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 Rebecca Howell fell in love with poetry and writing when she was a child of 12, but like most children she fell away from it. When she was 23 she started getting serious about writing again.
She was preparing to graduate with a creative writing degree from the University of Kentucky, with the intention of teaching high school students.
She says James Baker Hall, her mentor and professor at the time, was the first person to really challenge her.
“I asked him to read a story of mine, and he read it and said ‘Well, I can tell you’re really smart, but where is the imagination in this, where’s your heart? What’s at stake in this?’ That really changed the path I was on,” Rebecca says.
After graduating, she began an apprenticeship under Hall, who guided and taught her.
Howell taught linguistics at UK, then eventually went on to direct the Women’s Writers Conference in Lexington. However, three years after directing the conference, she realized she missed teaching and came to Morehead.
Howell has been teaching at MSU for three years and currently serves as a faculty member for in the creative writing program.
A published author and photographer, Howell’s works include a book of poetry “The Hatchet Buddha” and a book she collaborated on with her friend, Arwen Donahue, titled “This is Home Now: Kentucky’s Holocaust survivors speak.”
The book is a10-year documentary for which she was the photographer and her friend was the rural historian. Howell also has several photography projects in the works, including a coal documentary.
Like her mentor, Howell encourages students to push themselves to greater depths in writing.
Sophomore Sara Volpi, an applicant to MSU’s bachelor of fine arts in creative writing program, says, “There isn’t an English major yet that I’ve talked to who hasn’t suggested that I take her class. I’ve learned more from her teaching style and genuine interest in her students than from any other teacher in my college experience. It’s not just because she pushes us, it’s because I know she pushes to make us better writers because she sees her students potential and encourages us to do our best and push ourselves outside of class, as well as in it.”
Krista Crum, a former student, says, “Rebecca’s style of teaching is unlike any other professor that I’ve had since attending Morehead. She has pushed me out of my comfort zone so that I do not write with any limitations.”
Howell says she tells students, “Allow your life to be a life of learning. Fall in love. Fall madly, madly, madly in love with learning, and know that you are your own best teacher. The people you call your teachers, we pass in and out, we are ghosts in your life, we’ll be gone soon, and then it’s up to you. In the still of the night it’s up to you.
“Take your potential seriously, and know that you are the guardian of it,” Howell says. “A hundred MFA’s and a hundred BFA’s cannot make you an artist, only you can do that.”
Howell quotes American photographer Walker Evans:
“ ‘Stare, pry, listen, eavesdrop, die knowing something. You are not here long.’ I always think about him saying that,” Howell says. “It’s the artist’s job to pay attention, it’s important.”
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