By Taylor Chretien

At Southern Maine Community College she is an adjunct professor for the English Department. Outside of the school, she is a writer, editor, and publisher. She is also an adjunct professor for the Creative Writing Department at Southern New Hampshire University where she teaches fiction and publishing courses, and as well as mentors/supervisees a few student internships.

Prof. Rand says of SMCC, “I like the campus on the ocean, my co-workers, my boss Kevin Sweeney (a fine poet as well), and of course the students.” She explains that teaching keeps her connected to her own writing.

She is from Maine, and her family moved around Maine a lot. She is primarily from Millinocket, Dover-Foxcroft, and Portland.

She started college in 1985 at University Southern Maine (USM), however, that didn’t work out well. She ended up leaving school, working full-time for four years in Portland, and realized she wanted to go back to school. She applied for a job at the USM, and was hired in 1991. She attended night classes for years there until finally deciding to go full-time and finish school. She graduated with a bachelor’s in Media Studies with a concentration in writing; as well as double minors in Educational Studies and Creative Writing. Rand exclaimed, “Out of all that schooling, USM squeezed in another degree for me, an Associate’s Degree in Liberal Arts.”

Finally, Prof. Rand was accepted to graduate school at Columbia College Chicago. Then life, as she puts it, life happened, and she ended up staying in Maine while taking care of her Mom who had cancer. During that time, USM started the Stonecoast MFA program in Creative Writing. She attended that program and graduated from the Inaugural Class of 2004.

When she was younger, she wanted to do something with writing, not so much becoming a professor. She didn’t want to become a professor until she was a junior in college.

She states: Some of my fellow undergraduate classmates and I had dreams of taking over the English Department at USM one day, and becoming like the amazing professors we had at the time. The person I have become today, I owe to my Mom, Grandmother, and the rest of the family and friends who helped my mom raise my brother and me. I also had a phenomenal experience with my professors. I think going back to school at USM made me want to become a professor. I have to give my husband, Jim Rand credit for being supportive of me all the time. He’s not a writer, but he understands me even if he doesn’t understand me, if that makes sense. Jim gives me space and time to write when I go into a “zone.” He reads my writing, gives me encouragement, and he just gets me!