Aspiring authors and poets are a niche that is often overlooked among the plethora of engineering students that account for the majority of NC State. This being said, creative writing is the most popular concentration for English majors here at NC State. Poetry is a skill that is difficult to pursue in today’s technological world. However, student writers will have the opportunity to learn from a well-established poet, right here on campus.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Stephen Dunn will be reading his poetry from a variety of his works on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. in Caldwell Lounge. This event is part of the Literary Reading Series, which is hosted by the English department’s creative writing program.

Dunn attended Hofstra University on a basketball scholarship and graduated with a degree in history in 1962. He then achieved his Master of Arts in creative writing from Syracuse University in 1970.

Dunn will soon be the author of 19 books once his next publication, “Where As,” hits the shelves in February 2017. Dunn credits his success as a poet to his teachers, along with an intense desire to read all the poetry he could — even by poets he had never heard of.

“I started late,” Dunn said.  “I had a corporate job in NY at 26. I didn’t want be any of those people in the office. I got married and went to Spain and wrote a very bad novel there, but it showed me I wanted to be a poet.”

Dunn was in minor shock when he was told one of his books of poetry, “Different Hours,” won a Pulitzer Prize. “Different Hours” was driven by the desire to accomplish as much as possible in his lifetime.

“It was a mortality book in many ways; I was 59, 60 years old,” Dunn said. “No man in my family had reached that age. I always thought if I made it to 60 it would be an accomplishment. A lot of the poems were preoccupied with living. I increasingly incorporated the theme of mortality. My parents died so young. I think by the time I was 35 I thought I had limited time. I’ve always been unconsciously driven by that.”

Dunn’s five-page, first official book, “Five Impersonations,” was published when he was 27 years old. After its publication, he continued to write. His next publication, “Looking for Holes in the Ceiling,” was published soon after. Dunn continued to sharpen his craft and had 17 more books of poetry published.

“Aspiring authors need to take themselves as seriously as other artists take themselves,” Dunn said. “A musician would practice every day; a dancer would make sure she was limber. Poets are one of the would-be artists that think because they sell things they are important. They need to read everything and take themselves seriously.”  

Dunn was originally inspired by the famous Robert Frost, but has been more recently influenced by American poet Theodore Roethke. Roethke’s writing style encompasses the theme of introspection and nature, along with strong rhythm and imagery. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1954 for his work, “The Waking.”

“I really think he’s been the poet I’ve always wanted to equal in some way,” Dunn said of Roethke. “He’s musical and funny, he’s generally considered not in the rank of Frost and Stevens but he’s close to that rank and for me he’s way up there.”

Dorianne Laux, poetry professor at NC State, chose to invite Dunn as this semester’s guest speaker for the creative writing department, as she admires Dunn’s writing style.

“Stephen Dunn is a poet of great surprise,” Laux said. “His poems are by turns audacious, darkly comic and exquisitely tender. One of my favorite lines from his Pulitzer Prize-winning book of poetry, ‘Different Hours,’ is this: ‘I’ve had it with all stingy-hearted sons of bitches / A heart is to be spent.’”

Laux received a bachelor’s degree in English from Mills College in 1988. Laux is a poet herself, known for her works “The Book of Men,” “Facts About the Moon” and “What We Carry.” Her work “Book of Men” won the Paterson Prize.

Laux also admires Dunn for the raw and uncensored way Dunn reads his poetry, as he fully immerses himself in his words.

“When Mr. Dunn reads his poems, he ‘spends his heart,’ giving us all of it, singing to us the plain and simple truths,” Laux said.