An English professor with no prior interest in English might seem unusual to some, but that’s exactly what you’ll find in Corbly Hall 329.

Professor Dalton Monk is a Scott Depot native, a Winfield High School graduate and now molds young minds at his alma mater. 

As an undergraduate, Monk said he was hanging out with friends and getting to know his now wife, Jillian, with whom he shares two young children: a little girl and a newborn baby boy.

Monk, himself, isn’t even thirty-years-old and is already known for his approachable teaching style and passion for helping students appreciate literature.

“My goal when I’m teaching classes is to meet students where they are,” he said.

Monk isn’t always teaching a classroom full of English majors, but it’s exciting when he is due to their shared interest and common ground. 

“I love my students,” he said. “I think they’re really talented, and I like to have a friendly relationship with students where they feel like they can call me by my first name.”

Before earning a bachelor’s in English and a master’s in fine arts and creative writing, Monk was on track to be a business guru. 

“I realized I was just an inept businessman, just something my parents wanted me to do,” he said.

One creative writing class persuaded Monk to be in it for the long haul, and now he’s applying those skills to his own short stories and novels. Some are published, and others aren’t quite yet. 

Monk wrote his short story “Twister” right before the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Monk paints a vivid scene of a married couple holed up in a motel awaiting the birth of their child. What unfolds is a blend of dark humor and emotional honesty that keeps readers asking questions. 

The creative process is one of developing images that feel interesting to him, Monk said. 

“I don’t usually think about plots,” Monk said. “I do think about images. I want to get an image of something that will really strike me as interesting.”

He could be on a run and see the most random thing, yet he finds a way to shape it into something new. 

“One day, I was running and found a pillow on a bush or a single shoe on a sidewalk,” he said. “When I see something like that, it makes me have questions. There’s something very goofy about reality.”

Being an only child may have shaped him into thinking this way, he said. 

“I was my own source of enjoyment,” he said. “You don’t have other siblings to play with and have to create the fun by yourself.” 

“Ham’s House Reading Series,” an event pioneered by Monk, serves as a way to show off local talent with live readings at West Edge Factory. 

A fascination with the name Ham shows up repeatedly in projects of Monks, and why? Well, Ham doesn’t mean anything.

“I just think it’s kind of a funny name,” he said. 

In the classroom or on the page, Monk continues to find humor and meaning in life’s small and curious moments. 

Holly Belmont can be contacted at [email protected].