Bill Hotchkiss

Bill Hotchkiss was born in New London, Connecticut, in 1936, but grew up on a small farm near Grass Valley, California, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas. As a boy he became an incessant walker of the woods, a practice he continued for the rest of his life. After high school graduation and after the first of five summers with the U.S. Forest Service, Hotchkiss enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley, where he received the BA in English in 1959. Only one year later in 1960, he received the MA in English from San Francisco State University. From the University of Oregon in 1964, he earned the MFA in creative writing, and in 1971 he received the DA and in 1974 the PhD in English. He taught for 50 years, from 1960 to 2010; 38 of these were at Sierra College in Rocklin and in Grass Valley, California. His publications include some 50 titles, including collections of poems, anthologies of poems by others and himself, essays, textbooks, and many novels. Bill dove deeply into the nature, causes, and meanings of the greatness he found in the works of many poets, philosophers, and natural scientists. His teaching, poetry, fiction, and scholarship were built on the bedrock of their work and on the physical and spiritual world of nature. He was faculty editor of many volumes of the Sierra College literary magazine, and editor in chief of Blue Oak Press (1966) and Castle Peak Editions, regional presses of long standing. In addition to full-time teaching, Bill always wrote ambitiously and consistently. At his death, he left several completed manuscripts. Remembrances of the poet and teacher may be found at http://tinyurl.com/Bill-Hotchkiss-1 and http://tinyurl.com/Bill-Hotchkiss-2.