Megan Gannon receives poetry awards, featured in publications

Megan Gannon, associate professor of English and chair of the English department at Ripon College, has achieved more accolades for her poetry recently.

For Gannon, being acknowledged in this way is quite significant. However, she said she’s been in the poetry-writing business long enough to know there are no set rules for what makes poetry award-worthy.

“Now that I have professional security, I can be truer to myself in my writing,” Gannon said. “I’m not writing what I think will garner recognition or accolades — I’m writing what I need to write.”

Recently, Gannon’s poem “Dispatch from the Fairy Tale’s Retelling” was published in PINCH Literary Journal, which aims to feature literature that breaks the conventional boundaries set by traditional publishers.

Additionally, her second book of poems, Dispatch from Every Second Guess, which will be released in 2026, has won the 2024 Dzanc Poetry Prize, an honor established to celebrate bold, original and innovative writing.

“The saying ‘hurt people hurt people’ sounds so glib, but this idea undergirds much of my book,” Gannon said. “The question is, ‘what then?’ I am hurt, and I have hurt people — I don’t expect other people to forgive me, but how do I forgive myself? If this is a question that someone has grappled with, then they might connect with my book.”

Her poem, “Dispatch Halfway Up the Summit,” was published in The MacGuffin, a national literary magazine.

A common element between her poems is the word “dispatch.” Gannon said she’s been trying to write a poem to explain the significance of that word.

“I think the difference between a letter and a dispatch is that a letter has a single, identified recipient, whereas a dispatch is a report that’s sent out into the void — you don’t quite know who is going to receive it and read it,” Gannon said. “Similarly, I’m trying to connect with readers, but I don’t know who I’ll connect with.”

She also was awarded Honorable Mention for the Lorine Niedecker Prize from the Wisconsin Writers Awards. Part of her prize included a five-day writer’s residency at Ernest Hupeden’s Painted Forest in Wonewoc, Wisconsin.

“This might seem like a strange prize to most people, but to a writer, it’s a dream come true,” Gannon said. “I’d love to have a month-long writing residency where I write the way I did in my pre-kid days — spending all day reading and waiting for the muse to blow in my ear — but I had a novel that needed revising, and the shorter residency felt like it brought with it more urgency to have something to show for myself. I’m happy to report that in five days I revised a 330-page novel, read Lauren Groff’s The Vaster Wilds and knitted a sweater.”

Additionally, she participated in a three-week National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Summer Institute in Standish, Maine on the New England Gothic.

“Getting to read my favorite kinds of books, many of which I’d never read before, with a bunch of nerdy professors in a beautiful setting — what’s not to like?” Gannon said. “The dorms were a bit rough, but reading all night and going to class the next day, and working through layers and layers of these texts with brilliant minds was so incredibly stimulating and exciting.”

The group took trips to Salem, Massachusetts, and Providence, Rhode Island, which Gannon said “helped us to feel like we were really steeped in the subject matter.”

“I gained such a deeper and richer understanding of the Gothic genre in general and had never really considered what the New England version of The Gothic might look like,” Gannon said. “Now, along with three of my colleagues from the summer institute, I’m guest-editing an issue on the New England Gothic for Interdisciplinary Studies. I’m excited to continue the conversation with my new friends.”

Gannon credits her students for their support in her writing endeavors. Their high standards in their writing inspire her to maintain high expectations for herself, she said.

“I have been saved from my own isolation by my students,” Gannon said. “They write so fearlessly, they have inspired me to be fearless. They bring such love to their study of poetry, they have kept me from ever losing the love. I have been so grateful to work with so many mind-blowingly talented writers at Ripon College. I’m never sure I can give them back all that they’ve given me, but I’ll die trying.”