Megan Torti: Victorian poet in our midst

To call it a resume builder would be an understatement.

A few lines on an application don’t illustrate Megan Torti’s passion, commitment and discipline.

The UM-Dearborn senior’s hard work recently paid off as Victorian Poetry agreed to publish her article, a tough feat for any writer, let alone a college student. Victorian Poetry, a leading scholarly journal that focuses on 19th-century literary studies and attracts both national and international audiences, rewarded Torti last month for her detailed research on English poet A.C. Swinburne.

Torti was elated to find her hard work had paid off.

“I didn’t really know what to do with myself,” she said. “I was just smiling a lot.”

Publication aside, the skills Torti gained while she wrote her 25-page article on Swinburne surely will benefit her as she continues her education.

“Over the course of nearly a year's worth of research, drafting and revision, I developed both a set of skills that will be invaluable to me as I proceed onto graduate school, and a clear sense of the kind of academic work I would like to do in the future,” said Torti, who aspires to become a literature professor. “This was one of the most challenging things I have ever undertaken, and yes, having the article published by Victorian Poetry has also made it one of the most rewarding.”

To add to that reward, Torti is one of the few undergraduate students to be published in Victorian Poetry. In fact, Victorian Poetry editor John Lamb said he knows of only a couple undergraduate students who have been published in the journal over the past two decades.

“It’s highly unusual for undergraduate students, first, to submit a paper and, second, to get them selected,” Lamb said. “All in all, the revisions she was asked to make were fairly minor. Torti clearly understood and met the requirements for publication in a scholarly journal.”

As far as the topic of her article, Torti had no problem narrowing it down to Swinburne, as she acquired a strong appreciation for his writing style.

“I became interested in Swinburne because he was quite different, both in what he wrote and how he wrote it, than any other poet that I’d read before,” she said. “He was the first poet I took a critical interest in – the first I liked enough to actually want to study in-depth and write about.”

She completed the brunt of her article as part of an independent study course taught by College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters Professor Jonathan Smith, a great example of UM-Dearborn’s engaged learning environment. Smith, who teaches English language and literature, lauded Torti’s work ethic and said she handled the entire assignment, beginning to end.

“She’s the strongest student I’ve had in my career here,” Smith said. “This makes clear why that is.”

Now that she’s approved for publication in Victorian Poetry in fall 2013, she hopes that can benefit her as she applies for graduate school.

“I think being published as an undergrad is kind of a feather in your cap,” she said.

“I’m pretty exited about it.”

Smith agreed.

“I think most application committees would be extremely impressed for an undergraduate to do something like this,” he said.