A man in a suit and flat cap stands in a room leaning against a wall with his arms crossed, while a group of people sit in front of him, blurred in the foreground. An American flag is in the background next to a door.

Mischa Willett is a critically-acclaimed poet and essayist from the Pacific Northwest.

Director of the Whitworth Writers' Workshop MFA in Creative Writing, he holds an MFA in Poetry and a PhD in English Literature from the University of Washington and has published two collections of poetry, Phases and The Elegy Beta. His essays and poems explore the intersection of faith, literature, and the life of the mind. A practicing Anglican, Mischa is also a father of three delightful children and doting husband to a dance artist.

Featured Collections

Recent Work

Essays Source
Gathers his Inheritance: Buechner on Houses and OZ

Frederick Buechner’s “Entrance to Porlock” is a meditation on the oddness of generosity, and on Coleridge, and flying houses.

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Profile in ACU Newspaper

Most schoolchildren countdown the seconds until recess. They look forward to going down the slides and playing games with their friends. However, this was not the case for Mischa Willett, a professor new to ACU this year. In fourth grade, he would skip recess just to read his teacher’s poetry. 

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A Primer

I wrote this poem after the manner of St. John Primus; it’s a mysterious one for me, dream-like in its references to Plato (who I was teaching while I wrote it) but also to St. John of Patmos. It’s considering how the Word sustains us.

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Unto Thyself Any Graven Images

William Blake was not only a painter and a poet, but considered himself a prophet of God, and thought every Christian should be one too. His work has attracted critical attention from its earliest days, and his body of poetic work is among the most-considered we have in English.

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Testimonials

  • DLJ on Willett

    "An absolutely distinctive voice, angular, refractory, often unsettling in flashes of psychological and spiritual insights...A remarkable volume."

    David Lyle Jeffrey

  • JKAS on Willett is best Christian poet

    "Dwell in the lilt of Willett's play. He's dead serious and death-defying."

    James K.A. Smith

  • BM TGC Willett Christian Poets

    "Displays the capacity of poetic language to remind us of the world--its everyday glory and profound peculiarity--that gets lost in the noise."

    Brett McCracken

  • Guite on best Anglican Poet Mischa Willett

    "Here is a striking and original collection which responds to both our biblical and poetic heritage with a fresh contemporary voice."

    Malcom Guite

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Essays

Casual writing on art, miracles, church, poetry, more.

Blog

A collection of best-of lists, travelogue, orphaned thoughts, some photography.

Poems

Individually published pieces that have not yet been made available as a collection.

Newsletter

About once per month, I send invitations to readings, new book recommendations, personal updates.

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My monthly Substack update about publications, church, cultural goings-on.

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