Student Spotlight: Rick White
In Episode 53 of Confluence, Bertha Morton winner, Rick White, shares about the importance of hard work and his journey from environmental studies to writing in a cabin in the woods in Montana, and finally, to attending the M.F.A. Creative Writing program at 老虎机攻略.
Story Transcript
JUDY BLUNT: He embodies that hardworking, frugal living, attention to academics and scholastics – he’s a scholar. And so, he is focused and dedicated and absolutely deserving of support.
ASHBY KINCH: You just heard the voice of Judy Blunt, professor of creative writing, talking about her student, Rick White, one of the Bertha Morton Graduate student scholarship winners for 2021-22.
Welcome to Confluence, where great ideas flow together – the podcast of the graduate school of the 老虎机攻略. I'm Ashby Kinch, associate dean of the graduate school. This episode of Confluence is part of a series recognizing the achievements of some of our outstanding graduate students. Named for a great Montanan who dedicated her life to public service, the Bertha Morton award was endowed to support graduate education by recognizing the distinctive contributions our graduate students make in research, creative activity, and public service. Rick’s natural talent as a writer combined with his commitment and work ethic make him a top candidate for the Bertha Morton award. His creative drive and dedication to the craft of writing landed him a nomination for Best American Essays for his essay “Mister” – an exceptional feat for a writer at this stage of his career. We're proud to share his graduate journey with listeners. Enjoy the float.
KINCH: Thanks for joining us, Rick.
RICK WHITE: Hey, thank you.
KINCH: Congratulations on winning the Bertha Morton. It's a top honor, obviously, at the graduate school. Tell us what it means to you to have won this award.
WHITE: Well, I mean, first of all, it's just a huge honor to be even nominated for my department in creative writing, but then selected. To be in conversation with people like Sam Dunnington and Emily Collins – the other winners from the creative writing department is, it's an incredible honor. One I wasn't expecting, but am super grateful for.
KINCH: Is there some tie to the Bertha Morton story itself that led you to apply, or that is part of, kind of how you're thinking about the pride of winning the award?
WHITE: Yeah. I spoke with my advisor, Judy Blunt, as the deadline for application was coming up and we talked about Bertha Morton and some of her interests and beliefs. Yeah, she was just a really fascinating person it seems like to me – not having met her but just reading her story. She has, had tremendous work ethic and commitment. She was very frugal and very committed to her, to her work. And she wanted to pass some of those, some of her hard earned, I guess, money and savings and pay it forward, I guess.
KINCH: So how did you end up coming to Montana? What was your connection?
WHITE: You know, I came back in 2008 for the environmental studies program. The master's program here. I was coming from Denver. Well, I was coming from Arkansas by way of Denver and had a great time in the environmental studies program here. I got a tremendous education. out on the PEAS farm. I was a caretaker there and a teaching assistant. I went back to teach middle school in Denver after graduating, ended up going back to Arkansas to be closer to family. And, in 2016, moved to Lepanto, Arkansas, which is a really small town where my grandparents are from to help be a primary caretaker for my grandfather. And that, that was kind of the launching point towards my latest creative endeavor in creative writing – writing that story about my grandfather and that year that I spent with him.
KINCH: And that's, story that culminated in this publication, “Mister”?
WHITE: Somewhat, yeah. I came back to Montana in 2017 after that year with my grandfather to write that memoir – spent two years working on it in a, you know, the classic Montana cabin on a river in Twin Bridges, Montana. Revised that work, let's see, eight or 10 times and then…
KINCH: Only eight or 10?
WHITE: Only eight or 10 times – full reads. Had a wonderful group of friends and former mentors who read drafts of it and gave feedback. And then I just realized at a certain point in 2019 that it was time to be back in a creative community. So, moved back to Missoula, and I went down to Denver to a conference called Lit Fest. And that's where I actually wrote in a generative workshop. I was trying it out to see if it might be – if graduate school might be something for me. So, it was a short, compressed five-day workshop. And, in that workshop is where I wrote that essay that eventually got published in High Desert Journal and then nominated for Best American Essays this year.
KINCH: Yeah. And it's that kind of a story about writing – its layers and its detours and its redirections. It's common, right? It's rare, in fact, to have a, you know, just came out of my head perfect the first time and off it went. And that's kind of an important story I think we need to tell publicly about just the labor involved with building up your craft.
