Dr. Allen Gee. If you’re an English major, the name is all too familiar. But, even those of other majors are aware of his presence. How can you not be? This man has done it all. Not only has he been a professor at GCSU for ten consecutive years (as he says, “The years have flown by”), but he discovered his love of writing in 1984, and has been writing ever since. Not only does he take the time to write at any chance he gets, but he’s dedicated his life to teaching students how to perfect their own works of literature. It’s Dr. Gee’s own love of writing that influenced him to teach others to write, and he’s still going strong.
Dr. Gee is among the greats, yet he’s always modest, soft-spoken, and kind. The first time I met Dr. Gee was as a freshman at GCSU. I was still learning the ropes of college life, and getting a feel for the creative writing major. I can clearly remember sitting in Dr. Gee’s three hour long class as we discussed all genres of literary writing. It was in his class that we learned that genre didn’t mean horror or sci-fi, but was instead a word used for different subsets of literature. We learned that in order to write a fantastic piece of literature, you had to dive deep into yourself, and write about what you know. “Avoid clichés,” Dr. Gee would say, “and remember to write about what you know: the human condition. We’re all capable of that.” And so we wrote. After some time, some kids dropped the class. Meanwhile, others stayed, inspired by Dr. Gee’s words.
“I recommend that they read as much literary fiction, nonfiction, or poetry as they can,” Dr. Gee tells me, advice to incoming freshmen. I nod. That was something everyone did more of when coming to college. That’s how many find their love for writing, in fact. I wonder how Dr. Gee found his love, and ask. “I had two terrific professors,” he says, “the writers John Yount and the late Thomas Williams while at undergrad at the University of New Hampshire. They would tell me about their writing lives and their teaching lives, and it sounded idyllic.” This idealism is something Dr. Gee tries to impress upon his students. If not consciously, unconsciously. The more his students learn from him, the more motivated they are to follow in his footsteps. The creative writing major at GCSU is big and getting bigger. Every year students must apply, and every year less and less students make it in; it becomes that much more inclusive. But for good reason. If you want to be a writer, you must live, eat, and breathe writing, just like Dr. Gee. If you’re not serious about writing, Dr. Gee will change that, one class at a time.
“One of the best rewards about teaching is seeing when a student ‘finishes’ a whole story, when they reach the point where they’ve achieved having a strong beginning, middle, and end,” Dr. Gee says. “Because students who finish stories have really learned to make art with language, and I think that’s a terrific accomplishment, one that can carry into a student’s life and future in other ways.” Writing is an art form, and Dr. Gee is aware of this. When people ask what to do with a degree in creative writing, Dr. Gee would undoubtedly say, “Use it to inspire.” Just as Dr. Gee inspired me and many others to write, those in the creative writing major will graduate, continue to write, and in the mean time, will inspire. We have Dr. Gee to thank for that. Not only has he spoken with many prolific and amazing authors, but he himself is one. Yet, he chooses to teach. This tells us a lot about who he is as a person, and why he was my obvious choice for campus celebrity.
Dr. Gee is currently working on a novel titled Paul and Julia. Check it out when it hits bookstores near you!