Alec Marsh
Education
- Ph.D., Rutgers University
- M.A., Rutgers University
- B.A., Bennington College
Teaching Interests
American literature is my thing, 20th Century American poetry is my field. However, my teaching interests are broad. As well as teaching 19th and 20th Century American literature (both poetry and prose) I have taught African-American literature. I teach courses on “The Odyssey” and on the tragic theatre from Athens through today and I enjoy teaching first year seminars. One of my primary goals is to help all my students become the best writers they can be and that includes creative writing.
Research and Scholarship
I have advised and tutored many, many, senior theses, mostly on 20th Century American poetry.
I am an active Ezra Pound scholar having written several books on the problematic poet, as well as his friends and antagonists William Carlos Williams and Hilda Doolittle (H.D.) I am an active reviewer of books on poetry. The senior seminars I have taught (Pound, Williams and H.D., Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes), the plays of W.B. Yeats, the political evolution of Adrienne Rich and on the African-American poet Jay Wright, reflect a broad interest in poetry, history and politics. I write poetry and follow baseball pretty closely.
- English Independent Study/Research: William Carlos Williams
- FYS: On Monsters
- Irish Literature
- Modern Poetry
- Reading the Odyssey
- Special Topic: Reading The Great American Short Story
- The Tragic Action
- Ezra Pound's Washington Cantos and the Struggle for Light (at press, Bloomsbury)
- Sheri Martinelli: The White Goddess, The Edinburgh Companion to Ezra Pound and the Arts (Edinburgh 2019).
- William Carlos Williams and the prose of Pure Experience, Cambridge Companion to William Carlos Williams (Cambridge 2016).
- John Kasper and Ezra Pound: Saving the Republic (Bloomsbury 2015).
- Ezra Pound (Critical Lives) (Biography) Reaktion Books 2011.
- Numerous articles on Pound, William Carlos Williams.
- Radio interviews with visiting writers on WMUH including Marina Carr, Phil Klay, Terrance Hayes, Chris Ware, Jonathan Franzen, Peter Carey, etc.
- Class of '32, Hoffman Award
- Williams Award (for scholarship)
- Lindback Award (for teaching)
- Donald B. Hoffman Research Fellowship, 2022
- Outstanding Advisor Award for first-year students
- Many Senior Honors theses through the years
English Literatures & Writing
Contact: alecmarsh@muhlenberg.edu