Faculty Spotlight: Joseph Monninger

Photo Credit: Field Martin

Sporting his signature flannel and down vest, khaki pants and worn L.L. Bean boots, Joseph Monninger may seem like your average outdoor-loving, PSU professor. Behind the New England wear is a successful author who has published over fifteen novels and three non-fiction books, written for numerous acclaimed magazines such as Sports Illustrated and Scientific American, and received several awards from the National Endowment for the Arts and YALSA, the American Library Association. 

Monninger grew up in Westfield, New Jersey and attended Temple University in Pennsylvania. When asked when his passion for writing began, Monninger thought back to his childhood years. “I think childhood is the inspiration for most people,” said Monninger. “Fitzgerald always said that anybody who’s lived to the age of 25 has enough experience to write the rest of his or her life. Think about all the things that happen to you... Your brothers, your sisters, your parents... Disappointments, sadness, all sorts of things. All of that human drama is compressed into a very vivid period of time when you’re a little kid.” 

While his childhood may have initially sparked his desire to write, Monninger didn’t hone his craft until he worked with the Peace Corps. With a lust for travel, Monninger applied to the Peace Corps during his senior year of college and was accepted later that spring. He served as a volunteer in Upper Volta, now Burkina Faso, West Africa from 1975-77. “When I was in the Peace Corps, I spent a lot of time reading. I really read in a profound way, in a way that I haven’t read since, just because I had so few demands in my time. There was no electricity, no running water, no internet, no phone, nobody really disturbing you,” said Monninger. “It was the first time I had to sit and collect my thoughts, to think about what makes up a story and why we bother telling them at all.” From there, Monninger’s knack for storytelling unfolded.

As a licensed New Hampshire Fishing Guide and an avid sled dog competitor, Monninger’s love for the outdoors certainly translates into his works. Most of his novels are set in New Hampshire or Maine, portray well-developed characters, and involve complex plots that appeal to a wide range of audiences. Monninger has written adult fiction, young adult fiction, children’s fiction, non-fiction, and memoirs. “I like [writing] everything,” said Monninger. “It’s essentially the same set of muscles, you just do it a little bit differently. It’s about writing, it’s about forming characters, seeing characters, giving them emotion. It’s the same exercise, more or less, with all [genres].”

With years of experience behind him, Monninger stays true to his writing routine even today. Monninger writes in his son's long-forgotten play fort. Once his son lost interest in the cabin, he expanded it and built a wood stove inside. “There’s no electricity, no running water, no internet, so I can actually get something done,” said Monninger. There, with his cup of coffee and his beloved dog, he writes every day. “My emphasis is to be there and to write, and that’s it.” 

Monninger’s newest novel, Whippoorwill, will be hitting the bookshelves September 1, 2015. “It’s a story of reclamation,” said Monninger. The book follows sixteen-year old Clair who dreams of leaving her rural New Hampshire life behind until she meets a black dog named Wally. The connection she forms with Wally, as well as with Danny, the eighteen year-old boy next door, will surely make for a classic. 

His advice to aspiring writers? “Write every day, write regularly. Take it seriously. Also, be realistic about what publishers are looking for. Go visit a bookstore, see what’s out there so you have some idea. Generally people read novels, so you have to come up with a novel idea or a non-fiction idea that is producible by the publisher in a such a way that they can make something out of it.”        

Monninger urges his students and, especially aspiring writers, to be weary of the old adage “Write what you know.” “I never believed that,” said Monninger. “What I do think is that you should write what you understand. So if you can understand what it’s like to be something, then you can write from that point of view. I think the best writers have the best sympathy for characters. They understand what it’s like to be human.”