McNeese State University

McNeese State University graduate students Angelina Oberdan, Steven Brown and Michael Shewmaker discuss their experiences with the Master of Fine Arts program at McNeese. April is National Poetry Month.

As a 7-year-old boy, Michael Shewmaker, a native of Texarkana, Texas, wrote songs to impress his father, a professional musician who traveled through Europe and performed on USO tours as a pianist. Rudimentary as they may have been, he considers those lyrics to be his first works of poetry.

“I’ve always had an inherent love of language,” Shewmaker said. “Reading and writing is something that I’ve loved to do since I was a kid.”

Shewmaker admits that he never thought writing poetry was something he could ever do seriously, until he discovered that there were many who did, including the author of “Paper Cathedrals,” a book of poetry he owned by renowned poet Morri Creech. When Shewmaker was referred to McNeese State University’s Master of Fine Arts poetry program as an undergraduate at East Texas Baptist University in Marshall, he was surprised to discover that Creech, a recipient of numerous fellowships, grants and poetry recognitions, was the program’s director.

Shewmaker is now in his first year as an MFA student in poetry. He is the recipient of an International Publication Award and has been nominated twice for a Ruth Lilly Fellowship. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in the Atlanta Review, Rectangle and Tar River Poetry.

“Poetry is something that’s shared cross-culturally. All of us have the same sense of art, no matter where we live,” Shewmaker said. “Art is the common bond.”

According to Neil Connelly, director of graduate studies in English at McNeese, the Master of Fine Arts program is designed for serious writers who want to explore their potential in poetry or fiction. The program, one of the smallest in the country, allows students to work individually with faculty as well as visiting poets and fiction writers such as W.D. Snodgrass, Tim Gautreaux and former McNeese faculty member Robert Olen Butler, winner of the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Most of the graduate students are awarded competitive teaching assistantships that waive their tuition and provide a small stipend for living expenses. Although Connelly maintains that the three-year program doesn’t promise publication, fame or riches, the program has produced several successful poets and fiction writers.

Graduate student Steven Brown’s poetry has appeared in the Christian Science Monitor, Rattle, Albatross, the Boxcar Poetry Review and others. A native of Lake Charles, he said he learned about the program as an undergraduate at McNeese. The English faculty was “intense and passionate” about their work, he said, and encouraged him to “try his hand at writing.”

“This experience has taught me a lot about how people communicate with one another. Poetry has a lot to do with that. It picks up where the dictionary leaves off,” said Brown, whose creative hand at poetry also began with songwriting.

First-year graduate student Angelina Oberdan, who earned her undergraduate degree from Clemson University in Clemson, S.C., said poetry is “connected to so many other forms of art, and is especially connected to music.” Oberdan learned about the program through her clarinet tutor, who casually read some of her poetry after Oberdan mentioned that she liked to write.

“One of the best qualities about poetry is that it has to be personal, but because it’s personal, it has a universal context,” Oberdan said. “The more reading and writing that you do, the more attentive and connected you are to the world around you.”

Creative writers “are forced to get their hands dirty with life,” according to Shewmaker.

“When you’re involved in writing, you have to be awake in the moment. Every time you pick up your pen, you are engaged,” he said. “It’s not about making a living. It’s about living.”

The Academy of American Poets declared April to be National Poetry Month in 1996 as a way to increase awareness and appreciation of the art form. For more information on McNeese State University’s Master of Fine Arts program, which offers concentrations in poetry or fiction, contact Neil Connelly at (337) 475-5197, connelly@mcneese.edu, or visit www.mfa.mcneese.edu.