Humanities, English, and Creative Writing

Undergraduate Instructor and Teaching Artist

Grand Rapids, MI

Contact

🌐 LinkedIn

📚 MLA Commons @mbpalmer

✉️ [email protected]

Languages

English

Spanish (Advanced)

Arabic (Intermediate)

French (Beginner)

Research Interests

Contemporary poetry

19th-century American literature

Digital and public humanities

Intellectual history

Narratology, narrative psychology, and reading psychology

The Gothic and sensation tale, speculative fiction, and the detective story

Monster studies

Remix and convergence culture

Affect studies and cognitive science

Public education and higher ed pedagogy

Environmental humanities, multispecies studies, and ecofeminism

Personal Interests

Creative writing

Theater, improv, and puppetry

Lindy hop, blues, and zydeco dance

Painting, music, dog-spotting

Affiliations

Midwest Modern Language Association

Modern Language Association

College English Association

#TeachLivingPoets

We Need Diverse Books

National Council of Teachers of English

Children’s Literature Association

National Association for Poetry Therapy

Poetry Society of America

Poetry Out Loud

Michigan Humanities

Puppeteers of America

Children’s Media Association

Baltimore Playwrights Festival

Maryland State Arts Council

Omicron Delta Kappa Honors Society

Phi Sigma Iota Honors Society

Sigma Tau Delta Honors Society

<aside> <img src="/icons/flash_yellow.svg" alt="/icons/flash_yellow.svg" width="40px" /> About Me

Affiliate faculty member in the Department of Ministry, Media, and the Arts at Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Poet and fiction writer with work published or forthcoming in the Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association, The Threepenny Review, and Greater Good, the publication of the Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley, among other outlets.

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Education

Master of Arts in Teaching (May 2022)

Notre Dame of Maryland University

Graduate Certificate in Instructional Design (March 2020)

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Bachelor of Arts in English (May 2018)

Minor in Spanish - McDaniel College

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Additional study and credentialing through The Second City, Freestyle Love Supreme Academy, Baltimore Improv Group, Towson University, and the Modern Classrooms Project

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Courses Taught

COMM 120: Presentation Techniques, Davenport University

ENGL 109: Composition, Davenport University

ENG 212: Writing in Culture, Cornerstone University

ENG 226: Introduction to Creative Writing, Cornerstone University

ENG 315: Creative Writing: Poetry, Cornerstone University

ENG 320: Advanced Writing Workshop, Cornerstone University

ENG 334: American Renaissance Literature, Cornerstone University

Upcoming: ENG 317: Creative Nonfiction, Cornerstone University

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Additional experience supervising undergraduate teaching interns. Currently certified to teach reading and English to grades 4-12, theater to grades 7-12, and ESOL to grades K-12 in the state of Maryland, with experience teaching 12th, 10th, 8th, and 7th grade language arts in public schools, as well as 6th grade creative writing and cognitive science electives and summer arts-enriched reading and math (Arts for Learning Maryland)

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Workshops

Improv for Fiction Writers (Coming June 2025), Kalamazoo Book Arts Center

Presentations

Upcoming: “Affirming Life (and Limb) in an Unlikely Place: Poe’s Disturbing Medical Satire.” Modern Language Association Annual Convention, January 2026.

Upcoming: “‘Staying with the Trouble’ and the Subversive Hope of Contemporary Women Poets.” Annual Convention of the Midwest Modern Language Association, November 2025.

Upcoming: “Peace is Participatory: Responsiveness in Undergraduate English.” Annual Convention of the Midwest Modern Language Association, November 2025.

“Fostering Connection Through Silent Discussion: What Does It Mean for Texts to be ‘in Conversation?’” Digital Discourse Inquiry Group of the National Writing Project, January 2024.

“Incorporating Imaginative Response into Literature Study to Support Consideration of Voice, Audience, and Purpose.” Woodlawn High School, May 2022.

“Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles.” Maryland Collegiate Honors Conference, March 2018.

“With Purpose.” Donor Recognition Brunch, McDaniel College, Westminster, MD, July 2017.

“Westminster Detective Library.” National Council for Undergraduate Research, April 2017.

“Stephen Dedalus’ Hunt for Individuation in James Joyce’s Ulysses.” Baltimore Jungian Working Group and McDaniel College Phi Beta Kappa Symposium, March 2017.

"Rue Morgue Gone Rogue: Poe, an Information Revolution, and the Real Life American Sensation Tale." Maryland Collegiate Honors Conference, March 2017.

Publications

Buchanan Palmer, M. Review of 21st-Century British Gothic: The Monstrous, Spectral, and Uncanny in Contemporary Fiction by Emily Horton. Accepted to the Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association for fall 2025.

Buchanan Palmer, M. How Poetry Changes You and Your Brain. Greater Good Magazine. The Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley, April 2025.

Larson, K., Savick, S., Segree, T., Buchanan, M., and Chaturvedi, A. Integrating Flourishing within PDS Partnerships to Support Students’ Mental Health and Wellbeing. School-University Partnerships, May 2022.

Buchanan, M. “In Praise and Defense of the Cardigan” and “Sestina for the First of Spring.” Contrast Literary Magazine, April 2017.

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Performances

Upcoming: “Puppetry Out Louder.” Puppetry/Music/Poetry. Transformative Language Arts Network 2025 Power of Words Conference, October 2025.

“How to Kill a Bug.” Puppetry/Music. Black Cherry Puppet Theater, Baltimore, MD, May 2024.

“Self-Checkout.” Puppetry/Music. Black Cherry Puppet Theater, Baltimore, MD, July 2022.

“Meet Me at the Bottom of the Tower.” Music. Commissioned for Academic Publication “Un-Rapunzeling Communication: Rhetorical Equity and Rhet/Comp Journal Practices” by Dr. Paul Muhlhauser and Tara Salvati in Journal of Multimodal Rhetoric, January 2021.

“Bagquo.” Puppetry/Music. Artscape, Baltimore, MD, July 2020.