Wile, Richard - Creative Writing & Banjo
Rick Wile is a Maine native who grew up in Yarmouth and spent over forty years teaching at the high school and college levels. After retiring from public education, he returned to school and received an MFA in nonfiction from the University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast Creative Writing Program. He has published essays and reviews in numerous magazines and journals.
Rick Wile is a Maine native who grew up in Yarmouth and spent over forty years teaching at the high school and college levels. After retiring from public education, he returned to school and received an MFA in nonfiction from the University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast Creative Writing Program. He has published essays and reviews in numerous magazines and journals.
“Sifting Through the Ashes,” for example, appeared in the online magazine "Solstice":
“Sifting Through the Ashes,” for example, appeared in the online magazine "Solstice":
“After twenty years, what remains of my father? I have a wooden platter on the wall I can remember him carving before the days he fell asleep in front of the television. In the bedroom, I have a footstool he helped me make when I was a kid. In the dining room, I have a candle box and some cup holders he made after he retired…” (To read the entire essay, go to https://solsticelitmag.org/content/sifting-through-the-ashes/)
“After twenty years, what remains of my father? I have a wooden platter on the wall I can remember him carving before the days he fell asleep in front of the television. In the bedroom, I have a footstool he helped me make when I was a kid. In the dining room, I have a candle box and some cup holders he made after he retired…” (To read the entire essay, go to https://solsticelitmag.org/content/sifting-through-the-ashes/)
Rick’s recent novel, "Requiem in Stones", is available through Maine Authors Publishing, local books stores, Amazon, and the back of the author’s car. As Richard Hoffman, author of "Half the House and Love & Fury" wrote: “Rick Wile pulls no punches in this urgent novel, taking his protagonist deep into the very marrow of a father’s grief. Tom Jacob’s sojourn becomes, through his encounter with the darkest corners of his complex and cavernous self, a pilgrimage toward peace and a soulful abiding that amounts to a restoration of his devastated faith. The reader who makes this pilgrimage with him may well be similarly restored.”
Rick’s recent novel, "Requiem in Stones", is available through Maine Authors Publishing, local books stores, Amazon, and the back of the author’s car. As Richard Hoffman, author of "Half the House and Love & Fury" wrote: “Rick Wile pulls no punches in this urgent novel, taking his protagonist deep into the very marrow of a father’s grief. Tom Jacob’s sojourn becomes, through his encounter with the darkest corners of his complex and cavernous self, a pilgrimage toward peace and a soulful abiding that amounts to a restoration of his devastated faith. The reader who makes this pilgrimage with him may well be similarly restored.”
Rick's blog, "The Geriatric Pilgrim", comes out twice a month. Here’s one on walking: “Mention 'pilgrimage' and folks usually think of walking the Santiago de Compostela or similar perambulations. Walking is synonymous with pilgrimage. In the Middle Ages, Chaucer’s Canterbury pilgrims walked to the tomb of Thomas Becket, while serious pilgrims walked from Europe to the Holy City of Jerusalem … So maybe one reason I’ve come to see my life as a pilgrimage is that I’ve spent a large part of it walking.” (For the rest go to https://geriatricpilgrim.com/2017/08/)
Rick's blog, "The Geriatric Pilgrim", comes out twice a month. Here’s one on walking: “Mention 'pilgrimage' and folks usually think of walking the Santiago de Compostela or similar perambulations. Walking is synonymous with pilgrimage. In the Middle Ages, Chaucer’s Canterbury pilgrims walked to the tomb of Thomas Becket, while serious pilgrims walked from Europe to the Holy City of Jerusalem … So maybe one reason I’ve come to see my life as a pilgrimage is that I’ve spent a large part of it walking.” (For the rest go to https://geriatricpilgrim.com/2017/08/)
Rick also plays a little old-time banjo. (To listen, check out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaSj9zSuI78)
Rick also plays a little old-time banjo. (To listen, check out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaSj9zSuI78)
And for even more, check out Rick's website at: http://richardwile.com/
And for even more, check out Rick's website at: http://richardwile.com/