WHITE: Yeah, it's a really, I don't, I don't know very many comparisons to this type of work in the modern workforce. It's just, it, it's almost archaic in how long it takes and how much effort it takes and the pace at which publication works. I'm not even to a point where I have a book deal or anything like that, but that takes, that will be another couple of years when I get to that point. So…
KINCH: Yeah.
WHITE: Yeah. I think Annie Dillard was the one who said, books take anywhere from two to 10 years to write, but they average between five and seven. And I think that's pretty true in my case.
[5:59] KINCH: Yeah. And, of course, there's the famous Texas writer, Larry King, wrote, none but a blockhead ever wrote for anything but money.
WHITE: Right.
KINCH: You know, that's one of the problems is that, you know, we know for sure that if we're, if we’re only doing it for money, we're not, we're not in the right game. But, you know, to stay afloat, you got to find it somehow, you got to find an outlet, a venue, you got to find compensation. You got to, I mean, you referred to it as an archaic workforce. I think that's exactly right.
WHITE: You also have to find community, and I feel like I'm fortunate to have a lot of creative friends and other, you know, documentary filmmakers and journalists. But also, writers at different stages in their careers that I've become friends with or have studied under. Yeah, just to have that support network is really key because it's full of – it’s an endeavor full of self-doubt and lots of ups and downs and emotional roller coasters for sure. So, yeah, I think being in the creative writing department here and in this community has been a tremendous next step. I've really accelerated in my study, in my approach to writing and then just having the community of people who are committed to the same endeavor, you know, other people who are writing tremendous stories – fiction, nonfiction, poetry. It's just an incredible program and has such a legacy here on this campus. You see why it's, you know, a program of national recognition.
KINCH: Yeah, it's funny you're mentioning this because there's two sides to that community, right? One is the support of common endeavor, you know, and especially on failure, sort of on the low end when you're feeling low, you need that. But then on the other end, is the inspiration, is the people that are, you know, performing at such a high level that it kind of, you know, pulls you forward a little bit, you know? So, it kind of works on both sides.
WHITE: Absolutely, yeah.
KINCH: You mentioned having done the master's in environmental studies, which of course has a strong writing component as well, and I'm kind of eager to hear you talk a little bit about that constellation of interests that brought you into the non-fiction branch of the creative writing program. So, you know, for listeners, you know, that we have a poetry branch and a fiction branch, we have this creative non-fiction branch as well. So, talk a little bit about that space that you're carving out for yourself as a writer in that space.
WHITE: Yeah, absolutely. I was drawn to the environmental studies program because of its interdisciplinary nature. You know, I had some experience as an undergrad working on sustainable organic farms as an intern. So, I loved that program. I love the non-fiction writing as well that they, they're kind of committed to environmental writing – also nonprofit management. Tremendous training in that. So I, that's what I was looking for when I was, let's see, I was 25 when I started that program. So yeah, I got this really diverse, interdisciplinary degree and training in environmental studies that, you know, isn't keeping with my – I'm just a dabbler and have been since I was young, and I've always kind of wandered, and I feel like environmental studies encouraged that and supported me and showed me that that was a valuable path to take in the world. And, I've taken a circuitous route back to 老虎机攻略 and into the creative writing program. And they're only furthering that education and that support. So…
KINCH: Yeah. So yeah, I mean, so that non-fiction track within the creative writing program kind of compliments that degree in that work you did there, but here with a more of a focus on craft and, and the writing craft itself.
WHITE: Yeah, absolutely. It's just a much more concentrated focus, and it's also given me access to the literature department and some really, really fantastic professors.
KINCH: Well, tell us a little bit more about kind of what the path beyond the degree is. What's next for you?
WHITE: I love teaching. I spent four years teaching middle school and high school in Denver. Have kind of wanted to bump that up and teach college. I'll be a teaching assistant next year. We'll see what the opportunities are in higher education after, you know, in a year, year and a half – whenever I finish up. But I would love to get back into teaching or continue that even if it's just in like summer workshop capacity or something alternative like that. But yeah, working in the publishing industry, writing would be, would be great, but we'll see. I think if I've learned anything, it's just – in this program especially, but in environmental studies and in life in general – just do good work, keep your head down and be good to people and the opportunities will kind of open up.
KINCH: Thank you so much for coming to join us, Rick.
WHITE: Hey, thank you, Ashby. I appreciate it.
KINCH: If you enjoyed this episode of Confluence, subscribe to our podcast feed at Apple, Google, Spotify, or Stitcher. Make sure to rate and review to support our enterprise of bringing you the voices of graduate education at the 老虎机攻略! See you on the next float.