The Alumni Spotlight is a place to hear from the School of the Arts alumni community about their journeys as artists and creators.
Charles Yeske '71 is an adjunct Professor of English at Bucks County Community College, PA. Manager of Historic Properties - Bucks County, PA, Parks & Recreation. Residence - Doylestown, PA.
Was there a specific faculty member or peer who especially inspired you while at the School of the Arts? If so, who and how?
In 1969-1971, James Tate was not only twice my poet "instructor," for lack of a better title, but more importantly a mentor and friend. He was only a year older, but so much more "versed" than I at that age. I recall when some years later he was reading at a community college, spied me in the audience, broke his reading with a smile and wave, and then reminisced with me for hours afterwards about our shared enjoyment at CU in camaraderie. I am so saddened by his death, just as I was a few months ago when Mark Strand, another of my instructors, also passed. My experiences during those two years were amazing, and so relevant to where I was living - my neighborhood hosted Josephine Herbst, George Herman, William Carlos Williams, Dos Pasos, Nathaniel West, SJ Perelman, James Agee, James Michener, John Wexley, Joseph Schrank, George Kaufman, and Stanley Kunitz. I guess by osmosis I was to become a writer, but fate intervened.
