Dr. Michael Pickard ’04 is an associate professor of English and chair of the English Department at Millsaps College, and also serves as Eudora Welty Chair of Southern Literature.
What do you teach at Millsaps?
I have taught everything from our department’s gateway course on Interpretation to History of the Media and Reading and Writing Creative Nonfiction. But I most enjoy teaching courses in my areas of specialty: English Romanticism, poetry writing, and the work of our great Jackson writer, Eudora Welty.
Where are you from originally?
My father served as a United Methodist minister in Alabama, and I grew up in a handful of small towns like Selma, Plantersville, and Tallassee. These days I think of Jackson as my home. I have lived here longer than I have lived anywhere else, and I have come to feel connected to this place.
Where did you attend college?
I graduated from Millsaps with a B.A. in English in 2004. I completed an M.A. in Creative Writing at Boston University in 2005 and earned my Ph.D. from the University of Virginia in 2015.
What drew you back to teach at Millsaps?
My old teachers, some of whom I am now fortunate to call my colleagues. Tim and Cheryl Coker, David Davis, Laura Franey, Eric Griffin, Kathi Griffin, Anne MacMaster, Suzanne Marrs, Greg Miller, Iren Omo-Bare, Aleda Shirley, Austin Wilson: these and other Millsaps professors changed my life. The things they taught me and the interest they took in my ideas as well as in my growth both as a student and a person made all the difference. I am honored to pay that gift forward.
What do you love about the subject you teach?
First of all, I love words. Every one of them has its own story, and many of these stories are far more interesting than we might imagine. Religion, for example, comes from the same root as ligament; danger from the Latin dominus, which means “lord or master.” We get “thing” from a people history calls the Frisians, who used the word to mean a meeting place or assembly, where a community went to hash out matters of importance. But even more than words themselves I love the stories that we make out of them. Through reading these stories and talking about them with others, I can do many of the things (!) that Millsaps celebrates in its vision statement: I can learn more about human relationships than I could from the narrow circle of my own experience; I can develop empathy for others with whom, on the surface, I have little in common; I can experience deeper belonging to my place and time, in part because stories help me experience what it was like to belong to other places and times. Reading and discussing literature has given me insights that have helped me build my own career and fulfill my responsibilities as a citizen. It excites me that, through teaching literature, I can continue to learn.
What do you love about teaching at Millsaps?
I love teaching students who want to learn!
What inspires you?
Many things, but in this context: I am inspired by the power of this community, the Millsaps community, to change the lives of those who pursue their education here.
Do you have any special projects you’re working on or plan to work on soon?
I am co-writing a book called Eudora Welty and the House of Fiction, about the Eudora Welty House as a representation of Welty’s life and work. I am also co-editing a collection of essays by Mississippi writers, photographs by Mississippi photographers, and recipes by the Jackson chef and Top Chef Season 19 contestant Nick Wallace. We envision it as a book you can cook with, a book you can keep on your coffee table, and a book you can find fun and useful to read. With an intrepid group of Millsaps students, I am also working on projects in The Digital Welty Lab, a digital humanities initiative that enlists our students in an effort to imagine Welty’s digital future.
What do you do when you’re not teaching?
Right now: learning the ins and outs of parenting with our newborn daughter! But I also enjoy running, music, NBA basketball, and hanging out with friends.