Professor of English Joseph Heithaus.
AUSTIN CANDOR / THE DEPAUW
This week, The DePauw had the opportunity to sit down with English professor Joe Heithaus and learn a little bit more about him.
The DePauw(TDP): What do you specifically teach in the English department?
Joe Heithaus(JH): I’m kind of a hybrid in the English department because I have a Ph.D. in American literature and I have an MFA in creative writing. I teach literature, but for the most part I identify as a poet. I have mostly taught creative writing. This semester I’m teaching Reading as Writers and a poetics class.
TDP: What is your background?
JH: I was born in South Bend, Indiana. My father worked for General Motors, so I was what you’d call a “corporate brat.” We moved from South Bend to Cincinnati. That’s kind of my hometown. My parents grew up there; my siblings mostly grew up there. But since my dad was working his way up through the ranks of General Motors, we moved to Richmond, Virginia when I was in sixth grade. Then we moved to Syracuse, New York. I went to college at the State University of New York at Albany, and then I went and worked for a publishing house in New York City after college. And then I got into grad school at Indiana. So I circled all the way back to the state I was born in, which is kind of crazy, never thinking of Indiana as home.
TDP: How did you find DePauw?
JH: I kind of lucked out. We knew Professor Kingsley. My wife worked with Professor Kingsley’s daughter and I think that’s the first time I’d heard of DePauw. My wife was like, “Well you should go get a job at DePauw.” DePauw needed a fill. I was only supposed to be here for one year. I seemed to be a good fit, so then I was given a three-year term position, and that eventually turned into a tenure-track position.
TDP: What do you enjoy most about your job, especially teaching?
JH: I love getting people to think about the world. I know that’s kind of vague. A big part of teaching creative writing is getting people to think, to observe the world around them… just taking it in with all of our senses. The cool thing about the world is that we like to think we know a lot about it, and we don’t know much at all.
TDP: Do you have a favorite type of literature that you like to go back to and reference?
JH: Well, my dissertation was on contemporary American poetry…but I love classics of American literature, that’s for sure: Whitman, Dickinson. I feel really lucky that we [DePauw] are always being challenged with new stuff.
TDP: Is there a book you’re reading right now?
JH: In one of my classes, we’re reading “We Live in Water” by Jess Walters, who is the author coming to DePauw on Wednesday. I’m always reading something, man.
TDP: What would you say to a student who doesn’t read? What is he missing out on?
JH: Lighting strikes for different people at different times. I won’t say I wasn’t a reader in high school, but I wasn’t somebody who was always reading. I was playing sports. But when I got to college, I got around readers, which helped tremendously. I can remember reading Tony Morrison’s “The Song of Solomon” and I can remember staying up all night reading it, and I didn’t have to. I was reading ahead because I couldn’t put the book down. And certain of those books sort of lit that fire.
TDP: What is your opinion of people wanting to ban books? Do you think it’s right?
JH: Oh, no. I remember reading “Catcher in the Rye.” We had to have our parents sign a piece of paper that let us read it and my neighbor’s parents wouldn’t sign the piece of paper. I remember, as a junior in high school, being absolutely angry at those people. I just thought it was heinous. They were really nice neighbors, but I remember they went way down a notch in terms of my respect for them. The world is there for you to take in, especially as a college student. Nothing should be banned from you. You should be reading however you can and learning whatever you can.