Spotlight on… Cardinal Sins

Madeline Bruessow Editor-in-Chief

If Madeline Bruessow had listened to the naysayers, she would never have pursued her passion. Originally from Kawkawlin, Michigan, Bruessow has been a lifelong lover of reading, writing, and all things bookish. However, her path to becoming an English major and eventually editor-in-chief of Cardinal Sins, SVSU’s literary and arts journal, did not happen right away.

Although Bruessow graduated in May 2022 with a bachelor of arts in English literature with a minor in rhetoric and professional writing, she hadn’t always considered writing to be a viable career path. Bruessow never considered majoring in English, mostly because “because of how constantly it had been drilled into my head that I would never find a good job if I did so.” After changing her major several times during her first two years at SVSU, she realized she could turn her passion into a career. Bruessow remembers thinking that “life is too short to pursue a degree in something that I am not 100% passionate about.” From that moment on, she jumped at opportunities to develop as a writer.

Writing influenced her academic career in a number of ways, but Bruessow ties her success as a writer to her experiences in creative writing courses. She notes, “One of my first classes in the English program at SVSU was a creative writing course, which I spontaneously decided to take because of my love of writing poetry. Without this passion, I probably never would have been led down the path of an English degree.” Even though she enjoyed her creative writing coursework, it was still a bit of time before she sought editorial experiences.

Before becoming Cardinal Sins’ editor-in-chief, Bruessow never even considered editorial work as a career path. During that leadership experience, however, she “developed a love for this field and hope to find a career in the world of book publishing one day.” Bruessow started as a coeditor-in-chief in 2019 with Matthew Blum and eventually took the reins as the sole editor-in-chief in the fall of 2020. During her time as editor, Bruessow led a group of students through the challenges of the pandemic to produce several award-winning issues. The work on the 2020–2021 double-issue is a point of pride for Bruessow because it won “first place in the American Scholastic Press Association contest for student-led magazines and newspapers. Not only was this issue in particular something entirely new we were doing compared to years past by combining the Fall and Winter publications into one issue, but it is also the first issue published while I was editor-in-chief. So that means a lot to me.”

Her work as an editor wasn’t the only way she was involved in the university’s writing scene. Bruessow also worked as a peer writing tutor at SVSU’s Writing Center, which she named as one of the most rewarding experiences at SVSU. The most challenging aspect of tutoring, for Bruessow, “is the spontaneity of it. You never know exactly what your peers will have questions about, what type of project they are working on, and oftentimes not even the content of the topic they are writing about. However, this challenge is what makes it such a rewarding job, and it was always the greatest feeling to connect with students over their writing.” She kept writing, too. As an Opinion and Arts and Entertainment writer and editor for SVSU’s student newspaper, The Valley Vanguard, Bruessow was highly in-tune with the campus community.

Whether providing feedback as a peer tutor or as an editor, it all seems to be a natural fit with Bruessow’s lifelong love of language.

The following poem comes from the 2020–21 issue of Cardinal Sins

The Dragonfly Effect

by Peter Waldor

Your legs athwart me and on that bone that protrudes from your ankle for no evolutionary advantage, a dragonfly has landed. They are the most skitterish of creatures but this one is comfortable resting on that spot and though humans may be the second most skitterish of creatures you let it rest. Most people find them frightening but you think it’s mysteriously beautiful. So here you are with your legs athwart me, both you and the dragon have fallen asleep. Perhaps you are both awake in your dreams and are true equals that can ask each other critical questions in dire circumstances.

Reprinted by permission of the author.