Southwest Minnesota State University Professor Susan McLean has once again received the honor of getting her work published.

“It is always a thrill to have a poem or translation accepted for publication,” McLean said.

McLean recently translated nearly 500 Latin epigrams by the poet Martial, which will be published as a book by the University of Wisconsin Press in 2014. She’s been working on this project since 2003.

“My book of translations started with one poet, Mike Juster, challenging anyone who was interested to translate a particular Latin epigram by the poet Martial – I enjoyed translating that one so much that I started to do others,” said McLean. “Eventually I had translated so many poems that I thought I had a book’s worth, so I looked into finding a publisher for it,” she continued.

Several of McLean’s literary works have been published over the years. Her very first book “The Best Disguise,” took 19 years to get published but ever since then she’s become accustomed to the process.

“My first full-length book, The Best Disguise, was a turning point for me. I had been writing poetry for nineteen years before that book finally saw publication, and my manuscript had to win a contest in order to be published,” McLean said.

McLean has had multiple other forms of her work published, some of the most popular including “In Arcadia,” and “Morbid Interest.”

““In Arcadia” was inspired by renting a house with my siblings for a week in Sarasota, Florida, to celebrate our parents’ 60th wedding anniversary,” said McLean.

““Morbid Interest” was written for a poetry contest. It was inspired by my noticing that Poe was obsessed with writing about dead or dying young women, so I thought it would be fun to imagine how a young woman might feel when he showed an interest in her,” she said.

McLean has seen great success in her career as writer/poet and has no plans to stop any time soon. She maintains great faith in the future of writing in general.

“No one can tell whether the advantages of instant access will outweigh the disadvantages in the long run. But I do think that the writers of the future will come from those who are readers now,” said McLean.