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Other Notable Alumni

Eric McElroy plays piano in a studio
Fall 2023

A composer’s journey to poetry and music

Eric McElroy is an American pianist and composer who released his debut album, Tongues of Fire, in March 2023 on Somm Recordings. He wrote the songs to accompany poems from modern poets W.S. Merwin, Gregory Leadbetter, Grevel Lindop, Alice Oswald, and Robert Graves. The poems are sung by acclaimed English tenor James Gilchrist and McElroy performs on piano.

McElroy graduated from Washington State University and then continued his postgraduate education in Vienna and Oxford University.

In this episode, Washington State Magazine editor Larry Clark talks with McElroy about the new album, his creative process, poetry, walking, and his influences at WSU and beyond.

Transcript

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Fall 2023

Fancy Dancer: Q&A with adventurer and author John Roskelley

Fancy Dancer and the Seven Drums, John Roskelley’s first novel, traces its origins to the 1967 Omak Stampede, when a similar but more streamlined story first came into his mind. Here, Roskelley (’71 Geol.) discusses the roots of the narrative, his writing process, other works, and more.

 

Where did the idea for the book come from? Is it rooted in or inspired by any true events in your real life?

The idea for Fancy Dancer and the Seven Drums morphed from an early personal interest in central Washington’s unique place in American history to a more realistic focus on the diversity and lives … » More …