Dan's Papers - May 6, 2008 - Philip Schultz

"I wake up in the morning and worry about poetry. I don't worry about business. It just happens organically," said Philip Schultz, East Hampton resident, poet, fiction writer and educator who was just awarded the 2008 Pulitzer Prize in poetry for his latest book Failure. The Pulitzer Prize is regarded as the most prestigious and highest honor for print, literary and musical compositions. Each year, 21 recipients receive a certificate and a $10,000 cash award, which Schultz said he will use to finally finish his kitchen. Established by Joseph Pulitzer in 1911 (he left money to Columbia University), the prize is administered by Columbia University with an independent board that reviews candidates. Schultz now joins the ranks of Robert Frost, Carl Sandburg, Gary Snyder, Robert Lowell, Mary Oliver, William Carlos Williams and many others as the beneficiary of this prestigious award.

Schultz grew up in Rochester, New York and first came to the East End in 1977 when he stepped off the train in Amagansett and said, "I could really live here." And although he spent many years in San Francisco, completing a bachelor's degree at San Francisco State University and then in Iowa completing a master's degree at the University of Iowa Writers Workshop, Schultz felt like there was nothing as beautiful as the big skies and fresh ocean air of the East End. At first he found a room in a garage and worked on poetry, but soon after became a Hamptons regular, finding solace at the Sea Breeze on Atlantic Avenue in Amagansett. During the recession of 1991 he finally caught a break and purchased a fixer-upper house in East Hampton at a time when the price was right.

To date, Schultz has been teaching creative writing for nearly 30 years and founded the Writers Studio in 1987 after spending four years as the director of New York University's graduate creative writing program. Schultz has taught undergraduate and graduate fiction, poetry, literature and craft classes at Tufts University, Kalamazoo College, University of Massachusetts at Boston, Columbia University and New York University.

He has written many works of fiction and poetry, including Living in the Past (2004), The Holy Worm of Praise (2002), the poetry chapbook, My Guardian Angel Stein (1986), Deep Within the Ravine (1984 recipient of The Academy of American Poets' Lamont Prize); and Like Wings (1978 winner of an American Academy & Institute of Arts and Letters Award as well as a National Book Award nomination). His work has been published in The New Yorker, Partisan Review, The New Republic, The Paris Review and Slate, among other magazines, and he is the recipient of a 2005 Guggenheim Fellowship in Poetry. He has also received awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Academy of American Poets, as well as the Levinson Prize from Poetry magazine. His book, Living in the Past, was chosen for the 2005 New York Public Library list, which features books recommended for teenagers.

Aside from writing, what Schultz loves to do most when in East Hampton is take his dog, Penelope, for a walk along the ocean or to the dog park in Springs. He often goes with his two children, Eli, 11, and Augie, 8, who both play Little League. His wife Monica Banks is a well-known sculptor whose work you might recognize - a red, 14-ton sculpture in the middle of Times Square called "Faces." He enjoys eating at World Pie, Meeting House, Nick and Toni's and anywhere else that is kid-friendly. Schultz explains that his boys are "artist jocks - the kids go with us everywhere," and just the other day when his sons asked for a new Wii Nintendo game Schultz responded, "Why should I buy you another $50 game?" And his sons answered by saying "Why not? We were your inspiration!" And they're right. His sons do serve as a giant part of his motivation and Schultz has dedicated his books to his children. Most recently, Failure was for Augie, who proudly sat with his father at one of the readings and signed his name under the dedication as well. "I think he really likes the limelight," Schultz added.

Yet before anything else, Schultz was an artist before he was a writer. In high school he was the go-to cartoonist and painted as much as possible. By the time he was 16 he knew he wanted to write but it didn't come easy - he has dyslexia and didn't fully learn how to read until the 5th grade. But as he became more comfortable with writing and expressing himself, Schultz never forgot the importance and value of education and that's why he started the Writers Studio, a non-degree granting, private school founded on the belief that when the desire to write is strong enough, anyone can learn the craft necessary for full creative expression.

Schultz explained, "I am a lucky man. I love teaching." The Writers Studio hosts about 300 students including its schools in Greenwich Village, San Francisco, Tucson and online. It's for poets and fiction writers and the philosophy teaches "persona writing."

As far as Failure is concerned, Schultz knew that it "hit a nerve" because of its level or personal disclosure. "People were emotional at readings - especially men," he said. The idea of failure is so personal, it's something that we all experience, an integral part of the human condition and many aspects of this book talk about the darkest periods in Schultz's life - when his father passed away, when he and his mother were broke - "I felt like I was carrying around some shameful secret," he explained. But finally, after so many years, Schultz dealt with this part - perhaps it was the necessary distance, the necessary years, or because he's finally happy. But Schultz said that his wife summed it up perfectly, "Everyone sees themselves as a failure except those who really are." And he continued to relate failure to baseball - "If you hit three out of ten pitches, you're good - I mean you're failing 70% of the time."

Schultz is planning to write a book about starting a school and what it's been like - "I never know what I'm capable of, I can't write conventionally" - and we hope he doesn't start to.