Joseph Millar is not a stereotypical poet.
Millar has not been a poet his whole life. He said he worked many other jobs, ranging from telephone repairman to commercial fisherman.
As the author of “Overtime,” “Fortune” and “Blue Rust,” Millar visited Elon University for a guest reading of some of his work Oct. 29 in Johnston Hall.
“You have to be your own best motivator,” Millar said during a visit to an intermediate poetry class. He told stories about many different topics, ranging from nuns turned poets to crazed fishermen brothers.
Elon’s Department of English brought Millar to campus so students could listen to a new perspective for guidance. In addition to his reading, Millar visited various creative writing classes throughout the week to talk about his own work, answer questions and provide advice to promising writers on campus.
“We haven’t really had this kind of writer, which is more working-class, a poet who really emphasizes the economics of everyday life, the difficulties of everyday life,” said Kevin Boyle, professor of English. “He’s had a couple of marriages. It’s just nice to have somebody who’s not your traditional academic kind of poet.”
Millar’s take on poetry sounds simple: If there’s not enough, put more stuff in it. But in the poetry classes he visited, he was able to look at a student’s writing and immediately improve it.
“It’s part of your job as a writer to look at the world and stay open to it, and the people around you won’t even know you’re doing that,” Millar said.
When Millar started writing, he focused on fiction. He said he was great with descriptions but didn’t know what to make happen. With that in mind, he tried his hand at poetry.
“We think it’s important for students to hear other voices besides our own,” Boyle said. “Sometimes writers have different aesthetics than ours, so it’s nice for us to get exposed to those.”
Besides reading lots of poetry, Millar said he uses jazz music by musicians such as Ray Charles as an inspiration for his writing. He also looks at paintings by artists like Rembrandt to think about his work in new ways.
Every year, the Department of English invites one poet, one fiction writer and one nonfiction writer to campus. Professors in the department try to bring in authors and writers who have published two or three books and are successful in their respective fields.
Millar has won fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts as well as a 2008 Pushcart Prize.
“Even though the visiting writer might say similar things to what we’re saying, it seems like it always has a big effect on students when someone outside comes in and talks to them,” Boyle said. “They seem to respond in a fresh way to the new voice.”
For the department, the most important part of bringing writers to campus is ensuring they’re somebody whose writing evokes passion and creative thought in both the students and professors.
“I just have loved his poems for a few years, so you always try to get somebody who you’re enthusiastic about,” Boyle said. “I feel kind of drawn to his poems.”