Muskingum News

Excerpt from the introduction in “The Quarantine Diaries: A Muskie View on COVID-19”

Muskies were evacuated from campus and people all over the globe were forced to stay inside. Our lives became encased in an online fortress. A lack of social interaction and toilet paper haunted us for months and Tik Tok became our only comfort. 

Muskingum University's Muskie Press – the unique internship program offered by the English Department - recently published an amazing retrospective titled "The Quarantine Diaries, The Muskie View on COVID-19."

The 64-page book was developed in a little over a month following the University's mandatory coronavirus-related shutdown and includes original poetry, personal editorial accounts, stories, photography, art, and more. 

Under the guidance of Dr. Jane Varley, professor of English, the staff of seven students held regular virtual meetings over Microsoft Teams to finish the publication in a little over one month. The group felt it was important to showcase how members of the Muskingum community were handling the quarantine and reached out to students, faculty, staff, and alumni for submissions.
 

“Writing is a great way of coping and we wanted to reach out to as many people as possible while we were all apart to connect as a community,” said the Muskie Press editors. “The submissions we received were wonderful and offered many different views of our current situation.”