From moonrise to Animal Crossing, University of Mississippi MFA student Noreen Ocampo’s repertoire of poetry and prose proves to be an extensive exploration of craft and emblematic of a writer who appreciates the simple pleasantries in life.
After graduating with a bachelors in English from Emory University in 2022, the metro Atlanta native decided to begin an MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Mississippi. As she settled roots in the Deep South, Ocampo began to explore her own cultural identity and bring Filipino Americans to the forefront of her writing.
“Being Filipino American in the South is not something that lots of people are talking about,” Ocampo said. “I realized that someone should be writing about our experiences here because it’s different.”
Despite her initial desire to leave the South to venture to the West Coast or eastern U.S. to continue her career as a poet, Ocampo was reassured of her decision to study and write in Mississippi after joining a supportive network of students and faculty, such as UM English Professor and esteemed author, Aimee Nezhukumatathil.
Ocampo first encountered Nezhukumatathil during her first semester at the university, and the pair instantly bonded over their shared passion for shedding light underrepresented perspectives through poetry.
“Aimee is also Filipina,” Ocampo said. “It was nice to have the opportunity to meet other people with similar cultural backgrounds who are pursuing this career path because I don’t have that in my family.”
As a part of her education as an MFA student, Ocampo serves as a teaching assistant in undergraduate English classes. Because Ocampo began her graduate studies at a similar age as undergraduate students, teaching proved to be intimidating at first for the budding writer but quickly bloomed into a passion.
“I think that when I started as a TA it very much felt like I was on the stage, and I wasn’t ready to be on that stage yet, but I think it eventually became much easier,” Ocampo said. “I think after building better relationships with my students, I started to find it really fulfilling, and I would love to see teaching be part of my future.”
Currently in the second year of her MFA program, Ocampo continues to cultivate her craft, writing poetry imbued with a mix of youthful energy and weighted subject matter.
“The work that I produced prior to coming here has a really soft tone, not in a bad way, but that is perhaps not all that I can do,” Ocampo said. “Coming to Mississippi, I realized the ways in which my poems have unexpected violence, in a playful way, (and) explore sharper images, rather than things that are always soft because I think I’m not always soft.”
Winner of the 2021 Variant Lit Microchap Contest, “Not Flowers” portrays a nuanced portrait of love and longing throughout Ocampo’s childhood and into adulthood. Many of her other creative works appear in Honey Literary, Palette Poetry, Salt Hill Journal, Sundog Lit, Taco Bell Quarterly and other literary publications.
Since beginning her MFA at UM, much of Ocampo’s poetry draws from specific facets of Oxford, such as Sardis Lake and Price Street, while highlighting her personal sentiments of isolation and bringing underrepresented perspectives to the forefront.
“I wrote that series of poems (‘There are No Filipinos in Mississippi’) to deal with loneliness but also to talk about the fact that there are Filipinos here and also think about the ways in which we create community when there isn’t an abundance,” Ocampo said.
What started as a collection of poems seeking to reconcile with loneliness in her identity as a Filipino American in the South culminated into an exploration of self and a discovery of community.
“I have chosen to dedicate these next couple of years to a career that I want for myself, and I feel like Mississippi represents an opening for me to do so,” Ocampo said. “A lot of my poems I’m working on now that haven’t been published yet are situated in Water Valley, Taylor, Oxford and a little bit in Memphis.”
As Ocampo continues to create poetry, she is presented with new opportunities to showcase her work to a broader audience.
“Right now, I’m trying to live in the moment and be grateful for all of the new things that I’m experiencing,” Ocampo said. “I’ve recently accepted another chapbook deal with Porkbelly Press, which is really exciting.
Ocampo’s “Not Flowers” is available to purchase at online retailers. More information about Ocampo can be found on her website.
