Brian Culhane: A Poet with Patience

Brian Culhane (Ph.D., ‘93) remembers writing his first poem at age 19 on a long subway ride in New York City.

	Brian Culhane

“It was inspired by—what else?—falling in love,” recalls Culhane. “I had just left my girlfriend’s house and I began scribbling wildly.”

More than 30 years later, Culhane is still writing poetry, although now his inspiration tends toward history and literature rather than his inamorata.

Through the years, Culhane’s poetry has been published sporadically in literary journals. Now a collection will be published as a book by Graywolf Press, thanks to a prestigious award from The Poetry Foundation. The Emily Dickinson First Book Award—one of the Foundation’s three annual Pegasus Awards—recognizes an American poet over the age of 50 who has yet to publish a first book of poetry. The award includes publication of Culhane’s winning manuscript and a $10,000 prize. Just weeks after receiving that award, Culhane also received a Fellowship in Literature from the Washington State Artist Trust.

It took years for Culhane to prepare enough material for a book. He writes just a handful of poems each year, some of them quite lengthy. When he is not writing, he is teaching English at Seattle’s Lakeside School, where he has worked since receiving his Ph.D. in English from the UW in 1993.

When Culhane arrived at the UW, it was his first time living away from New York. “I had a very poor grasp of where Seattle was,” he admits. Once he got his bearings, Culhane felt right at home. “I had these wonderful teachers,” he recalls, mentioning dissertation adviser Hazard Adams by name. “I took everything they offered, helter skelter. I was a generalist at a time when generalists were not common, because it was difficult to get a job as a generalist. I would say that, intellectually, my time at the UW has been my peak experience due to the energy and excitement of the school.”

In addition to English courses, Culhane took Latin at the UW. Both disciplines are evident in his writing. The title of his book, The King’s Question (scheduled for publication in October 2008), “refers to an anecdote I read in Herodotus about a king,” explains Culhane. “Glossarium,” a 12-page poem to be included in the book, concerns medieval glossing—the explanatory notes in medieval texts.

These themes may be far from Culhane’s scribblings as a lovestruck teen on a subway, but his desire to explore thoughts through poetry has remained. This proves, he says, that poet W. H. Auden was right.

“W. H. Auden said that everybody is a poet at age 19,” explains Culhane. “But if you’re still a poet at age 26, it’s likely to last."

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