‘Where Beauty & Wisdom Merge’
David Caplan
In his new article about Ohio Wesleyan University’s David Caplan, writer Robert Hirschfield calls the OWU poet and associate professor “one of those poets a culture discards at its peril.”
Hirschfield talks with Caplan, Ph.D., who joined the Ohio Wesleyan faculty in 2000, about Caplan’s latest book, In the World He Created According to His Will, a collection of poetry reflecting the suffering history imposes on individual experiences in the world and the sacredness that underpins them.
In his Jerusalem Report article, Hirschfield calls Caplan’s writing “cerebral and precise,” and states that “Caplan, along with poets Eve Grubin and Yehoshua November, have quietly brought to American poetry a vibrant spiritual dimension that explores the sensibility of observant Jewish poets in the 21st century.”
Read the full Jerusalem Report article here.
At Ohio Wesleyan, Caplan specializes in 20th and 21st century American literature. His scholarly interests include verse form and contemporary poetry. In 2004, he was a Fulbright lecturer at the University of Liège in Belgium.
Previously The Forward praised In the World He Created According to His Will as a “deeply spiritual meditation on nature, human relationships, and God.” Caplan’s poetry recently appeared in a number of distinguished journals, including The Southwest Review and New England Review. This spring, the Virginia Quarterly Review will feature a portfolio of his poems accompanied by photographs taken by Noah Rabinowitz. Caplan currently is working on his fourth book, Rhyme’s Challenge, which examines poetry, hip hop, and rhyme, as well as a new poetry collection.
Ohio Wesleyan University is one of the nation’s premier small, private universities, with more than 90 undergraduate majors, sequences, and courses of study, and 23 NCAA Division III varsity sports. Located in Delaware, Ohio, just minutes north of Ohio’s capital and largest city, Columbus, the university combines a globally focused curriculum with off-campus learning and leadership opportunities that translate classroom theory into real-world practice. OWU’s close-knit community of 1,850 students represents 47 states and 57 countries. Ohio Wesleyan was named to the 2010 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with distinction, is featured in the book “Colleges That Change Lives,” and is included on the “best colleges” lists of U.S. News & World Report and The Princeton Review. Learn more at www.owu.edu.