Writing is Not a Career by Michael Dickel (Guest Blogger)

As an 18 y.o., first-year, university student, I took some of my poems to my Humanities professor. I knew I was supposed to be thinking about my “career,” and told her that I wanted to be a poet or a writer (I don’t remember which I said) for my career.

She said that choosing to write was “choosing to not have a career.” I recall her message being that writers did more than the word “career” entails, that being a writer was more than a job, perhaps more like choosing to have many careers.

You might say, it’s a calling.

She also gently critiqued my “poems.” I was a bit disappointed to find out that I hadn’t actually chosen my career yet, but more disappointed that my poems were not brilliant enough to send to The New Yorker immediately.

Yet, I persisted with my writing.

On paper, I could fool you into thinking I’ve had a career. However, the details reveal a wandering path of switchbacks, valleys, hills—of turns taken and ignored.

Here are some of the jobs I had from University undergraduate studies until returning to graduate school a decade later: warehouse order-packer, delivery person, retail home-improvement sales, overnight counselor, counselor, child-care worker, social worker case aid, and mental health worker…

All of that time, I wrote.

I wrote poetry. I wrote short stories. I attempted songs. I tried a novel. But no editor published any of it—until 1987, just before entering a creative writing program.

The truth is, I have always been a writer. The first poem that I remember is from 3rd or 4th grade. I also remember one from 6th grade. Third grade was about 55 years ago. And I revised a poem this morning.

So, I have been writing my whole life.

Occasionally, I have been paid to write or edit. While in graduate school and since, for (not much) money, I have: edited a book review section of the University student paper, written grants, written book reviews and interviews, and researched and written scripts for documentary films. I have even written website content and social media posts.

However, I also have: designed databases, provided technical assistance, and worked as a handyman.

I have not yet made a living by writing. Probably this is because I mostly write literary genres—poetry, flash fiction, short stories, occasional essays. No one has offered to give me a salary for any of it. Even my books provide negligible income.

Yet, I persist as a writer.

Most people who know me or look over my CV might think that I’ve had a career in academia. After all, I have worked in academia for over 30 years. It has not been a career, though—I did not write critical articles that an academic literature career requires, and I have never held a tenure-track job.

Mostly, I have had some form of renewable contract work that was not quite adjunct. A lot of it has been teaching composition, most of it administering writing centers. Directing writing centers is the closest to a “career” for me—I started in the 1990s, as a graduate student, and continued through 2006. I published articles related to writing centers and learning centers. I was active in professional organizations and helped organize conferences.

All of that, though, was for my job.

In 2007, I left the United States for Israel, where I now live. I have taught here most of the time since—as an adjunct, mostly teaching English as a foreign language. My writing has taken off in this time. Although The New Yorker still has not published any of my poems, every year or two I send them a few.

Still, most of my books were published since I moved.

I won some awards (with cash prizes), edited (without pay) some nice journals, and have immersed in the life of a writer. As I look to the possibility of signing up for Social Security and moving my job situation from employment toward semi-retirement, I realize that I have not had a writing career.

But, I have had a writing life.


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Michael Dickel’s writing and art appear in print and online. His poetry has won international awards and been translated into several languages. Breakfast at the End of Capitalism came out in 2017, The Palm Reading after The Toad’s Garden, in 2016. Previous books include: War Surrounds Us, Midwest / Mid-East, and The World Behind It, Chaos… He co-edited Voices Israel Volume 36, was managing editor for arc-23 and 24, and is a past-chair of the Israel Association of Writers in English. He is a contributing editor of The BeZine (TheBeZine.com). With Israeli producer/director David Fisher, he received a U.S.A. National Endowment of the Humanities documentary-film development grant through their Bridging Cultures program. 

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This blog post was curated and/or edited by The Ardent Reader, Esther Hofknecht Curtis, BSOL, MSM-HCA. The views expressed in this blog post are those of the guest blogger. Visit www.parrotcontent.com for more information.