MEL DONALSON: There was a moment when I was very, very young-- I was in elementary school-- and one of the tasks for the day at school was to write a poem. So I wrote this poem-- something that resembled a poem. And I took it home and showed it to my mother. And her reaction to what I wrote was the thing that connected me with the power of the word, because it was such a wonderful reaction, and I could see that she was so pleased. And in a sense, that was one of the earliest examples, when I was in fifth grade, of how language and words could affect people.
But the actual moment, perhaps, that really inspired me to pursue writing and to see it as a serious pursuit was my senior year in college-- undergraduate school. I had a professor of English who was a poet. And he encouraged me to send my poem out-- or a poem out-- to this competition and-- because he had read something previously. And the poem was accepted into a national review of college poetry that year. And I said, well, maybe this is something that I could find fulfillment in. And that was really the kind of "Eureka!" moment that you mentioned.