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Nance Van Winckel reads "Winter Drive" by James McAuley

This week Spokane Poet Nance Van Winckel brings us a week in memory of James McAuley.  Jim was a beloved poet and teacher at EWU who passed away this fall. He, along with John Keeble, was the founder of Eastern Washington University’s Creative Writing Program.

James J. McAuley passed away on October 26, 2021.  This followed a long battle with his illness.  He was a passionate, fiery, prolific, and highly formal poet who hailed from Ireland, and he worked many years at EWU founding and teaching in the Creative Writing Program, passing his matchless passion to that effort.  Ultimately, he started up the then-EWU Press and continued working until his retirement and return to his home in Dublin, Ireland.  He is survived by his sons, and by his wife, Deirdre.    

Funeral services were held Tuesday, November 2, by the Newman University Press, Saint Stephen's Green in Dublin. 

Dan Webster wrote a profile of James McAuley for the Spokesman-Review on his retirement from EWU in 1998.

On December 28 and 29, KPBX will present two half-hour interviews which Phyllis Silver did with James McAuley in 1983. That will be at 6:30 PM on The Bookshelf.

Verne Windham got his start at Spokane Public Radio 20 years ago. “I came in to complain and they hired me.” He’s now the Program Director, as well as the host of Morning Classical and Concert of the Week. When choosing music for Morning Classical, Verne likes to keep the agenda as broadly defined as possible. For Concert of the Week, he focuses on the best of recent local performances, mostly classical in nature. For many years, Verne was also the conductor of the Spokane Youth Orchestra. He enjoys gardening, his vintage car and playing French horn.