Professor’s passion for writing helps others
From lawyer to English professor, Michael Sowder helps students and the community by sharing his passion for creativity.
Sowder, assistant professor in English, said the job he truly enjoys is teaching.
“I spent seven years with a career I didn’t feel as my home,” Sowder said. “I feel immensely grateful to have a job I love.”
After earning his bachelor’s degree in English, Sowder said he debated if he should continue his education earning a master’s degree or attend law school.
He chose law school at Washington State University.
“I pretty much knew my first year it wasn’t a good thing for me,” he said. “But I had gotten a good scholarship and moved across the country, and I just didn’t want to quit, so I worked hard.”
Sowder said he started corking for a court judge in Atlanta. He then worked several years as a lawyer.
“The life of the lawyer seemed superficial for me,” he said. “Most lawyers just work for the money and don’t love their job that much.
“I felt like poetry was calling me back and I finally just gave in,” Sowder said.
While in Atlanta, he became friends and started writing with poet David Bottoms.
Later, Sowder earned his master’s of fine arts at Georgia State University and then continued his education to receive his doctorate at the University of Michigan, where he met his future wife, and USU professor, Jennifer Sinor.
Sowder said they both went on the job market, he placed a job at Idaho State University and Sinor was hired at USU.
Last year, he received a job offer from USU and accepted it, he said. He started teaching a poetry class this summer and this fall he became
full-time.
Lacey Carlson, a senior majoring in English, enrolled in a poetry writing workshop from Sowder this summer.
“Professor Sowder’s class helped me find a different style of creativity that I had never used or realized I had,” she said. “His excitement and energy in his teaching really helped me want to write excellent poems. He helped me make sense of my writing.”
Sowder said while he has been at USU the faculty and students “have been great.”
All of his classes have been creative and fun to work with, he said.
Karin Memmott, a junior majoring in English, is currently in Sowder’s class.
You can see Sowder’s enthusiasm in class, she said.
“He’s a great teacher,” Memmott said. “Other [students’] opinions matter in his classroom, it’s not just about him.”
She said when he graded her paper he explained his decision in detail. He also made suggestions and asked questions to understand the students, she said.
“He’s encouraging and positive,” Memmott said. “He’s helped me be a better writer.”
While at ISU, Sowder said he was a faculty adviser for the student magazine Black Rock and Sage. He helped start it three years ago.
He said he loved and felt part of the community in Pocatello, Idaho and it wasn’t an easy decision to accept the job offer at USU.
“It’s a big community of writers there,” he said. “Young students who are punk and disaffected, everyone wants to be a writer.”
Sowder shares his talents off campus, too.
“Because I feel so grateful and fortunate to have this job and career that I really love, I wanted to give something back to the community,” Sowder said.
The Pocatello Women’s Correctional center was where Sowder started volunteering. His first year he taught a weekly creative writing class, which soon became a monthly class as graduate students and other faculty became involved with the program, he said.
Sowder said he found a program similar in Cache Valley that offers two classes, one for men and one for women, at the Cache County jail. He volunteers there.
“It’s amazing how much powerful writing gets done in these prison classes,” he said. “Most of the people who are there have pretty dramatic stories to share.”
Sowder said writing is a healing process for many who attend those classes. Abuse, drugs, left-behind children and many more stories are shared in their writings, he said.
“I am very lucky to participate in that kind of a class,” he said. “It’s a bit draining to go in every week because it’s a depressing atmosphere, [but] it’s very rewarding.”
He is hoping faculty and graduate students will soon participate in the volunteer work at the prison, he said.
Sowder said he is now working on translating Ecuadorian poetry.
After going to Ecuador a few years ago he met with a poet and a history professor, he said. Now, he is applying for a faculty research grant hoping to translate more Ecuadorian poetry, Sowder said.
“I love the classical world,” he said. “I’m a real fan of history.”
Sowder and his wife live in a 100-year-old Victorian house in Preston.
“It was built by Ezra Taft Benson’s grandfather,” he said. “[I like] working on the house and out in the yard.”
He said a few years ago he was able to visit Italy. Because of the history of Rome he enjoyed that trip, Sowder said.
“It was a dream come true,” he said. “Going to Rome somehow changed me as a person.”
This current semester Sowder is teaching English 2010, 2160 and 3030.
“I feel that I teach writing best,” Sowder said. “Poetry writing is my favorite thing to teach.
“I’m primarily a nature poet and nature writer,” he said. “It’s harder for students to talk about nature writing ’cause it’s often one individual in the nature world, but it’s close to my heart.”
Sowder said he also enjoys the nature itself. He loves Cache Valley because of the outdoor activities and being close to national parks.
This past summer Sowder and his puppy, Krishna, hiked and read classical Chinese poetry in the mountains, he said.
-srkrebs@cc.usu.edu