Erin Murphy (right), Blair County’s first poet laureate and professor at Penn State Altoona, works with student Rose Ried, an English major from Frederick, Md.

Ever since she read the biography of Louisa May Alcott in second grade, Erin Murphy wanted to be a writer.

Today, she is living her dream as an English professor, author of nine poetry books, co-editor of three anthologies and Blair County’s first poet laureate.

Murphy said Alcott’s biography was the first long book she read and “I fell in love with the idea of being a writer.”

The Richmond, Virginia, native now teaches at Penn State Altoona and admits her life “is a dream come true.”

Writing in all its forms has been woven throughout her life, she said.

She majored in English, with a minor in philosophy, at Washington College in Elkton, Maryland, choosing the college for its strong creative writing program and its location on the Eastern Shore.

“It was a beautiful classic liberal arts campus,” Murphy said.

She received a fellowship to attend graduate school at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she worked with Pulitzer Prize winner James Tate, who was her thesis adviser.

She snagged her first job working for the Cecil Whig newspaper in Elkton, where she was a copy editor, “wrote a lot of obits” and worked her way up to news editor from 1993-96.

“I loved that job,” she said, noting that the experience of working in journalism helped her with poetry writing.

“I was able to write drafts more effectively, I was the queen of headlines,” Murphy said.

She then moved on to serve as executive director of the Cecil County Arts Council, a nonprofit that she helmed for seven years.

“Our main goal was to present and promote arts in underserved areas. I also had lots of administrative tasks poets don’t do,” she explained.

After a 2002 trip to London with her husband, Richard DeProspo, who was teaching at the University of London, Murphy decided she wanted to get into teaching.

When they returned home, she realized her time was being spent promoting others and very little time was left for her own writing. Plus, she missed teaching.

She applied for a full-time teaching job at Penn State Altoona, admitting “there aren’t many jobs teaching poetry.”

She was invited for an interview and fell in love with the campus and the area, she said.

She was offered a position in 2005 and now teaches poetry, creative nonfiction, creative writing and a literary magazine editing class.

Her official title is “Professor of English,” she said, but she also holds administrative positions.

Since 2012, Murphy has served as the promotion and tenure coordinator for the Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs and coordinator of the English degree program.

She received early tenure in 2010.

“It takes six years to get tenure. I was the first woman to get early tenure, that made me very proud,” Murphy said.

Writing style

Murphy said she writes about everything from personal experiences to current events and documentary poems.

If she isn’t writing, she is thinking about writing.

“I can be driving and thinking about ideas or while swimming at the YMCA. It is a constant process,” Murphy said. “Most of my writing can be when I am not actually writing, when not putting the pen to paper.”

Creating just one poem can take years, Murphy said, explaining she doesn’t necessarily work on it every day and sometimes has to put it away and come back with a fresh eye months later.

Murphy is given credit for founding the demi-sonnet, a poetic form that includes seven lines of varying length and that tends to be aphoristic in nature. Each poem ends with an internal full or slant rhyme.

“People around the country contacted me about it,” she said, adding it “has been very rewarding that others are trying it out.”

Asked if she has a favorite work, Murphy said she loves them all.

She has written hundreds of poems over the years and said some seem to connect with readers.

“Debriefing: A Poem in Parts,” written in 2013, won the Normal School Poetry Prize. Another, the “Internet of Things,” earned her the 2002 Rattle Poetry Prize Readers Choice Award and a $5,000 grant.

However, she believes she is best known for the essay “White Lies,” which has been published in numerous anthologies.

“It is taught in high schools and colleges,” she said.

Finding connections

While she has received a number of awards and prizes, Murphy said she doesn’t write to win.

“Prizes are wonderful to win, but I don’t write for prizes,” she said. “I tell students you shouldn’t dwell on rejection and should dwell on success, the important thing is to keep writing.”

Making a connection with people is also important, she said.

“Finding the human connection is the foundation of my life and work,” Murphy said. “During the pandemic, I really missed the connection you have with people in the community. It made me realize how important they were to me personally and my work.”

Murphy said she was honored about being named Blair County’s first poet laureate — an unpaid post with the mission of promoting the reading, writing and appreciation of poetry among the general public.

“Erin is a delightful woman, beautiful inside and out, who can make people who are not ‘into poetry’ find ways to learn about, appreciate and even create it,” said Donna Gority, ArtsAltoona president.

“For me, reading poetry and writing poetry is not about turning everyone into a poet, it makes us slow down and look more closely at our world,” said Murphy, who was inducted into the Blair County Arts Hall of Fame in 2015 and honored by the WISE Women of Blair County in 2010.

She calls Tate, her thesis advisor, and Lori Bechtel Wherry, former Penn State Altoona chancellor, her role models and mentors.

“Lori Bechtel-Wherry has been my role model in leadership. She was the first woman promoted to ‘full’ professor and the first female chancellor at Penn State Altoona,” Murphy said. “For her, leadership is about people, not just policies, and this has been a guiding principle for me.”

Bechtel-Wherry said Murphy is an accomplished academic in her own right.

She “serves her students, the English Department, the Division of Arts and Humanities, our college, and our community with grace and aplomb,” Bechtel-Wherry said.

“Erin looks for creative ways to engage our campus community and local community in supporting and engaging in creative activities,” she said, adding that Murphy is dedicated to her students, creative works, colleagues, college and profession.

“She provides stellar leadership and works well with others,” Bechtel-Wherry said. “Erin goes out of her way to help her students and to ensure their success.”

Murphy said she loves the Penn State and Blair County communities.

“I plan to stay here as long as I can,” she said.

Mirror Staff Writer Walt Frank is at 814-946-7467.