Mischa Willett

Mischa Willett is an American poet[1] and essayist best known for his work in the poetic elegy[2] and for his academic championship of the Spasmodic poets.[3][4]

Mischa Willett
Born
Michael David Willett

1978
NationalityAmerican
Alma materWheaton College
OccupationAuthor
Websitewww.mischawillett.com

Biography

Willett was born in Phoenix, Arizona to a family associated with People's Church,[5] an offshoot of the Jesus movement. His childhood was spent moving around the west coast[5] before he attended Wheaton College (Illinois) where he studied under evangelical writers such as Leland Ryken and Alan Jacobs (academic).[6] There he attended his first poetry readings by poets such as Li-Young Lee, Dana Gioia, and Jeanne Murray Walker.[6]

After college, Willett moved to Flagstaff where he lived as a church sexton (office) while completing a Master of Arts degree from Northern Arizona University.[6]

He moved back to the Pacific Northwest to complete an Master of Fine Arts degree at University of Washington under the direction of Richard Kenney (poet) and Linda Bierds.[6] There, under the auspices of study abroad programs, he first began taking the trips to Rome that would become a recurrent feature in his poetry.[7]

Willett stayed at University of Washington for a Ph.D. focusing on Romanticism, during which time he first began to appreciate the Spasmodic poets.[6] While writing his dissertation, he spent a year as scholar-in-residence at University of Tübingen in Baden-Württemberg, where he gave a public poetry reading in the Hölderlinturm.[6] There, he began work on the impressions of Rainer Maria Rilke that would form his second book, The Elegy Beta.[8]

Willett is married to the choreographer Amber Willett.[9][10] They have two children.

Currently, Willett teaches on the English faculty at Seattle Pacific University.[11][12]

Academic career

Willett's published research[3] focuses mainly on British Romantic poets such as Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Spasmodic poets such as Alexander Smith, and Philip James Bailey.

Published Works

Poetry

Phases is a book of largely religious[13] poems that are often ironic or humorous.[14] It was listed among the "Best Books 2017" by the Washington Independent Review of Books.[15] The poems have been compared stylistically to the poems of Richard Wilbur and noted for their interest in Italian culture and classical civilizations.[16]

Willett's second book, The Elegy Beta is an extended meditation on angels as represented in The Duino Elegies by Rainer Maria Rilke.[17] It was the first poetry book published by Mockingbird Press[18] and was included among the ten best poetry books of 2020 by Relief Journal.[19] The book has been stylistically and thematically compared to the Metaphysical poets especially John Donne, and to John Berryman.[8]

Essays

As an essayist, Willett writes on culture and religion in venues such as The Gospel Coalition, Mere Orthodoxy, Cardus, The Curator, Front Porch Republic, and First Things.

Bibliography
  • Willett, Mischa. Phases. Eugene, Oregon: Cascade Books, 2017. Print. ISBN 978-1733716659
  • Willett, Mischa. The Elegy Beta: and Other Poems. Charlottesville, VA: Mockingbird Ministries, 2020. Print. ISBN 978-1532610356
  • Bailey, Philip James. Festus: An Epic Poem, edited by Mischa Willett, Edinburgh UP, 2021. Print. ISBN 978-1474457811

References
  1. Watson, Kathryn. "Virtue and Necessity of Mentorship". Christianity Today. Retrieved 8 May 2020. Willett is now an accomplished poet and is so at home on a college campus that he is a professor at Seattle Pacific University.
  2. Young, Glynn (2020). "Poets and Poems". Tweetspeak. Retrieved 10 May 2020. Poet Mischa Willett is exploring the elegy. More than that, he’s modernizing it.
  3. "Mischa Willett". Google Scholar. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
  4. Bocarde, Patrick (13 Nov 2017). "Talking Earth" (Radio). KBOO Portland. Retrieved 10 May 2020. Willett's specialty is nineteenth-century British Poetry of the Spasmodic School
  5. "My Box of 64: Episode 2 – Mischa Willett & the power of practice". Looking Closer with Jeffrey Overstreet. 2017-04-26. Retrieved 2020-07-21.
  6. "Bio". Mischa Willett. Retrieved 2020-07-21.
  7. "On Our Bookshelf". Mockingbird. Retrieved 8 July 2020. Poems playful, at times, epigrammatic, conscious of things Italian
  8. Rossi, Lee (2020). "Review of The Elegy Beta". Rain Taxi. 25 (2). Willett gives us a stripped-down Rilke for the 20th century; Throughout his career, Willett has evinced a taste for the English Metaphysical poets and...syntax reminiscent of John Berryman
  9. DeAngelis, Allison (Oct 6, 2016). "All New Ballet Score". Bellevue Reporter. Retrieved 8 July 2020. [Amber Willett is]...a fan of Shakespeare and married to an English literature professor
  10. Hardinia, Nichole (Aug 2018). "Willett Family: Happiest Here". Queen Anne Neighbors Magazine.
  11. "Faculty Profile". SPU Department of English and Cultural Studies. Retrieved 8 May 2020.
  12. Young, Glynn. "Poets and Poems: Mischa Willett and Phases". Tweetspeak Poetry. Retrieved 8 May 2020. Willett teaches English at Seattle Pacific University. He specializes in 19th century British poetry and also teaches Shakespeare, C.S. Lewis and the Inklings, and creative writing
  13. Minkoff, Michael (March 17, 2018). "Truth is Like Poetry". Relief: A Journal of Art and Faith. Retrieved 8 May 2020. He brings religion down from the clouds in poems like “The Help”
  14. Galbraith, Jeffrey (2017). Smith, Christopher (ed.). "Critical Distance on Modern Life". The Englewood Review of Books. 7: 26–27. Adept at engaging the reader with music and humor, keen to the ironies of modern culture
  15. Cavalieri, Grace. "October 2017 Exemplars". Washington Independent Review of Books. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  16. Rossi, Lee. "Mischa Willett's Phases". Pedestal Magazine (82). Retrieved 8 May 2020. The influence of Richard Wilbur, with his love of elegance and Italian culture, seems particularly strong
  17. Burrows, Mark. "Come Crack the Frozen". Mockingbird. Retrieved 8 May 2020. Willett’s poems improvise on the melodic themes and thematic movements found in Rilke’s Duino Elegies
  18. "Now Available: The Elegy Beta: And Other Poems, by Mischa Willett". Mockingbird. 2020-03-06. Retrieved 2020-07-21. Never before has Mockingbird published a book of poetry — but with “The Elegy Beta”, that changes.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  19. Danielsen, Aarik. "2020 in Poetry". Relief Journal. Retrieved 19 February 2021.
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