Photo courtesy of Shana Hansell.
Thomas Bosworth, above, will represent Dartmouth College in the 100th Glascock poetry contest.
By Melanie Duronio ’26
Features Editor
Thomas Bosworth, a senior at Dartmouth College, always knew that he wanted to be a writer. He never expected to become a poet, but after taking a creative writing class he “was bitten by the [poetry] bug and couldn’t stop” discovering new passions and interests through his craft. Now, his work has made him a contestant in the 100th annual Glascock Intercollegiate Poetry Competition.
Mount Holyoke has hosted the Glascock Poetry Competition, which is recognized as the oldest continuously-running undergraduate poetry competition in the United States, since 1923. The competition was made an intercollegiate event in 1924, when other colleges were first allowed to participate. As stated in the Mount Holyoke Alumnae Quarterly, the event serves as “a chance for poets to gain recognition, and [is] an opportunity to have conversations about poetry and writing.”
Vievee Francis and Matthew Olzmann, professors from the Department of English and Creative Writing at Dartmouth College, selected Bosworth as their representative.
Bosworth has attended classes with both of them, and is currently working with Francis on his honors thesis, a manuscript of poems titled “Knotweed.” It covers topics including depression, medication, desire and ecology.
“The ecological side of things was sort of surprising. I did not consider myself a nature poet when I started at Dartmouth,” Bosworth said. “But being in New England, and specifically … in [the] state parks and mountains in New Hampshire has been a really life-changing and gorgeous experience.”
Originally from the Texas suburbs, Bosworth’s move to Hanover, New Hampshire, has served as his “reconnection with the natural world.” In his spare time, he likes to explore the trails and growth forests in the area, observing their ecosystems and how they have developed and diversified. His time in nature has taught him to appreciate the “non-human” aspects of life, such as snails, fungi and plants, which he incorporates into his poetry.
“As someone who has spent a lot of time being very lonely, being in nature has been something that has really eased that for me,” Bosworth said. “There’s a certain joy [in] seeing a mushroom that you’ve seen before and learning to not [just] identify but recognize [it]. … I think developing relationships with the non-human has also helped me to have a better relationship with myself.”
Although Bosworth has written many stand-alone poems, his manuscript is his first attempt at connecting a series of poems together thematically.
“You spend a lot of your time thinking about how your poems are speaking to each other. What images you [have] returned to over and over again, what your obsessions are, what you’re paying attention to,” Bosworth said. “That was really rewarding and challenging in a way I hadn’t dealt with in my poetry adventures up until that point.”
Aside from nature, Bosworth finds inspiration in the every day, with his most recent interest being internet chess. He believes that “the willing[ness] to waste [his] time,” paraphrasing poet John Ashberry, is essential to the process of writing poetry.
““There’s this perception out there that studying English is a useless or non-productive thing to do with your time. And I think that’s actually a pretty naive idea. Language is something that we use all the time to speak to each other. But also … it’s how you speak to yourself, how you perceive the world, and I think paying attention to language is something that everyone can really concretely benefit from.””
Other favorite poets of Bosworth’s include Ocean Vuong, Danez Smith, Bernadette Mayer and Mary Ruefle. He also credits his professor, Matthew Olzman’s, work as being influential to his writing style.
“I actually came to Dartmouth specifically to study with Matthew Olzmann and Vievee Francis. Which is maybe not the best way to choose a college, but I’m certainly glad I did it that way,” Bosworth said.
As a major in English with a concentration in creative writing, Bosworth notes that there is a “false” divide between the two subjects. Although the approaches of both subjects are different, they share the same goal of paying close attention to language. In this sense, Bosworth believes literary scholarship and creative writing have similar values.
“There’s this perception out there that studying English is a useless or non-productive thing to do with your time. And I think that’s actually a pretty naive idea,” Bosworth said. “Language is something that we use all the time to speak to each other. But also … it’s how you speak to yourself, how you perceive the world, and I think paying attention to language is something that everyone can really concretely benefit from.”
As the contest approaches, Bosworth looks forward to meeting the other poets and hearing them read their work. “Something that I didn’t realize how much I missed during COVID was being in person with other poets … and sharing my work in an embodied space, rather than on Zoom. So, I’m really excited to do that. And [to] be at Mount Holyoke and take it all in,” Bosworth said.