I’d like to recommend my favorite book that I read this summer, Remarkably Bright Creatures, by author Shelby Van Pelt. It is a thoughtful and beautiful book about a Giant Pacific Octopus!
