Maryville College student success stories: Two Scots parlay fiction writing assignment into national publication
April 2, 2025
Not every college student can say that their class assignment was published in a literary journal, but Emmett Roden ’25 and McKenna Marr ’28 are two Scots who can.
As the latest Maryville College student success stories, Roden, an American Sign Language and Deaf Studies major, and Marr, a Writing/Communication major, were both enrolled in Professor Di Bei’s fiction writing class during their Fall 2024 semesters at Maryville College.
Bei, assistant professor of Writing/Communication, came to Maryville College less than a year ago, but she has been quick to make big impacts on campus, emulating the charge of MC founder Rev. Isaac Anderson to “do good on the largest possible scale.”
“Professor Bei let us know right away what her expectations were for the class regarding writing workshops,” Roden said. “It was a little intimidating at first, because I had never let someone read and evaluate my writing before. Learning how to write better — even just the little things, like descriptions and setting up the story — improved my overall feelings about the longer projects we were assigned throughout the semester.”
Bei likes to push the students in her courses out of their comfort zones, she said, because she feels it’s the best way to see them grow. Her goal, she added, is to offer them unique experiences that provide them a means to achieve greatness.
“At the end of the semester, I require the class to send their stories to at least five literary journals,” she said. “Some students feel nervous about sending their works out. I tell them that rejection is good practice. In my experience, every year, I have at least one student whose work gets accepted somewhere. Most of them say that they never expected to be published before taking my class.”
Unexpected accolades
For Roden and Marr, the acceptance was a pleasant but unexpected surprise. They were required to submit their stories to literary journals of their choosing, but neither of them thought their stories would be published, they said. However, they added, Bei’s consistent support and encouragement made them feel much more confident in that even if their pieces weren’t selected, they would still be examples of Maryville College student success for the attempts.
“Professor Bei was very encouraging during the process and challenged us in ways that contributed to our successes,” Roden explained.
“Di Bei and her course provided all the support that I could have needed,” Marr added. “It was a very peer-oriented environment, as we did a workshop for each story. This gave everyone in the class a chance to not only get feedback on their work, but give feedback as well, creating a good learning environment and making each of us more effective readers and writers.”
Bei allowed students to write about anything they chose, within the guidelines of a college class assignment.
Roden’s story, titled “Big D, Little d,” draws from his own lived experiences as a Deaf person. It follows Ezra, a Deaf ninth grader, as he endures the woes of high school with the added pressure of navigating a hearing school for the first time.
“Many people don’t know what it’s like to grow up Deaf in a predominantly hearing world,” he said. “I wanted to create a scenario that was both relatable and culturally new for people to read about. By combining a coming-of-age teenage experience with Deaf culture, I hoped to create something that would resonate with both Deaf and hearing readers.”
“Big D, Little d” was included in the winter 2025 issue of Gabby and Min’s Literary Review, along with several pieces of poetry, art, fiction writing, and photography.
Marr’s story, she said, came from her love of all things eldritch horror, a subgenre of horror that emphasizes the fear of the unknowable and incomprehensible. Titled “The Little Girl I Play Cards With,” Marr’s work follows a girl named Amelie who struggles with unexplainable hallucinations and draws upon realistic, psychological fiction.
“The main inspiration for ’The Little Girl I Play Cards With’ came to me when watching the movie ‘Insidious,’ Marr said. “Admittedly, the only similar things were the fact that they both had ghosts, and even that was heavily altered by the time I finished the actual story. However, that is where the first idea of writing a little girl playing cards with a ghostly counterpart started. I quickly jotted down the idea, as well as an opening sentence, and the idea was left to sit until much later, when Professor Bei’s class came along. When it did, I knew I finally had the perfect time to write the idea.”
“The Little Girl I Play Cards With” will be included in an upcoming edition of Long River Review, the University of Connecticut’s literary and arts magazine.
Redefining what seems impossible
Bei’s methods may have led to unexpected results, but they also make her an ideal fit as part of the Maryville College faculty, all of whom go above and beyond for their students. Her fiction course is designed so that students form a supportive community to help each other grow as writers. Criticisms are never easy to absorb, but when they come from a group of classmates who have built trust in one another, the reception is made easier.
“Seeing how others react to my work, give feedback, and even relate to certain parts of my story made me realize that storytelling is about connection,” Roden said. “It’s about putting something out into the world that someone else might need to read.”
The successful publications of works by Marr and Roden are an example of the classic trope that sometimes, a single individual — in this case, a faculty member — can help students see that they are capable of excellence if they simply put forth their best efforts.
“Even if you think something is impossible, why not try anyway?” Marr said. “If you have the mindset that something is impossible, then you can’t really be too put out when the goal is not achieved. You expected it, but you tried. Oh well, no harm done! Failure is okay sometimes. It’s important to remember that no matter the outcome, it’s sure to be a learning experience, and that is a gain in and of itself.”
Roden agreed and went on to describe his experience as something that changed how he will approach his remaining time at Maryville College.
“It gave me more confidence, not just in my writing but in my ability to take risks and try new things, and now I see the value in putting myself out there,” he said. “Whether it’s writing, research, or even teaching in the future, I want to push myself outside of my comfort zone more often.”
Marr, too, said that working with Bei and having her work accepted for publication has shifted the way she views potential challenges in the future, and how she can rise to meet them.
“This will influence the rest of my time at Maryville College, simply because of what I learned from it,” she said. “It has given me the confidence and chance that I needed to move forward with my writing. Because of that, I am now writing for the Highland Echo (the Maryville College student newspaper) here, publishing my work in Impressions (the campus literary magazine) as well, and loving every second of it.”