She was a star pupil in high school, rising to the top of her class in advanced placement math and acing her calculus courses.
Annalise Mitchell ‘24 seemed destined for an engineering degree, or any other of the many STEM-related options that could jump-start a career, but she decided on another track.
After graduating high school in Tacoma, Washington, Mitchell enrolled at U of I to pursue a degree in English.
“My parents were a little surprised at first, but they were also very supportive,” said Mitchell, who will graduate in Spring ‘27 with a Master of Arts in English. “My dad drove me to Moscow, and I fell in love with the campus right away.”
Because of the many internships she received while studying at U of I, both as an undergraduate and graduate student, Mitchell, who is the writer in residence at the College of Natural Resources, said her college tuition has been paid throughout her U of I tenure and she will graduate without student debt.
“That was one of the great things about coming here,” she said. “There were so many internships and paid work opportunities.”
After earning her bachelor’s a year ago, Mitchell was unsure if she would remain in college or, instead, look for a job in publishing — “Getting hired at Penguin Random House would be my dream job.” — but her mentor and advisor, English Professor and co-Director of the Confluence Lab, Erin James, pulled her aside to offer the CNR writer in residence position if she attended graduate school.
It would be among her many paid on-campus jobs as a U of I English student.
“She basically said it would be silly not to accept this position,” Mitchell said.
Making mistakes is not only the best way to learn, but also how you grow from an intern to an industry professional.
Annalise Mitchell
Graduate student in English
These days, Mitchell, who talks with equal passion and erudition about the works of Edgar Allan Poe, Donna Tartt and Virginia Woolf, and who pens the poetry she reads on Spokane Public Radio, spends much of her time writing about wildfire, pronghorn research, and natural history, subjects she knew little about before joining CNR.
At first, writing about unfamiliar topics was daunting, and the many edits she received on her drafts were disheartening.
"I thought, am I really made for this?" she said. "But everyone was really helpful in getting me up to speed."
One of her main tasks at CNR is to publish the annual alumni magazine.
“Every day has been a learning experience," she said. “It’s given me a foundation in not just professional writing but magazine publishing.”
As a high school student, Mitchell’s prowess at math didn’t inspire her nearly as much as the creative spark that smoldered when she read books like Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter,” Homer’s “Iliad” and “Odyssey,” or the poetry of Sylvia Plath and Gwendolyn Brooks.
“It was that creative expression that led to surprise and discovery; and using language to reconnect us to our humanity,” Mitchell said. “I knew I had something to contribute.”
At U of I, one of Mitchell’s jobs was as a tutor at the Writing Center, and she earned the role of editor-in-chief of “Thistle,” the department’s creative writing publication, where she won the department’s Erma M. Scholtz Coppage & Richard P. Coppage Scholarship. The annual award goes to undergraduate or graduate English majors who show academic excellence, strong performance in upper-division coursework and who are actively involvement in the university's literary community.
She said overcoming self-doubt was a vital lesson she learned through internships and her residency at CNR.
"Growing up in Tacoma, I didn't have an outdoor background, I knew little about fire management and wildlife research but at CNR I was writing about it," she said.
Her initial mistakes helped her to grow as a writer, she said,
"I quickly learned that imperfection or making mistakes is not only the best way to learn, but also how you grow from an intern to an industry professional," she said. "Experience is simply a more pleasant way of saying 'mistakes made.’"
She also learned that pronghorns have a hard time with livestock fences, how GPS helps wildlife researchers understand animal movement patterns, and how bighorn populations are affected by the animals’ diets.
And she discovered a correlation between English and the environment.
"It's incredible to be reminded just how connected the natural environment is,” Mitchell said. “It is like a good narrative, when you realize, after reading a story, that every plot device or craft element was connected to each other the whole time."