Like a fine poem, David Wojahn made a lasting impression

By Joan Tupponce

Not everyone can say they loved their job, but David Wojahn can.

"I am someone who is grateful for having done exactly what I have wanted and in ways that a lot of other people don't get the opportunity to do," said Wojahn, who retired May 30 after serving for 21 years as an English professor and director of the MFA in Creative Writing program at VCU.

The passion Wojahn had for his work poured over into his teaching, endearing him to his students.

"He has drawn many students from across the country," said Thom Didato, graduate programs advisor and associate professor in the Department of English. "But it has been his tireless dedication to those students that has been impactful to several generations of poets publishing today."

Wojahn's status as an accomplished, well-known poet with several prestigious honors to his name never got in the way of his teaching.

"He was universally beloved by his students as a faculty member," added Catherine Ingrassia, Ph.D., another of Wojahn's fellow English professors and dean of VCU's College of Humanities and Sciences. "While one of the most esteemed contemporary poets, he was also approachable, humble and tirelessly devoted to his students. He brought that magical mixture of a high level of knowledge, skill and passion coupled with warmth, calm and humanity."

The journey into writing

Wojahn didn't find his passion for poetry until high school.

"I went through a hippie phase and read contemporary poetry. That's when the bug hit me," said the native Minnesotan. "Poetry has always been my central focus. I tried my hardest at fiction, but I wasn't good at it. I have, however, written a good bit of critical prose about poetry."

Wojahn started taking writing classes during his undergraduate years at the University of Minnesota, where he read contemporary authors, earned a degree in English and discovered he wasn't alone in his love of writing.

"Until that point, I didn't know a community of writers existed on campus and also in the community," he said.

Wojahn started publishing poems in literary journals in 1977 and earned his creative writing MFA from the University of Arizona in 1980. The following year, he won the Yale Series of Younger Poets award for his collection "Icehouse Lights." Since then, he has written nine books of poetry and three books of essays.

"I guess it's about enjoying all the time you spend under the thunderclouds, waiting for those strikes. With every inspiration, you have to work really hard to make it look like it just comes to you in the spirit of the moment."

David Wojahn

A defining moment of his career was being named a finalist for the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his collection "Interrogation Palace: New and Selected Poems, 1982-2005."

"That was a real honor," Wojahn said.

His many other awards include the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize in 2012 from the Academy of American Poets (for his "World Tree" collection from 2011) and the O.B. Hardison Poetry Prize in 2007 from the Folger Shakespeare Library for his significance as a poet and as a teacher.

Wojahn is diligent about finding time to write every day.

"It helps you be prepared - to be in mental shape for the rare moments when the work comes easily," he said.

Those inspirational moments can sometimes be elusive. Wojahn remembers poet Randall Jarrell's quote that compares a poet's inspiration to a lifetime of standing in the rain during a thunderstorm and getting hit by lightning several times.

"I guess it's about enjoying all the time you spend under the thunderclouds, waiting for those strikes," he said of writing. "With every inspiration, you have to work really hard to make it look like it just comes to you in the spirit of the moment."

Evolving in craft and on campus

Wojahn recognizes the power of poetry in part by how it can change with time and circumstance. He believes poetry today "speaks to the importance of the rich inner life in a time and culture that devalues individuality."

"We live in a culture where expressing your private life is a radical activity," he said. "Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Robert Lowell and Nobel Prize winner Tomas Tranströmer saw a connection between private and political life. I try in my poems to explore those connections as well. There has been a lot of material in the last eight years to write against."

Wojahn began his academic career in 1981, and his teaching posts included Indiana University, the University of Chicago, the University of Houston, the University of Alabama and the University of New Orleans. But there is something special about his years at VCU.

"VCU and the students at VCU are so diverse. It's exciting to get people who are first-generation college students and are getting interested in writing," he said.

"David's knowledge of poetry is expansive, but his humility is even more impressive. He has taught me so much about the life of a writer and teacher."

Kathleen Graber

He also admires his former colleagues in the Department of English. "They have been an inspiration," he said, highlighting Kathleen Graber, his successor in leading the MFA program, as "an extraordinary teacher and poet."

Graber has a mutual respect for Wojahn.

"I came to VCU over 15 years ago specifically to have the opportunity to work along David, who is not only a poet's poet - meaning a poet other writers deeply admire - but also because of his reputation as a remarkable teacher," Graber said. "David's knowledge of poetry is expansive, but his humility is even more impressive. He has taught me so much about the life of a writer and teacher."

Ingrassia noted that at VCU, Wojahn "raised the MFA program to a higher level of national prestige and put it on the map." As a Pulitzer finalist, she said, "his own stature as a poet brought a much higher level of visibility to the program."

Retirement and remembrance

In retirement, Wojahn intends to continue writing and publishing.

"It's nice to have a little more time to do that," he said. "I am still directing the theses of a couple of students. Also, I am part of the Vermont College of Fine Arts faculty, working with some graduate students. So, I haven't disconnected."

As for his legacy at VCU, Wojahn said he wants to be remembered "as a committed teacher, as a decent writer and as a good colleague."

He won't find argument.

"He never failed to be as wonderful a colleague as he was a poet and teacher," Ingrassia said. "He was generous with his time and his knowledge."

Didato called Wojahn one of the "most humble, kind and caring souls" he knows - and with interests that extend beyond poetry collections and classrooms.

"Every time he casually blows you away with his literary and academic knowledge," Didato said, "just know that within that brain there is also a wealth of wonderful and random pop cultural and musical knowledge, with ready-made TV binge-watching recommendations on hand at any given moment."

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