{"id":9164,"date":"2023-03-02T09:14:45","date_gmt":"2023-03-02T15:14:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin-new\/?post_type=campus_story&p=9164"},"modified":"2023-03-02T09:14:45","modified_gmt":"2023-03-02T15:14:45","slug":"uw-whitewaters-nicholas-gulig-wants-to-share-his-love-of-literature-after-being-named-new-state-poet-laureate-of-wisconsin","status":"publish","type":"campus_story","link":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/story\/uw-whitewaters-nicholas-gulig-wants-to-share-his-love-of-literature-after-being-named-new-state-poet-laureate-of-wisconsin\/","title":{"rendered":"UW-Whitewater\u2019s Nicholas Gulig wants to share his love of literature after being named new State Poet Laureate of Wisconsin"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>
Wisconsin Poet Laureate Nick Gulig, left, leads a discussion with an advanced writing class on Monday, Jan. 23, 2023. (UW-Whitewater Photos\/Craig Schreiner)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As a child, Nicholas Gulig gained a deep love of poetry through a variety of pivotal experiences. In the years since, he has aspired to share his passion and wants to further the mission as he settles into a new honorary role.<\/p>\n

Gulig, an associate professor of\u00a0languages and literatures<\/a>\u00a0at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, was recently named to the new two-year term of\u00a0State Poet Laureate of Wisconsin<\/a>\u00a0by a panel overseeing it.<\/p>\n

The Wisconsin Poet Laureate Commission cited several reasons for Gulig\u2019s appointment to the leadership position, including his demonstrated commitment to promoting and advancing the importance of literature \u2014 most notably, through poetry.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things that I want to do is be as available as humanly possible to the needs of the people, the communities and the organizations that are supporting poetry in Wisconsin,\u201d said Gulig, who joined the UW-Whitewater faculty in 2016. \u201cWhatever they need \u2014 if I am able to help them continue to do what they\u2019re doing \u2014 I\u2019ll work to help increase their visibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>
Nick Gulig, associate professor of Languages and Literatures, is Wisconsin Poet Laureate. Gulig is shown on the first day of the 2023 spring semester with his advanced writing students, on Monday, Jan. 23, 2023. (UW-Whitewater Photos\/Craig Schreiner)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As the State Poet Laureate, Gulig will serve as an ambassador of sorts for the literary craft, while simultaneously undertaking a project that will be completed by the end of 2024. He will give talks at various seminars, workshops and similar venues throughout Wisconsin.<\/p>\n

The position, Gulig said, offers a degree of flexibility to suit each laureate\u2019s professional background and personal approach to the role. As he looks to the next two years, Gulig said he aspires to fill some of the gaps he experienced as a child and create a collective sense of community.<\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up feeling like there was no support for people who were interested in, and were doing the things that I did as a kid and young adult here in Wisconsin,\u201d Gulig said. \u201cI was wrong about that because there are all of these pockets of people that are taking time out of their day and out of their schedules to provide these platforms and spaces for poets to flourish and be recognized.\u201d<\/p>\n

He is still fleshing out the granular details, but Gulig said his goal for the culminating laureate project is to assemble a document or book, outlining how Wisconsin has supported the arts \u2014and, more specifically, poetry.<\/p>\n

Gulig credits his parents for instilling within him an appreciation for the arts. As a young child, his dad made it a point to read him poetry-filled bedtime stories. As he grew older, Gulig looked to books as a leisure activity.<\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up with books as a form of entertainment,\u201d Gulig said. \u201cThe thing I looked forward to wasn\u2019t playing video games or turning on the television \u2014 it was going to the library and getting books. My house was filled with books. My love of poetry came from a love for reading.\u201d<\/p>\n

Music also played a pivotal role in shaping his love of the written word through a poetic form.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re not only thinking about what words are saying, you\u2019re thinking about how words are in relationship to one another,\u201d Gulig said of the art form. \u201cI grew up listening to my father\u2019s record collection. I was listening to albums back then in the way that kids watch YouTube videos today. My ear was trained to be attentive from an early age.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gulig\u2019s foray into academia came from a love of teaching and was a platform for bringing together two of his passions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the real joy of being a teacher is spending the vast majority of my waking life thinking about poems, with students who care about poems,\u201d said Gulig, whose roles on campus also include running \u201cThe Muse,\u201d the campus literary journal, and overseeing the UW-Whitewater Creative Writing Festival.<\/p>\n

Since the vast majority of his students are in the earliest stages of their adult years, Gulig said he can discuss the intrinsic beauty and value of poetry at a very specific, foundational point in their lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cOftentimes, they\u2019re coming from spaces where they haven\u2019t had a lot of exposure to the wilderness of the poetic landscape,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat they have is curiosity and talent that is raw, unsculpted and hasn\u2019t been exercised a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gulig said he considers it a privilege to give his students the opportunity to view literature in a way they might not have considered it in the past.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get to be the one who gets to put a poem in their hands and say, \u2018Spend the weekend reading this. We\u2019re going to talk about this poem on Monday,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019ve never had anything like that. This is the first time they get to experience poetry with that level and duration of attention.\u201d<\/p>\n

In some respects, Gulig acknowledges his role as a teacher is a full-circle moment and gives him the opportunity to reflect on what brought him to poetry and teaching.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get to relive that moment of my life, but from a different lens,\u201d he said. \u201cMy students are so filled with wonder and curiosity. As we get older, it\u2019s hard to be curious. We start to feel like we\u2019ve seen it all. The world is worth being curious about.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Written by Dave Fidlin | Photos by\u00a0Craig Schreiner<\/a><\/p>\n

Link to original story: https:\/\/www.uww.edu\/news\/archive\/2023-02-poet-laureate<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a child, Nicholas Gulig gained a deep love of poetry through a variety of pivotal experiences. In the years since, he has aspired to share his passion and wants to further the mission as he settles into a new honorary role. Gulig, an associate professor of\u00a0languages and literatures\u00a0at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, was recently […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":9166,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","institution":[84],"story_category":[],"class_list":["post-9164","campus_story","type-campus_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","institution-uw-whitewater"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story\/9164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/campus_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9164"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"institution","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/institution?post=9164"},{"taxonomy":"story_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story_category?post=9164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}