Conversation with Rick White
Open AIR Artist-in-Residence 2020
Selway-Bitterroot Frank Church Wilderness
"When I write, all else blurs. This is the reward for me: the work, the focus, the presence."
- Rick White
Open AIR: Please tell us a little bit about yourself.
Rick: After earning a B.A. in Geography and an M.S. in Environmental Studies, I taught middle school for four years in the Denver metro area. From 2017-2019, I served as the River House Writing Fellow in Twin Bridges, Montana, where I wrote and revised the manuscript of my first book, the story of a grief journey I took with my scalawag grandfather and a taxidermied raccoon. Literary agents Allison Devereux of The Cheney Agency and Flip Brophy and Nell Pierce of Sterling Lord Literistic praised the manuscript, particularly the “delicate relationship between grandfather and grandson,” and also my prose, which Nell described as “lyrical and full of warmth and humor.” All the book now lacks is the right publisher for it.
My formal writing training includes editorial internships at The Onion A.V. Club and Westword in Denver, along with writing courses taught by Rebecca Solnit, Melissa Febos, and Edwin Dobb. In August 2020, I will begin an MFA program in Creative Nonfiction, most likely at the University of Montana, where I have been offered a teaching assistantship. There I will focus my study on the craft of the personal essay.
My stories center around the five themes of geography: location, place, human-environment interaction, movement, and regions. If writing about such things makes me old-fashioned, so be it. In such a rapidly changing world, I like knowing where I stand — with my people, in the cosmos, and on this wild, precious, improbable home we all share.
Open AIR: And how about your practice?
Rick: In 2016 I committed to writing as my life’s work. When actively working on a project, my routine varies little. I write from 7 to 10 a.m., take an hour to walk my dog and eat breakfast, then write for three more hours until 2 p.m. While working on first drafts, my word count averages 250 words per hour, or about 1,500 words per day. Beyond that, the law of diminishing return kicks in. When finished writing, I exercise, cook, eat, and either read or go fishing, depending on the season and weather.
I write first drafts longhand using a pen and legal pads, then transcribe into Scrivener software on my computer. I print out and edit subsequent drafts by hand. Everything I write, from essays to chapters of a book, requires between eight and ten drafts, sometimes more.
When I write, all else blurs. This is the reward for me: the work, the focus, the presence. As Wendell Berry said, “Ultimately, in the argument about work and how it should be done, one has only one’s pleasure to offer. It is possible, as I have learned again and again, to be in one’s place, in such company, wild or domestic, and with such pleasure, that one cannot think of another place that one would prefer to be—or of another place at all. One does not miss or regret the past, or fear or long for the future. Being there is simply all, and is enough.”
Open AIR: What are you looking forward to during your residency (that is happening during the pandemic)?
Rick: It's interesting to me that I applied for this opportunity for artistic solitude before the pandemic happened. I was imagining it as a respite from the hustle of everyday work life, a chance to get away from it all, as they say. Now I have spent most of the last three months alone, sheltering in place. So much (and so little) seems to happen in an hour these days; three weeks is an eternity in today's news cycle. I'm thrilled at the likelihood of going up to and coming down from the Paradise Guard Station in two very different realities. The contrast between that which changes in the human sphere during those three weeks and that which doesn't change in the natural world will certainly be stark. I hope to channel this dichotomy into my prose this summer. Beyond the writing, I'm just excited for the chance to become more familiar with the Selway-Bitterroot and to get some good fishing and exploring time on the high mountain rivers up there.
The cabin at Paradise Guard Station, 2020.
This interview was conducted remotely. Thank you, Rick!
This residency is made possible by a collaboration between Open AIR and The Selway Bittterroot Frank Church Foundation.
The SBFC is a community of wilderness-minded and hardworking individuals, dedicated to connecting wilderness with the people who work, live, and play within it. The efforts of the SBFC community protect and preserve the natural, pristine character of wilderness.