CHARLES NORTH

Professor Poet-In-Residence

"Frequently people who've never written before discover that they can do very interesting work..."

"Pace has become a lively place for poetry," says Charles North, English professor and the University's first full-time Poet-in-Residence. A published author, two-time winner of the National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship, and a recent finalist for the inaugural Phi Beta Kappa Poetry Award, North is passionate about his role as Pace's Poet. His annual reading series draws a sizeable audience and brings important poets to Pace (such as Anne Waldman, who will read in April 2003), and this past year he introduced readings by poetry greats John Ashbery and Robert Creeley.

North, previously a member of the University's adjunct faculty, was appointed to the full-time post four years ago. In addition to organizing the spring reading series, he mentors students and graduates and is the advisor to Aphros, the Pace literary magazine. Though many of his students come from a non-literary discipline, North is consistently impressed with the quality of their work. "I always find genuinely talented writers in the class. They don't frequently go on to make a career of poetry -- most of the time that's not what they've come to Pace for. But they could." A number of his students have published their work in national magazines as well as Aphros, and two recent students qualified for an advanced poetry-writing workshop at New York's Poetry Project.

"Frequently people who've never written before discover that they can do very interesting work," explains North. "It's not confined to English majors." One recent award-winner hadn't written a word of poetry before entering North's class, something North thinks can often work to a writer's advantage. "There are so many misconceptions about poetry -- it has to be this, it has to be that, it's boring, it's for 13-year-old girls, it's about nature and love, it has to rhyme. I have always found that part of the job is getting rid of the misconceptions and freeing people to see what's possible."

North has one word of advice for aspiring poets: read. "That's how you learn. That's how you know what can be done, what has been done, what remains to be done, what's exciting about writing." Once his students have gotten excited about writing, North encourages them to pursue it. "Of course some writers are more talented than others, but writing poetry is satisfying and often exhilarating at every level."

Charles North has recently had the honor of having a poem selected for The Best American Poetry of 2002 anthology. He has published eight poetry collections and a book of essays.

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