After more than 30 years of work as a paper mill employee, Donald Ray Pollock decided to try something different: He came to Ohio State to pursue a MFA in Creative Writing. Now, at 53, Pollock is the critically acclaimed author of Knockemstiff, a book of short stories set in Ohio.
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Transcript
Don Pollock: She was picking pieces of lint off her frayed sweater and dropping them to the floor like little mashed cooties…
Michelle Herman: I first read a story of Don’s when he submitted it to Ohio State’s literary magazine, The Journal, which I edit. And he then submitted two more. So, I ended up publishing three of his stories that I thought were fantastic, fascinating stories that needed some editing. And I began to realize that this was a writer who would benefit hugely from an MFA program, such as ours. That was when I found out he worked at a paper mill, how old he was and he said, “No. He was not coming to graduate school.” And I kept hammering away at him.
DP: I had never been around any writers and had never been in a writing workshop. I didn’t know what to expect. I was fifty years old. I quit my job. At that time, I had been there thirty-two years and came up here. But everybody made me feel so welcome. Everybody was so supportive, you know and I decided to stay. You know, I had taken measures that if I didn’t think this was going to work out in the first two months I could go back to my job.
MH: Between his intelligence and the amount of reading he had done and his own understanding of the world he was writing about, he made faster progress then I’ve ever seen a student make. He also responded incredibly swiftly and wisely to the kinds of comments he got in workshop.
DP: Everybody told me that well you’ll have a better of getting a job, teaching, afterwards if you have a book. So, that was my big concern. My big concern was not like immortality, or you know fame, or anything like that. It was, man if I have a book, maybe I can get a job.
“The driver was a hillbilly guy named Jimmy who kept calling me cousin. But I couldn’t even remember meeting him, let alone seeing at one of the reunions we used to have when our family was still permitted in the state parks.”
MH: A success like Don’s, in most programs, generates pleasure and a lot of envy and tension. And in this place, he’s got nothing but a cheering section.
DP: I’ve had a lot of really good stuff happen to me. The thing that I’m really proud of is that I did get away from the paper mill. And it wasn’t because it was a bad place to work or anything. I had a great job there, but I had just been there so long and I felt so stuck, you know, that I never thought I would ever get out. And to be able to…you know…and OSU was a big part of that. They afforded me the opportunity to leave.
MH: This book is getting attention you don’t usually see for a first book and you never see for a first book of short stories. Supposedly, publishers don’t want short stories, nobody reads short stories. So, it’s really an extraordinary book. It’s gotten a full-page review in the Sunday New York Times, terrific reviews in the LA Times, a profile on the front page of the Wall Street Journal, which is a publication that never does profiles of writers. Entertainment Weekly did a profile and he’s getting compared to writers like Flannery O’Connor and Raymond Carver and Chuck Palahniuk. It’s heady stuff you know, I’m terribly proud of him.
DP: I mean I’ve only written one book. So, it’s flattering and I guess you have to, you know, when you’re describing somebody’s work you have to try to make some kind of comparisons, you know and I’m glad that they made those comparisons because those are some of my favorite writers, but I’ve still got a ways to go.
At 17, Donald Ray Pollock quit high school to work at a meat-packing plant. At 40, he enrolled in college, at Ohio University. At 45, he decided to try his hand at writing, committing to write for five years and see where it took him. At 50, he left the paper mill where he'd worked for 30 years to enter the Creative Writing MFA program at Ohio State.
Now, at 53, Pollock is a critically acclaimed author whose book of short stories, Knockemstiff, is getting attention from the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and National Public Radio, among other media; he's been compared to writers including Raymond Carver and Flannery O'Connor. The 18 stories in the book take place in Knockemstiff, Ohio, the southern holler where Pollock grew up. "Three stores, a bar, a church," Pollock says of the town. "I was probably related to half the people that lived there."
"Don, the shyest, most humble writer anyone will ever want to meet, is in the limelight in a big way," says Professor Michelle Herman, one of the founders of the 15-year-old Creative Writing program.
Pollock worked on the 18 stories in the book at Ohio State; he's now a Presidential Fellow, receiving a year-long stipend that allows him to work on his next book, a novel also set in southern Ohio.
"If someday, they put on my tombstone that I was a southern Ohio writer, I'd be really pleased with that," Pollock says. "I like living in southern Ohio. I don't really want to live anywhere else."
Pollock is the latest in a string of Creative Writing students and alumni who have published critically acclaimed books:
"We have some students who break out very quickly," Herman says.
The three-year MFA program is unique in that it fully funds each of the 12 to 15 students admitted each year, Herman says; it's also known for its collegial spirit.
"Our students are not only brilliant, but they have the distinction of being the most supportive group of students in any MFA program in the country. A success like Don's in most programs creates pleasure and a lot of envy and tension, and in this place, he's got nothing but a cheering section. Everyone understand that what's good for one of them is what's good for all of them, and they're just so happy for him."
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