Born and raised in South Central L.A. as a first generation Irish-American, Lawrence Welsh has brought to the Southwest his talents, stories and memories to be shared among students.
Before Welsh dabbled in poetry, he wrote songs for a punk band called The Alcoholics that hit it big in 1979.
His writing career, though, started at California State University where he obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and worked as a reporter for several years before teaching English at both UTEP and EPCC.
“I can’t believe it was 24 years ago when I started at a junior college newspaper,” said Welsh. He said that his college instructors had such a profound effect on the outcome of his life, and he hopes that he can encourage students in the same way.
“If I can give just a crumb of that to my students, then it’s worth the while,” said Welsh. He began his own soul-searching when he hitchhiked across America in 1989, a story he often reveals to his English students.
This is when he ventured into a new realm of writing.
“My writing took off from there, when it wasn’t so much dictated by what editors wanted for newspapers, but I was writing for my own,” he said.
Welsh arrived to El Paso on his journey.
“I found myself really soaking up the Southwest and enjoying it,” he said. “There’s a lot of interesting aspects to write about here.”
Welsh thought he’d spend three years teaching
at UTEP as a creative writing instructor, and then return to Los Angeles.
During his stay he met his wife, Lisa McNiel, a speech instructor at EPCC, and stayed in El Paso by raising two children.
“I built a life out here with deep roots and I really enjoy teaching here [EPCC].”
He said that he has always read a lot, especially modern poetry.
He has a wide range of influences in music and writing, including the Beats, the Black Mountain School of poetry, Nobel Prize winners, Irish writers and street poetry.
Many of his students can recall him referring to The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry.
When Welsh’s Walking Backwards to Santa Fe was critiqued by Todd Moore, a well-renown critic of contemporary and avant-garde poetry, as well as one of the original members of the “Outlaw Poetry” movement, he was humbled.
“Welsh’s voice and style also seem to be caught in the same tension of literary East versus the open-hearted West,” Moore said. “In the East the poet reveals nothing. He relies on allusion, he relies on aesthetic stance.
In the West, the poet relies on the metaphor of the story itself and usually leaves out all the literary allusion.”
“I still feel like the biggest student in the world,” said Welsh, “I try to improve, get better and to learn something new everyday.”
He was so inspired by Beat poets that he brought many of them to EPCC while in charge of the Poetry Jam.
This is where he introduced students to Janine Pomy Vega, one of the last surviving female Beat poets.
“I came to poetry very organically, never really planned on it,” said Welsh.
“I try to do what Carl Sandburg said to do. Write a little each day, even when I don’t want to write.” Welsh now has his fifth collection of poetry published.
He couldn’t really categorize his writing style, which is short-worded, with sometimes haunting, lasting imagery.
His style of visual poetry sometimes forms straight lines, is centered or floats across the page like steps to his inner thoughts or memories.
“I’d rather let other people form their own opinions,” said Welsh. “Some writers may find worth in it, some won’t.”
Welsh won many awards as a journalist and poet.
His writing has appeared in over 175 national and regional journals and over a 10-year stretch, Welsh has performed over 50 readings.
His books appear simple at first, but are embroidered with mid-western sentiment, titles of imagery and chaos, giving just a glimpse of what they reveal within.
His cover art varies. In his 1991 collection, Rusted Steel and Bordertown Starts, the cover and inside artwork was done by a legendary El Paso tattoo artist, Doc Ray.
New Shouts at Broken Dreams, has a cover of a traditional drinking, smiling skull.
His new book has a brilliant eye-catching cover by local artist Erick Chavez, from the Art Institute in Dallas.
Welsh said he still wonders where his writing will lead him, but is proud regardless.
“Hopefully, it will keep going where it’s going to go,” he said.
Walking Backwards to Santa Fe can be purchased online for only $6 at www.pitchforkpoetryprojects.com.
A full-length book, Skull Highway will soon be published by La Alameda Press.
