May Hartness

May Hartness is a Tennessean who’s grateful to Massachusetts for allowing her to take up residence. After earning her BA from Lipscomb University’s College of Leadership and Public Service in Nashville (’21), May moved north in pursuit of a land with less humidity and her master’s degree in theological studies. What she found when she arrived at the Boston University School of Theology (STH) was not only an opportunity to engage the entanglement between theological scholarship and the literary imagination, but a community that encouraged her to do so. After graduating (’24), May wanted to contribute a similar support to this community; she now serves as the STH Contextual Education Officer and has the privilege of working with students discerning questions of vocation. Not quite ready to give up her own student title, May is also in her second year of the Master of Fine Arts program at Emerson College where she studies creative nonfiction writing, volunteers as a reader for Ploughshares literary journal, and serves as a teaching assistant for the Emerson Prison Initiative.