Andrew Siegrist is not your ordinary English major. When he first got to the College of Charleston, he had never been a part of any literary scenes before. He found his love for literature in his late teens. Gabriel García Márquez’s works made him realize that he wanted to take a shot at being a writer himself. Siegrist threw himself into the literary world of Charleston, going to readings and libraries, allowing him to get accustomed to reading and writing, truly develing into an entire other universe he had never been a part of before.
“It was my introduction to a whole different world that I hadn’t had any experience with.”
SIEGRIST TALKING ABOUT HIS LITERARY EXPERIENCE AT COFC
The creative scene helped Siegrist through his artistic journey; the literary program at Charleston is where he genuinely fell in love with writing. The workshops of short fiction and poetry were very impactful to his career now, with professors such as Bret Lot and Anthony Varallo working with him to help hone his skills and inspire Siegrist to continue down the writing path.
After attending the attending the College of Charleston, Siegrist started working various construction jobs, trying to figure out how to continue his writing passion while also providing for it. One night, Siegrist was watching television when he came across an advertisement for a graduate program. He described the advertisement as writers coming together and creating stories, looking for ways to make them better. Siegrist, who had spent the entire day spackling a roof in 20-degree weather, wanted to jump at the chance to make his work better. Thus began Siegrist’s time at the Creative Writing Workshop program at New Orleans University.
Talking more about his time at graduate school, Siegrist said attending the program helped his writing career as much as it was possible. He details his time there as setting aside two to three years that are dedicated to creating written works and editing said works with fellow aspiring writers. After completing graduate school, Siegrist started doing what every young graduate writer would do: trying to get published. Siegrist eventually got his collection of short stories published in 2021 through a short fiction collection contest that he had won. The collection of short stories was actually his thesis that he completed in graduate school, which he had submitted the year prior to no avail. We Imagined It Was Rain was published by Hub City Press in 2021, a series of loosely connected short stories that explore the human mind and spirit.
Siegrist’s career journey is definitely not ordinary, but it seems that no English major’s career journey is. When I first asked questions dealing with the topic of the viability of majoring in English, Siegrist’s initial response was that he was a bad English student. While I was certain that was not the case, he elaborated further on how he struggled with analytic essays and close readings but thrived in workshops and writing. After the initial response of how the English major was viable for him, Siegrist gave me a response that let me know he wasn’t a bad English student like he had labeled himself as. Siegrist talked about how being an English major means that you get to explore worlds and people different from your own, taking the time to understand them and their actions, which expands empathy.
Being able to forge connections with characters from the 1800s and characters from a whole other universe is something truly unique to the English major. We joked that “extra empathy” sticks with us after we put down each written work. As I brought up the situation of finding myself making backstories about strangers I pass along the street and then making myself feel bad for said stranger because of the tragic backstory that I made up, Siegrist admitted that he finds himself doing the same thing. Reading works of literature expands one’s morality, which is a topic that has been debated greatly in the literary past but also within our own classroom. As Gregory Currie, in his own article that surrounding the debate on the connection of morality and literature, states, “Literature helps us, in other words, to be, or to come closer to being, moral ‘experts.’” While I wouldn’t call anyone an expert on morality, from my conversation with Siegrist and my own experience as an English major, I can say that literature allows us a greater understanding of the people and the world we live in.
“Especially now with everything going on with the world, having empathy is important as it has ever been.”
Siegrist talking about the value of empathy
Siegrist now spends his time as a farm manager, where he says that even in that specific form of employment, there are some elements that he finds more naturally than others because of the English major. Showing another great value of majoring in English, which is also shown in the Degrees at Work file, which shows the numerous jobs that various majors can go to and looks at the patterns which different majors follow in their career journey. The information report showed and stated that “language and philosophy jobs go into a broad array of jobs.” The major is so vast that there are so many diverse jobs and sets of skills that come with it. So while Andrew Siegrist may not seem like your typical English major, he is actually a perfect example of one.