collection, "The Age of Reason."
Given the precise nature of his poems, the careful attention to language and detail, the vivid way he turns a phrase, it is surprising to learn that before Rick Mulkey '92 arrived at WSU, he had never really written or studied poetry.
"I didn't know how to read a poem," he says. "I had already gone through a master's program and thought I knew how, but didn't."
Something changed though, and Mulkey, who directs the creative writing program at Converse College in South Carolina, attributes that change to the instruction he received from WSU faculty members Jeanine Hathaway, Albert Goldbarth and Anita Skeen (who's now at Michigan State). "They each brought something different to the classroom. Jeanine had this wonderful, inspiring energy, and Albert was really good about saying when something just wasn't going to work." Mulkey also credits the sense of community he felt while attending WSU's creative writing program. "There wasn't a Friday afternoon that passed when there weren't 10 or 12 of us sitting around and talking about writing."
The sense that poetry could help shape a community also became evident, he adds, when he and his wife Susan '92 traveled to Poland to teach English. "I remember bringing a lyric poem to class and reading it to my students. They got very excited and started bringing me books by their favorite poets."
Community, Mulkey points out, is part of what writing is all about.
