David Daniels
Writing Program Instructor,
Creative Writing MFA and Literature MA

Personal info: Where did you get your undergraduate degree? What was your major? Where did you get your Masters and/or PhD and what was it in? Why did you choose DU?
Got my undergrad degree at Tulane University in New Orleans, long before Katrina hit double majored in English Lit and Creative Writing, with one semester spent on a poetry fellowship at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania a peculiar semester of being patted on the back and having my nave ego inflated for writing some rather dismal stuff. I actually was required to hold office hours, during which I offered poetry advice to other Bucknell students, many of whom were older and better poets than I.

From Tulane, I drove a truck cross-country with my girlfriend/almost-fiance, a Texan like myself, to start the MFA program together in Bloomington, IN. Waited tables in a Chinese restaurant near campus, worked the night-shift in a gas station, got a MFA in poetry, an MA in lit, did my PhD coursework and started a dissertation on 20th Century American Poetry but quit.

The war in Iraq brought me and DU together during an anti-war demonstration, I met the chair of DUs English department, Ann Dobyns, who happens to be the poet Stephen Dobyns cousin, whose poetry I happen to adore. One thing led to another during a debriefing in a local bar, and Ann encouraged me to apply.

Describe what your writing process is like:
Depends on the kind of writing. I fancy myself a poet foremost, but writing poetry is an arduous task for me I over-editorialize, Im uncomfortable and uncertain. I always write in the morning, and when poetry isnt working out, I cruise the Internet news sites, blogs, lit mags, whatnot which often sparks my critical interests in popular culture, which is what I write about when I write critical prose. Here, I feel greater freedom to draw connections, synthesize, report, and so forth. But rarely do these ventures into critical prose inform my poetry indeed an ongoing struggle of mine is how to keep my poetry-writing discrete from my critical-writing. Some very fine poets whom I respect Jorie Graham comes to mind, as does Adrienne Rich seem able to deepen the vision of their creative work by dwelling or wrestling with critical thought. I cant.

What do you enjoy most about writing?
To be absolutely honest, I dont enjoy it much, which is something I share freely with my students. I am terrible at invention feel strapped, limited, which is odd since the page is empty. I like revision more, as it sometimes feels more calculated, more analytical to me. I was always a better student at math and science as a child and always had to force my way into advanced English classes throughout high school and undergrad. I can recall vividly my parents making arguments with my high school teachers that, despite my documented weaknesses, I deserved to be in advanced English classes simply due to my passion about poetry (which started at an early age).

Briefly, how would you describe your teaching philosophy?
Put the burden of learning onto the students, in whatever ways I can which means having students outline the specific contours of their writing projects. I offer few guidelines, for example, in terms of page length, number of sources, or kinds of evidence students should use. Instead we brainstorm the possibilities sometimes as a group, often one-on-one and I try to function as a guide or consultant rather than as a dictator. For some students, this process is more invigorating than for others.

What drew you to become a writing teacher?
Few other talents.

What do you enjoy most about teaching writing?
See above.

What are your hobbies and outside interests, or guilty pleasures?
I bowl weekly, and Im addicted to reality television I mean, addicted. Top Chef, Survivor, Amazing Race, What Not to Wear, Kitchen Nightmares, My Life on the D-List with Kathy Griffin, Project Runway, Beauty and the Geeks the list goes on. Im fascinated by the notion of celebrity and herein alone lies a clear overlap between my poetry and critical writing so Im energized by the tense breakdown of celebrity due to reality television. Every morning, I do the following: visit Poetry Daily first, which is a wonderful Website; from there, I visit TMZ, PerezHilton, and so forth all very trashy Websites dedicated to outing the drunken shenanigans of our cultures alleged greatest heroes.

Name an unusual or little-known fact about yourself.
My therapists (plural) would agree that the problem is that little is not known.

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