"it's a joyful thing for me": Checking in with Whiting Award Winner Shane McCrae

Poet Shane McCrae, who recently won a Whiting Award for his book Mule checked in with the Press-Citizen to talk, among other things, about the award's positive impact on his life.

Shane McCrae received the phone call of a lifetime last month.

While in class at the University of Iowa, where he is earning his Ph.D. in English, his phone rang. He figured it was one of his three kids, so he didn’t think much of it. But when he looked at his phone, he noticed it was a number he didn’t recognize.

“I usually let it go to voicemail, but for some reason, I checked the message and it was the president of the Whiting Writers’ Foundation,” he said. “I went back into class, grabbed my backpack and called him back. I was in shock.”

Then, on the award's impact:

McCrae, 36, said the award came at a good time, when worries about money have been more plentiful than ideas for new poetry works.

“My wife and I really do have a lot of money worries, so it helps us be less anxious and gives me more space to think instead of thinking about money,” the Austin, Texas, native and Iowa Writers’ Workshop alum said.

McCrae’s debut work, “Mule,” focuses on topics of marriage, divorce, having an autistic child, race relations, family and God — all things he said he has struggled with. The thrust of his next work is based more on historical events than his own experiences, he said, but the foundation is the same: It comes from a man who finds his home in poetry.

“I don’t feel I could do anything else. I have to do it,” he said. “It’s not a chore, it’s a joyful thing for me, but I can’t imagine not doing it. ... Poetry has become an essential part of my being.”