This article was originally published in the 2023 edition of Bluefield University’s Spire magazine.
Our story begins as a newborn boy named Alan finally arrives home after a complication of cystic fibrosis and three months in the neonatal intensive care unit of Roanoke Memorial Hospital. Not too long ago, both his fate and the fate of his older sister, Margaret, remained uncertain. As Alan was welcomed into the world, Margaret was battling severe asthma nearly a hundred miles away in Princeton Community Hospital.
Even after their family returned home, Margaret and Alan’s parents continued to face trying times. “There was almost no time when we weren’t doing feedings or breathing treatments or therapy or else sterilizing bottles and equipment,” their mother, Dr. Irene Rieger, shared. “It takes a toll on you, having no time to yourself, and I began to feel this strong desire to make something creative, to communicate with someone, to be more than just this parenting machine.”
Those unfortunate circumstances became the springboard that launched Dr. Rieger’s creative writing career. From dashing off poems while feeding or providing a breathing treatment to her son to becoming a nationally acclaimed author, Dr. Rieger’s journey as a professional creative writer has always been inspired by her studies of literature, her experiences as a mother, and most importantly, her faith.
“There is a mysterious element to the act of creativity, and a lot of superstition associated with it,” Dr. Rieger explained, detailing how other writers relied on good luck charms, searched for signs from the universe, and called on ancestors or ghosts to help them turn a blank page into a novel or poem. “Of course, I’m respectful of other people’s traditions and processes, but as a Christian, I don’t have to deal with this superstition. I know if I’m able to produce anything good, it has to come from God.”
Leading up to her creative writing career, Dr. Rieger established herself as a professor and scholarly writer. Before joining the Rams family in 2011, she studied English and French Literature at Samford University and completed a master’s degree in French at the University of Florida. While earning her Ph.D. in English Literature at Case Western Reserve University, she “studied novel-writing under Mary Grimm, who has had several pieces published in the New Yorker.” After teaching at ten prior institutions, she has served over a decade at Bluefield University, where she is currently an associate professor of English.
A few years into her tenure and two years after the birth of her son, Dr. Rieger’s first creative piece was published and well-received. “I read my work at conferences where I received a lot of positive feedback, which encouraged me to keep going,” she shared, noting the dangers of listening to one’s “internal critic.”
As a parent who sometimes feels guilty for taking time to write that could have been spent with her family, she sympathizes with aspiring writers on the verge of giving up, believing that their time is better spent elsewhere, they are untalented, or they don’t have anything important to say. “But if you believe that you’re doing God’s will, you don’t have to worry about that,” she tells her students. “If you are trying to create something for his glory – and that is my fervent prayer – then if this draft is no good, it’s okay. You can know that if it’s his will, he will give you the tools to produce the work he created you to make.”
Having a faith-centered approach to creative writing doesn’t make it easy, however. “I don’t think that I’m taking dictation from God like Mozart in Amadeus or anything. I put the work into learning craft,” Dr. Rieger clarified.
“I read my favorite novels repeatedly, marking them up until you can barely read the words anymore,” she explained. “I note the ratios of in-scene writing to description, of dialogue to summary, of current timeline to flashback. When I see a story in a publication that, say, has a lot of transition between different scenes but yet doesn’t confuse me, I try to figure out how the author did it. But I also pray and dedicate my work to the Lord. If it’s not bringing people to Christ or helping them grow in their Christian walk, then what is the point?”
With that outlook, Dr. Rieger has enjoyed much success, having her work published in the Journal for the Liberal Arts and Sciences, Talking Writing, MUSE, Vine Leaves Literary Journal, and Bluefield University’s literary journal, The Bluestone Review. Her work was awarded Best in Selection by The College English Association Critic in 2012, and she has been named a finalist for the Ruminate Magazine Vandermey Nonfiction Prize, The New Millennium Award for Nonfiction, and the Holden Vaughn Spangler Memorial Award for Poetry.
“2019 was sort of my magical pre-pandemic year,” Dr. Rieger said. She was granted a sabbatical by Bluefield University, enabling her to dedicate more time to creative work. Throughout that year, she received several publications and awards. Her sonnet, “Spring,” was awarded first place in the Rhyming Poetry category of the 88th Annual Writer’s Digest Poetry Awards. “That was a really big deal for me!” she shared. “I have a whole Excel page full of rejections, so I always feel these prizes are a sort of encouragement that I’m on the right track and that I should keep going.”
Additionally, she won a fellowship to the Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing in 2019. “My work was selected by Alexander Weinstein, who is the author of ‘Saying Goodbye to Yang,’ which was the basis for the Showtime series After Yang. This was a wonderful opportunity; I got to work with so many talented people, including Rachel Lyon, who wrote Self Portrait with Boy, and commiserate with aspiring writers at various stages of their careers.”
Looking to the future, she had prayed for the time to write a novel if it was God’s will and received her answer in the form of a John B. Stephenson Semester Fellowship from the Appalachian College Association. With this award, she dedicated the spring of 2024 to developing the story of Scott, Magalie, and Seamus – three young adults confronting internalized, traditional, and progressive ideas of gender. “It’s a piece of literary fiction that takes place during 2003-2004 and concerns the lives of three academics in their early twenties who are wrestling with what it means to be a woman and a man, respectively.”
The three intellectuals will contemplate how to express themselves and connect with others as they consider the contradictory values stultifying them and God’s design. Bluefield University thanks Dr. Rieger for her continued serve to our institution and looks forward to seeing her writing talents and faith collide once again in her new novel.
