Mischa Willett is author of two books of poetry, including The Elegy Beta (2020) and Phases (2017) as well as of essays, translations, and reviews that appear in both popular and academic journals. A specialist in nineteenth century aesthetics, he teaches English at Arizona Christian University.
B.A. English Wheaton College
M.A. English Northern Arizona University
M.F.A. Creative Writing University of Washington
Ph.D. English University of Washington
More information can be found in the following places:
Interviews and Profiles
Any work that's taking chaos and ordering it is co-laboring with the Holy Spirit…
How can Christian artists perform their vocations in such a way that the practice strengthens their faith?
You speak of exploring the “pliability of formal structures in making verse.” Can you elaborate what you mean by this, perhaps again in light of your faith?
I had never met a professor, never met anyone who had a PhD. I had never called anyone doctor, apart from my doctor.
When Mischa Willett started college in the late ‘90s, he encountered an academic environment that was completely unfamiliar to him.
For poet and educator Mischa Willett, walking to work is the long held dream.
Audio
The earliest stirrings of a literary response were hearing my mother read King James Bible.
What about the poet? How do you perceive your work as serving God?
My problem was I could never slow down enough to get it and I became impatient.
It might help to have some commentary from the author.
Reviews
Willett whirs and waxes rhapsodic, yet never writes from disembodied fancy. He converses with what he classifies knowing that, if we’re lucky, our understanding falls within the margin of error.
These poems by Willett remind us that the elegy is a living poetic form, needed as much now as it ever was. Perhaps even more.
Unlike Rilke, Willet is not ultimately afraid of the perfection of angels. He can turn our morbid foreknowledge into Christian hope.
Precisely this “more” is what gives these poems their strong allure.
Is Willett a Christian writer, or someone who uses Christian tropes to explore his (sometimes) spiritual experience?
Phases proves that poetry can be clever without being condescending… and touching without being sentimental.
Phases is a wonderful book, filled with energy and thoughtfulness, resonant with the strenuous Christianity which still makes Hopkins and Donne pleasurable to read even in these post-Christian times.