Brevity meets beauty in MSU poet’s ‘A Clear Eye’
Contact: Sarah Nicholas
STARKVILLE, Miss.—Mississippi State English Professor Robert West has written “A Clear Eye,” a collection of 59 poems offering reflections on nature and human experience.
Early reviews for the 2026 collection by Broadstone Books praise his approach. Poet Michael McFee, also a professor emeritus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said the book is “a brilliant, heartfelt and very satisfying collection,” full of “evocative brevity and inventive lines.” Knoxville, Tennessee Poet Laureate Linda Parsons described it as “the essence of the essence,” highlighting its subtle humor and wordplay.
“I’ve long admired poets who can make something marvelous happen in just a few lines, even just a few words,” said West, head of MSU’s Department of Classical and Modern Languages and Literatures. “What I’ve learned over the last 30 years is how much patience that takes.”
“A Clear Eye” builds on West’s distinguished body of work spanning poetry, scholarship and editorial leadership. He is coeditor of “Succinct: The Broadstone Anthology of Short Poems” (Broadstone Press, 2013), editor of both volumes of “The Complete Poems of A. R. Ammons” (W. W. Norton, 2017) and coeditor of “Robert Morgan: Essays on the Life and Work” (McFarland, 2022). He also is credited with numerous essays, reviews, scholarly contributions and chapbooks, including 2011’s “Convalescent.”
A specialist in post-1900 American and British literature, West serves as associate editor of Mississippi Quarterly: The Journal of Southern Cultures. His writing has appeared in publications including Poetry, The Christian Science Monitor, Appalachian Journal, Southern Quarterly and Alabama Literary Review.
In addition to his scholarly and creative work, West continues to contribute to academic leadership at MSU. This spring, he began serving as interim associate dean for academic affairs in the College of Arts and Sciences.
West has led MSU’s Department of Classical and Modern Languages and Literatures since 2021 and guided the university’s successful 2018 effort establishing a Phi Beta Kappa chapter. He also served as interim director of the Judy and Bobby Shackouls Honors College and completed the Southeastern Conference Academic Leadership Development program and MSU Faculty Leadership Program.
A North Carolina native, West earned his bachelor’s degree from Wake Forest University and his master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
For more information about MSU’s College of Arts and Sciences and the Department of Classical and Modern Languages and Literatures, visit www.cas.msstate.edu and www.cmll.msstate.edu.
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