Creative Writing Department Names Delicia Daniels To Fill Poetry Position
Ada Lambert | May 4, 2023
Warren Wilson College (WWC) has made multiple hiring decisions for the next academic year. After learning that Luke Hankins, poetry professor, would be leaving the school, the creative writing department set out to find someone to fill his position.
Earlier in the semester, the poetry candidates visited WWC and engaged with faculty and students through a reading of their work along with a Q&A session. On April 20, the creative writing department announced that Delicia Daniels will fulfill the poetry position.
Daniels is a poet, essayist and biographer. She received her bachelor's degree in English from Dillard University and her M.F.A. in creative writing from Chicago State University.
Her poems most recently appeared in WarpLand, and Cream City Review. She is also involved with the Advisory Board for the African Americans in Texas Travel Booklet, and her publications appear in The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African-American Women Writers, FENCE, Callaloo and several other journals and anthologies.
In 2017, she published her poetry book called “The Language We Cry In.” That same year, she earned the discovery prize winner award from the Writer’s League of Texas.
Daniels has always loved poetry but it was not until university that she knew it was something she wanted to continue to pursue professionally.
“Writing has always been a part of my DNA,” Daniels said. “I grew up writing and reading books by Judy Blume, Louise Fitzhugh, Shel Silverstein and Mildred D. Taylor. Poetry became a primary factor for me as an undergraduate student at Dillard University. My mentor, Dr. Mona Lisa Saloy, the current Poet Laureate of Louisiana, read Lucille Clifton’s ‘My Mama moved among the days’ in class one day. The rhythm, content and epigrammatic style generated a burst of inspiration. I became hooked at that moment and began to pursue poetry as my primary genre.”
Daniels heard about the opening at WWC through the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP). This group provides community, opportunities, ideas, news and advocacy for writers and teachers of writing. There were many aspects of the job that influenced Daniels decision to take the position.
“I’m most attracted to Warren Wilson’s beautiful landscape and literary atmosphere,” Daniels said. “I am also enthusiastic about working with energetic and talented students, faculty and staff.”
As noted before, Daniels was invited to campus to do a reading for students and faculty and answer questions people had. This was an important part of the experience for her.
“My interview process was great,” Daniels said. “I had the opportunity to share my poetry with students and faculty members in the creative writing department. I also learned a great deal about the students’ literary interests and future goals during the Q&A session.”
For creative writing students, it is integral to have professors who are willing to cultivate excitement in the classroom. Sami Weinstein, WWC junior, is interested to see how Daniels will invigorate the program.
“I think in the past, we’ve had professors that were passionate about poetry but didn’t exactly inspire that passion towards students, so I think moving forward I’d love to see a poetry teacher who will help develop the students' voices in poetry and show them the diversity that poetry has to offer,” Weinstein said.
Another creative writing student, Hannah Peterson, also feels optimistic about Daniels joining the program.
“I always hope that a new professor brings in a new perspective,” Peterson said. “I love poetry and in recent years I found my classes boring and struggled to engage. I know that poetry isn’t everyone’s favorite thing, but I could tell that even those who enjoyed it were having difficulty. I hope the new professor can make it easier for students to engage with poetry and hopefully teach students that poetry can be fun.”
Daniels has recognized this shared desire amongst students and sees this as an opportunity for her to revitalize the courses.
“I’m excited to learn more about what motivates students to write,” Daniels said. “My goal is to bring more passion and purpose to poetry courses through my teaching and research areas which include Modern and Contemporary Poetry, Documentary Poetics, and Archives.”
This aspect of Daniels’ work will provide students with new approaches to their poetry and will broaden their perspectives on the topics that she has spent a lot of time researching.
As for the specifics of her research, Daniels recently created an archive for her work.
“I created a digital Freedom Activist Archive to establish a key aspect of African
American Culture currently underdeveloped in government archives by extending and
altering the way we engage the narratives of ‘runaway slaves,’” Daniels said. “The initial launch of the archive began with the transformation of an 1831 New Orleans antebellum newspaper
titled ‘The Bee.’ Twenty seven ‘runaways slave ads’ were collected in ‘The Bee’ to complete
this assessment. The Freedom Activist Archive has recently been posted to The University
of Louisiana’s Digital Exhibits website.”
For more information about Daniels research and her archive, please visit this page.