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Gray Jacobik
Gray Jacobik (Poetry) is author of three collections of poetry: The Double Task (University of Massachusetts Press), winner of the Juniper Prize, nominated for the James Laughlin Award and The Poet's Prize; The Surface of Last Scattering (Texas Review Press), winner of the X. J. Kennedy Poetry Prize; and Brave Disguises (University of Pittsburgh Press), winner of the AWP Poetry Series Award for 2001. Gray served as the 2002 Poet-in-Residence at The Frost Place and is a Professor Emeritus at Eastern Connecticut State University. She is also an accomplished painter. Selected Publications: Brave Disguises (University of Pittsburgh Press, Fall 2002) The Surface of Last Scattering (The Texas Review Press, 1999) The Double Task (University of Massachusetts Press, 1998) Honors: Distinguished Faculty of the Year, 2002-2003, Eastern Connecticut State University Teaching Philosophy: I've been reading, writing, publishing, editing, teaching, performing, and thinking about poetry for more than thirty years. At first an autodidact, I had the good fortune, at mid-career, of being mentored closely by a number of poets, among them, Sharon Olds, Frank Bidart, Jack Gilbert, Linda Gregg, Billy Collins, Eamon Grennan and Allen Grossman. I have had, as well, long-standing relationships with a number of excellent poets with whom I've exchanged poems and manuscripts for critique. My approach to mentoring derives from the collective contribution others have made to my skill and understanding of the art. I think this is how it works: call it “transmission” or “the passing on a tradition” or the inclusion of a new voice in a conversation that has been going on, in the West, for three thousand years. So, for me, mentoring is a serious moral obligation, true soul-work, mine, now, because I am called-to this art, have received great teaching myself, and am now an elder. I am a poet whose purpose in life is to pass on what she knows. That tells you were I am on a spiritual and philosophical level. On an intellectual level, I am an academic who is concerned with honoring the existing body of great literature written in English and the history of its creation. I've taught in universities for many years and currently hold the rank of Distinguished Professor Emeritus. All that says is that I've jumped through a lot of hoops; it says nothing about whether or not I'm a good poet. As a critic I consider myself primarily a technician (I like, most of all, to fiddle with how poems are made), although the poetry that matters to me most is written, as Yeats would have it, “in the rag-and-bone shop of the heart.” I have little patience for experimental work that jerks the reader around: it strikes me, usually, as self-indulgent and egoistic. Anyone interested in working with me, ought to be interested in writing realistic or surrealistic poems in more-or-less traditional modes or mixed-modes, poems as concerned with musicality as with meaning. I do poorly at critiquing anything else. The most important result of successful teaching, in my opinion, is that the love of beauty, or the Earth, or of language, or of social justice, or of God (whatever led a person to take up this difficult and exacting art in the first place), has deepened and broadened in the person, and that along with that, he or she feels a greater sense of responsibility toward producing the strongest possible work he or she is (or will be) capable of creating. Of course, personally, it makes me happy when I consider a former mentee to be my life-long friend. By the way, it's been the tradition at Stonecoast (thanks to Anne Bowman, a graduate) that my mentees be called “manatees” (it's just a lovelier word). I feel I've been most successful as a teacher when another's work has become more important to me than my own, when I sense I've acted as one of the midwives assisting at the birth of a new poet-in-the-world, someone whose work will make a significant contribution. It has happened. I trust it will happen again. Nitty-gritty things: I write a good deal in response to individual poems: on average one and a half to two single-spaced pages per poem. Line edits, of course, and I offer re-writes, or partial re-writes, frequently, and in a somewhat appropriating manner. I do this because taking your material into myself and imagining it as something I might have generated myself, gives me greatest access and affords me the strongest position for presenting to you, what I hope will be, interesting possibilities. It is the most efficient way I have, coupled with commentary, of showing you how to do a thing. I like cover letters that tell me how you've grown, in the past weeks, as a poet, and that illuminate anything whatsoever concerning your ambition for each poem. I want to know what you're reading, what you're thinking about, the areas of weakness and strength you see in yourself at the moment, what it is you'd like to explore in the coming weeks, who your favorite poet-of-the-moment is (and why), etc. Long cover letters, yes, although I won't nail you for it if you opt otherwise. I comment less extensively on your annotations, which are read as carefully as your poems. I don't consider them “pass/fail”, there's only “pass” although I will ask a manatee to re-write (repeatedly if necessary) annotations that are not up to standard. With these I may ask that the poems be explored from a particular critical perspective, relevant to the craft article I've sent you, for example. I do expect annotations to be a combination of critical analysis and some reader-response. I am not open to stylistic imitations serving as annotations. I like to assign a collection of poems to you each month, one wherein I think the poet you are reading is particularly skillful in applying the aspects of craft I see as most needed to advance your work, although I am open to your suggestions if there's someone you are keen to read closely, and you can tell me why. In terms of craft and critical articles: I've collected, and constantly acquire, articles, books, etc., and I will usually copy an essay most pertinent to your needs and included it when I return your packet (or tell you where to get it). I expect you to read at least one collection of poems and one critical essay, and attend one reading each month, at the very least. I don't assign exercises, although I'm not adverse to doing so should my manatee wish. I particularly enjoy working with manatees on their critical theses and creative theses. Because I've had so much experience as an academic, I believe I am particularly well-suited to guide you through the writing of a critical essay. I am less interested in working with students who are doing more of a practicum than a critical or historical study. A third-term manatee interested in exploring the work of an individual poet or a small group of poets, or writing about an aspect of craft, or a particular theme, ideology, body of imagery, etc. would be someone I believe I could guide through this process successfully. With regard to fourth-term students: I've had a great deal of experience organizing manuscripts both for myself and for others, and in doing what I call “serial edits”. My background as an editor contributes to my skill in this domain and I enjoy the complex challenges involved in making a sometimes-disparate assembly of poems into a BOOK! I prefer to receive packets through conventional mail, and to return them thusly. I am open to e-mail questions and comments at all times, and to phone calls as well. At times I will tape a cassette and accompany that with a short letter. I welcome the day when this packet-exchange business can be conducted through live-video feed via home computers. My Mac Mini and I are ready. Homepage:
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