Robert Russell Magee - writer/reader/editor
28-year-old based in Montgomery County, PA
Reading and writing, for me, are the two pillars of passion which drive my sense of purpose and intent. And it is through reading and writing that I am able to expand life's short interval and seize "as many pulsations as possible." For the answers to life's infinite questions lie within infinite words scattered across infinite pages.
For the past six years, I have fallen into the world of literature, and in doing so discovered an unwavering passion: writing. I began in Richmond, Virginia, multitudes of tiny journals slowly closing with the ink still wet on the pages. Then, a short story here and there. But it was not until I moved to Pennsylvania where I dove headfirst into the world of creative writing.
At Montgomery Community College, I took every writing course I could as well as courses in literature, and rapidly I began cultivating my craft. I headed the Writers’ Room and joined the staff of the Montgazette, the school newspaper and began quickly putting out articles. Because the staff recognized my flare for description, I was assigned to cover reviews. In the span of less than a year, I produced over six different articles, reviews ranging from opera and theater performances, to movies and, of course, books.
In the summer of 2018, a letter of mine titled “This Isn’t a Love Letter, I Swear” was published on the popular Thought Catalog, an online journal and creative writing blog that masses approximately 34 million monthly visitors. My letter was a fictional account of a young man writing his sweetheart, meagerly attempting to describe his feelings toward her.
In the spring of 2019, I won the Pat Nestler Creative Writing Award in the fiction category for a short story entitled Scenes of Ecstasy, a one-page story depicting chronologically vignettes of an unnamed young man as he experiences formative moments of his life.
In the fall of 2019, I began leading the Writers’ Room as President of the club, as well as continued to make monthly contributions to the newspaper. All the while, I dove deeper into the world of creative writing and literary analysis, as I could find no other pursuit better suited for my interests and passions.
In the spring of 2020, I won the Patricia Nestler Creative Writing Award again, this time in the poetry category for a poem entitled "Fall." That spring I graduated summa cum laude with an Associate's degree in Liberal Studies.
In the fall, I began my studies as an English major at Temple University, concentrating on literary criticism and composition.
In the spring of 2021, I won the College of Liberal Arts Undergraduate Research Award (LAURA), a grant that allowed me to work closely alongside one of my professors, doing critical research in both the publishing industry and academia.
Through the spring of 2022, I continued my studies, falling deeper in love with literary studies and honing my abilities to read and write, continuing too, my research assistantship, though with a new focus on the transcription of audio recordings of interviews with renowned authors, poets, and playwrights. In April, I accepted a position as book reviewer for Publisher's Weekly.
In May of 2022, I graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in English from Temple University. In June, my critical essay on Virginia Woolf's novel Mrs. Dalloway was picked up and published the Holon Project, an online literary journal and publisher.
Birthdate: February 17th, 1994
Education
Temple University - English Major
2020-2021
2018-2020
Montgomery County Community College - Associate's Degree in Liberal Studies
2012-2015
Virginia Commonwealth University
2020-2021
2018-2020
2019
2020
3.9 GPA; Deans List; Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society
4.0 GPA; Deans List; Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society
Pat Nestler Creative Writing Award Fiction Category
Pat Nestler Creative Writing Award Poetry Category
Links
Contact Me