{"id":2490,"date":"2016-06-22T19:49:29","date_gmt":"2016-06-22T19:49:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/?p=2490"},"modified":"2023-05-24T17:56:47","modified_gmt":"2023-05-24T17:56:47","slug":"j-t-whitehead-87-poetlawyer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/2016\/06\/22\/j-t-whitehead-87-poetlawyer\/","title":{"rendered":"J.T. Whitehead \u201987, Poet\/Lawyer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;I think we\u2019re supposed to be creative\u2014I think we\u2019re supposed to be imagining and making,&#8221; attorney and poet J.T. Whitehead \u201987 says in an interview with <em>WM<\/em> Editor Steve Charles for a <a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/wabash-on-my-mind\/id855321475?mt=2\">Wabash On My Mind<\/a>\u00a0podcast.<\/p>\n<p>Recorded in the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vonnegutlibrary.org\">Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library<\/a> in March, Whitehead\u2014whose\u00a0first collection of poems,\u00a0<em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thebroadkillriverpress.com\">The Table of the Elements<\/a>,<\/em> was nominated for a 2015 National Book Award\u2014talks candidly and passionately about the challenges of being a full-time attorney, a husband, and father, while pursuing his vocation as a poet.<\/p>\n<p>He also reads several selections from the book.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This\u00a0idea that you&#8217;ve got to get in a big old\u00a0American car and go across the country and chuck all responsibility [to be an artist]\u00a0is ridiculous,&#8221; Whitehead says. &#8220;You can be a writer and still have a full time job and a family.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When people ask me how I find time to write poetry, I tell them it\u2019s by not having any television shows.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-2496\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2016\/06\/julia-jt3-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"julia jt3\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2016\/06\/julia-jt3-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2016\/06\/julia-jt3-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2016\/06\/julia-jt3-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2016\/06\/julia-jt3-335x223.jpg 335w, https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2016\/06\/julia-jt3-1050x700.jpg 1050w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>Whitehead is also editor of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vonnegutlibrary.org\/literary-journal\/\"><em>So It Goes,<\/em> <\/a>the literary journal of the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library founded by J.T.&#8217;s wife, Julia. She was <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/2016\/06\/22\/placher-inspired-vonnegut-museum\/\">inspired to establish the library <\/a>after attending the memorial service for beloved Wabash Professor Bill Placher \u201970. <em>(Currently in its fifth year, the\u00a0library has started\u00a0a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kickstarter.com\/projects\/1949966329\/a-permanent-home-for-kurt-vonneguts-legacy\">Kickstarter campaign<\/a>\u00a0to move into a permanent home.)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>For J.T., life, regardless of one&#8217;s vocation, is about creativity, and he sums it up in terms that reveal the liberal arts mix of philosophy, poetry, and words that stir his life.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The evidence and the record would suggest that one our tasks on the planet between birth and death is to make stuff up, and to acquire the truth through creative acts\u00a0and to learn about what it is to be a human being through making stuff.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That\u2019s when we\u2019re at home.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;I think we\u2019re supposed to be creative\u2014I think we\u2019re supposed to be imagining and making,&#8221; attorney and poet J.T. Whitehead \u201987 says in an interview with WM Editor Steve Charles for a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":2492,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"audio","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-audio","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-class-notes","post_format-post-format-audio"],"w_featured_image_url":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2016\/06\/jt-interview-2-1024x683.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2490"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2507,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2490\/revisions\/2507"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}