Next week, Cheyanne Beaumont ’26, an English and creative writing and media and communication double major, will attend the prestigious Bucknell Seminar for Undergraduate Poets. The program accepts only about a dozen students out of hundreds of applicants nationwide. Alumni include Ilya Kaminsky, Donika Kelly, Mary Szybist, Jane Wong, Kevin Young, and other luminaries of the American poetry community, according to Associate Professor of English Dawn Lonsinger, who’s also an alumna of the program.
“As a first-gen college student with two jobs, it’s honestly a struggle to carve out time that’s entirely dedicated to creating art,” says Beaumont, who was also a co-valedictorian for the Class of 2026. “Usually I’m worried about another assignment or a shift, but this seminar physically removes me from those routines, giving me ample time to focus solely on doing what I love and what gives me purpose: writing poems. It feels like genuinely a luxury to me, one I don’t take for granted.”
Muhlenberg has given me so many opportunities I couldn’t have dreamed of. It’s prepared me to keep writing poetry, to stay eternally curious, push boundaries, and hopefully share the transformative experience poetry has offered me with others.
Lonsinger told Beaumont about the program and encouraged her to apply. The opportunity to work alongside established and up-and-coming poets and to build a community with them was enticing. Beaumont was able to submit several works from her honors thesis in poetry as part of her application. She credits Muhlenberg’s faculty for pushing her and helping her develop her craft as a writer and the Living Writers course for opening her eyes to the possibility of having a career in poetry.
“Muhlenberg has given me so many opportunities I couldn’t have dreamed of. It’s prepared me to keep writing poetry, to stay eternally curious, push boundaries, and hopefully share the transformative experience poetry has offered me with others,” Beaumont says. “I feel so privileged to be in this position, and I plan on making the most of it.”
