Professor shares her passion for poetry

Throughout her childhood in the United Kingdom, English professor Sally Connolly distinctively remembers taking books from her dad’s study to feed her hunger for literature.

Today, Connolly’s books are scattered all over her loft, complimenting the windows covered in scribbled poetry and the clear view of downtown. There’s a large stack of papers that need to be graded sitting on her table, but Connolly is used to it — she teaches poetry at UH.

“I absolutely adore teaching poetry,” Connolly said. “I get to read, write and talk about what I love every day, and it never feels like work.”

Connolly taught at Wake Forest University and University College London before moving to Houston in July 2008 and starting at UH that fall. Connolly teaches modern, contemporary and structures of poetry to undergraduates in the Department of English.

“It is very unusual as an academic to get a job doing exactly what you want,”  Connolly said. “UH didn’t have a contemporary poetry specialist before me. UH also has one of the top creative writing departments in the country, so I get to teach some of the best poets of tomorrow.”

Connolly is Irish by descent, but grew up in St. Albans, a town north of London known for having more pubs per head than anywhere else in England.

“The schools I attended in the U.K. were quite unorthodox at times,” Connolly said. “We didn’t study math or science — we studied dinosaurs, deportment and needlework. I just sat in a corner and read. I didn’t get a proper education until I was about 14.”

Regardless, Connolly’s desire to pursue literature led her to UCL, where she received doctorates in modern and contemporary poetry. Connolly set her sights on teaching while she was an undergraduate at UCL.

“I had just the most amazingly enthusiastic and dynamic professors and it made me want to do the same thing,” she said. “I used to look forward to lectures.”

Connolly speaks highly of her time in school and adds, with a slight grin, that she recommends staying in school as long as possible.

“It was absolute bliss,” Connolly said. “I was living in central London and working at the Times Literary Supplement. I just had the most fun.”

Connolly said her proudest academic moment came when she won a Kennedy Memorial Trust Scholarship to study as a visiting fellow at Harvard University in 2005.

“It was, without a doubt, the most exciting thing to ever happen to me,” Connolly said.

She is currently working towards publishing a book about elegies for poets, as well as a biography about the poet Thom Gunn.

Connolly said that her favorite part about teaching is when students point out aspects of a poem that never occurred to her. She also appreciates that a number of her students are first generation college students like she was.

“They have unique demands on their time, which makes what they accomplish all the more impressive,” Connolly said.

Connolly said she suggests that students expose themselves to as much poetry as possible so they can learn what they like, and she recommends starting with fun poets like Billy Collins or Seamus Heaney. Connolly also said she urges students to utilize the resources provided by UH.

“Doing well at university isn’t all about being clever, but learning how to study,” Connolly said. “Get a plan and stick to it. It’s about finding a methodology and applying it.”

Connolly loves that teaching brought her to Houston, but it took a while for her to get used to driving everywhere and the scorching summer sun.

“I’m so pale (that) I’m actually blue,” Connolly said. “I’ve spent a fortune on sun block.”

Although her Irish complexion is sensitive to the sun, Connolly enjoys strolling around Montrose and seeking out new spots to eat such as Feast, Reef and Dolce Vita.

“Houston is such a foodie town,” Connolly said. “I’m very greedy so mostly what I do is eat in my free time. I spend the rest of my time walking my dog to burn off those calories.”

Connolly said she would like to dispel two commonly held assumptions about the British. The first is that British food is better than Americans think.

“And contrary to what Austin Powers would have you believe, British teeth are not that bad,” Connolly said. “Sign up for my classes and see.”

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