Mitcham, Judson 1948-

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MITCHAM, Judson 1948-

PERSONAL: Born 1948, in Monroe, GA; son of Wilson and Myrtle Mitcham; married; wife's name, Jean; children: Zach, Anna. Education: University of Georgia, B.A. (psychology), Ph.D. (psychology), 1974.

ADDRESSES: Home—Macon, GA. Offıce—P.O. Box 4413, Fort Valley State University, 1005 State University Dr., Fort Valley, GA 31030-4313.

CAREER: Poet, novelist, and educator. Fort Valley State College, Fort Valley, GA, 1974—, became associate professor of psychology. University of Georgia, adjunct professor of creative writing; Emory University Summer Writers' Institute, director.

AWARDS, HONORS: Devins Award and Georgia Author of the Year, both for Somewhere in Ecclesiastes; Pushcart Prize; Townsend Prize, for The Sweet Everlasting.

WRITINGS:

Somewhere in Ecclesiastes (poetry), University of Missouri Press (Columbia, MO), 1991.

The Sweet Everlasting (novel), University of Georgia Press (Athens, GA), 1996.

This April Day (poetry), Anhinga Press (Tallahassee, FL), 2003.

Sabbath Creek (novel), University of Georgia Press (Athens, GA), 2004.

Poetry published in magazines, including Harper's, Georgia Review, Chattahoochee Review, Gettysburg Review, Poetry, Southern Poetry Review, and Southern Review.

SIDELIGHTS: A native of Georgia, poet and psychologist Judson Mitcham has spent most of his life in his native state and takes that region's locale and people as inspiration for both his poetry and fiction. His first collection of poetry, Somewhere in Ecclesiastes, "offers a moving sequence of poems . . . about youth, family, mortality, and the southern cultural scene," according to Hugh Ruppersburg, writing in the New Georgia Encyclopedia Online. The poems in this debut collection are narratives told mainly from the first person. The story "Night Ride," for example, recalls a teenager's nighttime rambling with a friend after sneaking out of his parents' house, as told from the point of view of the boy as an older man. Ruppersburg also noted that Mitcham's poem "Notes for a Prayer in June" presents another use of "memories to illuminate the poet's struggle to understand the meaning of life and mortality." Family and mortality are themes explored in the poem "Sunday." This initial poetry collection earned Mitcham the Georgia Author of the Year Award as well as the Devins Award.

In 1996 Mitcham turned to fiction with his first novel, The Sweet Everlasting. On the University of Georgia Press Web site, Mitcham explained his progression from poetry to fiction: "I have always written narrative poems," Mitcham commented, "so the progression to prose fiction was a natural one, I guess. I hope to produce fiction that shares the characteristics of good poetry—freshness and economy of language; mystery within clarity; a sense of rightness, of necessity." Mitcham also deals with some of the main concerns in his fiction that he does in his poetry, especially the theme of loss. Ruppersburg called Mitcham's first novel an "eloquent elegy for a vanished past." Writing in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Don O'Briant described the novel as the "story of a sharecropper's sin and redemption." Narrated by seventy-four-year-old ex-convict Ellis Burt, The Sweet Everlasting tells of Burt's youth in the South and his marriage to a beautiful woman during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Separated from his wife, Susan, and son for many years, Burt relates how he finally was reunited, though Susan was unable to remember him, lost in the final stages of Alzheimer's disease.

Reviewing this first novel in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Cathy High noted that Mitcham "has an affinity for people on the margins of life and an ability to look at their lives and see the threads common to us all." High concluded, "The simple words of Ellis Burt suffuse The Sweet Everlasting with a tenderness and depth of feeling that will haunt you long after the reading." Winner of the Townsend Award, this first novel was compared to the work of William Kennedy and Cormac McCarthy.

With the 2003 collection This April Day, Mitcham returned to poetry in a gathering of "immensely appealing, vivid, listenable poems," according to Booklist reviewer Ray Olson. In poems such as "History of Rain" and "The Foolishness of God Is Wiser than Man," Mitcham "deftly deploys the personal anecdote to make moral points," Olson explained.

From verse, Mitcham again took up fiction with his 2004 novel, Sabbath Creek, a "masterfully drawn, emotionally rich gem," as Patrick Sullivan commented in a Library Journal review. The novel traces the adventures and challenges of Charlene Pope and her son, Lewis, as they drive through southern Georgia. When their car breaks down at Sabbath Creek, they end up in a rundown hotel operated by nonagenarian, ex-baseball player, Truman Stroud, "a grand fictional creation," according to Sullivan. On the University of Georgia Press Web site, Mitcham commented: "Language is one of the main concerns of the novel—what is said and not said. Lewis is extremely sensitive to words, and precise to the edge of prudishness." During the week of their stay at Sabbath Creek, Lewis and his mother become friends with Stroud, and much more. Sullivan concluded that Sabbath Creek is a "powerfully realized, deeply satisfying novel." Booklist contributor Jennifer Mattson, while writing that parts of the book are somewhat "shopworn" and "melodramatic," still contended that "Mitcham's resonant language will likely prove rewarding enough for fans." Higher praise came from Teresa K. Weaver, reviewing the novel for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Weaver noted that Mitcham's "fiction has a dark, brooding quality—a sort of sweet-natured melancholy—that makes it impossible to predict redemption or eternal damnation for his wonderfully flawed characters." And writing in the New York Times Book Review, Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow called Sabbath Creek "spare" and "lovely," also noting that while it is "generous in humor, it is anchored by sorrow and interspersed with portents of tragedy."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Atlanta Journal-Constitution, July 7, 1996, Cathy High, review of The Sweet Everlasting, p. A8; May 7, 1998, Don O'Briant, "Fort Valley Professor Wins Fiction Prize: First Novel Wins Townsend Prize," p. D2; March 14, 2004, Teresa K. Weaver, review of Sabbath Creek, p. M6.

Booklist, April 1, 2003, Ray Olson, review of ThisApril Day, p. 1368; March 1, 2004, Jennifer Mattson, review of Sabbath Creek, p. 1140.

Library Journal, March 15, 2004, Patrick Sullivan, review of Sabbath Creek, p. 108.

New York Times Book Review, March 7, 2004, Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow, review of Sabbath Creek, p. 16.