This morning when I came into work, my friend Matt told me that David Citino passed away yesterday. David was an English professor and the Poet Laureate of the University. I first met him about three years ago when I taped him reading a poem that he wrote for one of our biology classes. I told him that although I was working for the sciences, I had a mostly creative writing background. He invited me to take his summer poetry class that he referred to as his "poetry cult."
The cult turned out to be three weeks of intense three hour workshop classes everyday. The cult also turned out to be one of the best classes I've taken at OSU* and the reason for that was entirely related to the fact that David was an awesome teacher — warm, encouraging, but also very truthful.
I feel very fortunate to have known him.
*the other "best class I've taken" is Design Research 786 — in case you were wondering.
Comments