ELYSE GRIECO
Assistant Life & Arts Editor
Every year, the University of North Texas holds its annual Katherine Anne Porter Prize competition, a writing competition that awards one writer with the opportunity to publish one of their books.
Writers from all across the country enter this competition, and this year the winner is Fredonia’s own professor Eric Schlich.
Although he has been a writer for many years, he did admit that reading was his first love.
“I was always a reader, I loved reading when I was a kid,” he said. “Some writers write a lot when they’re kids, but I didn’t. I mostly just read.”
Schlich took his love for novels and decided to study as an undergraduate English major at the University of Kentucky.
It wasn’t until then that he realized his passion and connection to developing his own stories.
“I took both theory and literary study classes, but I also took creative writing classes. Those classes were really great, it made me realize that, ‘Oh wow’ I can make a story myself and not just do the reading and studying of the literature,” he said. “That’s when I actually started writing.”
Over the years, Schlich realized that writing wasn’t easy. In fact, he has faced many struggles in his career.
Out of all his difficulties, Schlich said his biggest problem was publishing.
“For a long time I didn’t submit my work because it wasn’t ready, and then you get a lot of rejection,” he said. “You have to grow a really tough skin to be a writer. You write a short story, you work on it in class or you develop it and work on it for months, and then you send it out and you get 10, 20, 30 rejections.”
Although it can be hard to face, rejection does not mean you should give up.
Olivia Pratt, a junior English major, is one of Schlich’s students.
“He is very encouraging and enthusiastic about writing, he makes me want to be a better writer,” she said. “He gives us feedback and is very honest about things that do and don’t work in our stories, which can be tough sometimes, but it also pushes me to do better.”
His work has appeared in several magazines such as Mississippi Review, Fairy Tale Review and many more.
Schlich’s competiton-winning book, “Quantum Convention and Other Stories,” took three years to perfect. It took another year and a half for the story to be printed.
“It takes time,” he said. “It’s exciting to see that it is finally being published.”
Schlich finds inspiration everywhere. Whether it be from life experiences or other stories he has read, he always finds ways to come up with new stories.
One story in his book traces back to one of his favorite childhood movies.
“This story is kind of inspired by my life. When I was a little kid, I was in love with ‘The Wizard of Oz.’ I was obsessed with it, I really don’t know why,” he said.
While studying for his masters, Schlich found out that the actress who played the Wicked Witch of the West, Margaret Hamilton, did her own movie stunts. At one part, she even caught on fire and suffered from severe burns.
He was shocked to find that out that since she wasn’t a Hollywood starlet, the producers of the movie treated her terribly.
He took this news and made it into one of his favorite stories.
“It’s a two timeline story. One timeline is me, the little boy, who is in love with the movie. The other one is about her story, so I did more research on her. It’s one of my favorites because it’s so personal,” he said.
Both of Schlich’s parents are teachers, but teaching was not something Schlich necessarily had in mind as a career. He said it was something he just kind of “fell into.”
During his time at college for his master’s degree, he had to teach to pay for his tuition.
At first, he found it unamusing.
“I was teaching English composition, like entry level English,” he said.
When he went on to do his doctorate, he had to teach again. However, he eventually began to climb the ladder and teach things he loved, such as fiction and nonfiction.
“That’s when it really clicked with me,” he said. “I admire teachers. It’s a very hard job, and society treats them terribly. They should be appreciated a lot more.”
He now teaches multiple courses at Fredonia, helping students learn and sharing his expertise and advice.
Julia Costa, a senior psychology major, said that Schlich’s class is one of the best she has ever taken.
“I wanted to take fiction writing to better myself and my skills, but I never thought it would be this beneficial. I’ve learned to much from Professor Schlich already and I’m actually really glad that I took it,” she said.
Schlich’s debut book, “Quantum Convention and Other Stories,” is set to come out this November.