Humanities 1 and Creative Writing teacher Bobby Elliott’s poetry book, The Same Man, was released September 9th. Written over the span of 10 years, the anthology centers around Elliott’s relationship with his father and his experience becoming one to his first son, Jamie. He received the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize for his work early last year, which carries a $5,000 award and publication by the University of Pittsburgh Press.
The book is separated into three sections, beginning with Elliott’s anticipation of Jamie’s birth, moving back to Elliott’s childhood and memories of his father and finally exploring the collision of those two subjects together.
“They are tough poems,” Elliott said. “They are poems that deal, when it comes to my father, with some of the most difficult parts of my growing up and being his son and most difficult parts of being his son as an adult.”
Elliott’s father has been a recurring figure in his writing. However, their relationship is difficult to put to paper as he was made to feel responsible for his father’s mental health and wellbeing as a child.
“The poems are an attempt to finally acknowledge both a deep-seeded love but also a deep-seeded sense that our relationship is a troubled one,” said Elliott.
Elliott chooses to write poems about this relationship because it is his way of expressing his longing for communication with his father. In contrast, the poems about Jamie are more lighthearted.
Finding time to write isn’t always easy for Elliott. With two young children and a full-time job he often finds himself at his desk early in the morning with a cup of tea and only 15 minutes to fix a line or start a poem. Not too long after, Jamie is running down the hall.
“And usually that’s enough between the early morning and those kind of stealing moments, to generate the work that I need to generate,” said Elliott.
When Elliott won the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize one of his favorite poems surprised him with the news.
“Nate Marshall is someone that I’ve read forever since he won the same prize 10 years ago,” said Elliott. “And I had never talked to him on the phone. He just called me out of the blue, and I remember getting the voicemail and just said, ‘Hey, Bobby, this is Nate Marshall, call me back,’ when I called him back and he told me the good news. My heart had never raced so fast.”
The University of Pittsburgh press tends to get hundreds of submissions each year, and the past winners like Marshall often judge the competition in later years.
“I was astonished when I got the call,” said Elliott. “Obviously, I had a level of belief in the work to send it out in the first place, but as you know now, the odds of actually winning something like this are really minor.”
The cover of The Same Man displays an ocean and two shadows hovering over the water looking into it. When choosing the cover Elliott didn’t necessarily have a specific idea for what he wanted. He did know he wanted the ocean to be a key component, alongside the theme of father-son bonds.
“One reading of the cover is that it’s a shadowed version of me and Jamie,” said Elliott. “Then another reading of the cover is that it’s a shadowed version of me as a child and my father and because the poems intertwine the relationship between me and my father and me and my son.”
Elliott says his co-workers have been supportive and compassionate in his writing journey.
“He’s a talented teacher, workshop leader and artist,” said Kyle Wiggins Humanities 3 and chair of Humanities department. “And he’s an upstanding person. I couldn’t ask for a better person to represent our department or NWA.”
From the beginning of this process all the way to the final touches Elliott has put immense time and effort into the development of his book.
“The message of the book is, is, about, kind of, extraordinary, gift and responsibility of fatherhood,” said Elliott.
