Local Doctorate Student Publishes Poetry Exploring Fatherhood, Nature

By Jonathan Kleyer

A Western Michigan University graduate student has been awarded the 2009 Orphic Price for Poetry, through a poetry contest held by Dream Horse Press.

Gary McDowell, a Kalamazoo resident, is receiving a $1,000 cash prize for his success—as well as the publication of his first full-length poetry collection, American Amen, which the independent publishing company will release late this year.

According to McDowell, to participate in the contest he had to submit American Amen’s manuscript by the end of August, 2009, along with a reading fee that would contribute to the production of the contest winner’s book.
“They usually get around 500 manuscripts. I was fortunate enough to be chosen as the winner of this year’s contest by the editors of the press,” McDowell said.

McDowell’s poetry for this collection explores such themes as relationships between fathers and sons, impending fatherhood and coming of age. He also explores the way narrative is constructed through an interweaving of recurring images, such as fishing, lakes, ghosts and birds.
“It’s a collection of poems that deal with some similar images and obsessions, I would say. They’re sort of similar experiences, similar emotions, and come from a similar place,” the poet commented.

McDowell said that one of the reasons fatherhood rose as a theme in his writing is because two years ago, he became a father himself. How his father has influenced his life and how his wife’s pregnancy has transformed his world was on his mind.

As for his focus on fish, lakes and birds, McDowell commented that even though he feels it’s cliché, being in nature inspires him—and he simply enjoys fishing.
“It’s not just the taking of the fish, it’s the give and take of nature. I’ve never taken a fish I didn’t eat,” McDowell said humorously.

McDowell got into poetry when he was attending Northern Illinois University, pursuing a degree in computer science.
“I went there interested in making video games, in computer animation and graphics. I took one calculus course and it just wasn’t for me. I didn’t have the math brain,” he said.

According to McDowell, he was lucky enough to find a few good teachers to help him find his way into poetry. In particular, he credited teacher Amy Neuman for becoming a mentor for him. Over the next decade he settled into writing.

Speaking about what he wants to accomplish with his poetry, McDowell said, “I get the feeling sometimes, having taught poetry and teaching it currently, some people think it’s going to be too hard to understand. But I would say that reading poetry is like listening to music—not pop, but like a symphony. There’s more to be reaped from letting the language wash over you than anything else. I think if we can start looking at poetry as more akin to music, potentially the public attitude would start to maybe start to feel the tug of the need for poetry like it has in the past.”

After receiving a bachelor’s degree from Northern Illinois University in 2003, he earned a master’s degree in poetry from Bowling Green State University in 2007. He is currently in his third year as a doctoral student at WMU studying poetry and American literature.

He said that the core of his book and the recurring images in it came up during the writing when he was working on his master’s degree. He had a fellowship and taught there, and had plenty of time to compose half of the poems there. Getting into earning his PhD at WMU, he started picking through his previous work, looking for the recurring themes in the poems. Then he began to write with those themes in mind.

“One of the poems in there that I wrote was a breakthrough for me personally,” McDowell commented. Notes from a Sleepwalker. It was the first time I really let myself go and let myself off the cuff. There’s all these images colliding together into this one world.”

He added that he wrote that poem early on in his master’s degree program, and that it opened his mind to a new direction.

There were a few poems that McDowell wrote and ultimately decided to pull from the manuscript, though. He recalled several poems he wrote based on pieces of art he had seen in Chicago last February.

The art inspired him, so McDowell sat on a bench, stared at it and wrote notes. He ultimately pulled them from the manuscript because the book’s theme was supposed to be personal—and he realized that when he wrote the poems inspired by Chicago’s art, his obsessions had shifted to things that were outside of himself.

The poet began sending versions of the manuscript out in 2007, coming close many times. He said that he was a runner up about 10 times, and he did manage to publish a small chapbook, titled They Speak of Fruit, featuring 20 to 25 pages of the poetry he uses in American Amen.
“Competition is tough, because there doesn’t seem to be as much interest in these books compared to a novel by one of the great novelists that we have,” McDowell said. “The poetry community is small enough that everybody knows a lot of other poets, but it’s also big enough that there’s not as much of a ‘I’ll pat your back if you pat mine.’”
McDowell said that there is still no specific release date for American Amen, but the publisher is likely to have it out before the holidays. The manuscript for the collection is about 64 pages in a Microsoft Word file on his computer, but once it is printed, the collection will be around 80 pages, which McDowell called smack dab in the middle for the typical length of a normal poetry collection.