Steven Owen Shields

Biography=

Steven Owen Shields (born 1952 in Marion, Indiana) is an American poet, composer of micro-fictions, and professor of mass communication. He is the author of two full collections of poetry, Daimonion Sonata (Birch Brook Press, 2005) and Creation Story (Brick Road Poetry Press, 2019), as well as a self-published chapbook Valentines for Many People (2012). He also has edited a collection of his great-grandmother’s poems, Friends and Neighbours: The Poems of Edna Rice Crane (2018).

Contents Biography Works Notes References External Links

Biography Steven Owen Shields was born on September 28, 1952, the oldest son of Conrad and Jessamine Shields. His father was a communications engineer for the Indiana and Michigan Electric utility company (today AEP); his mother worked as a secretary in the Marion Public School system. In addition to Steven, three younger brothers constituted the family: Jeffrey Allen, Randolph Conrad and Brian Crane Shields. Shields’ interest in poetry was awakened by his grandfather Charles T. Thorne, who lived with his wife Carol near the family home during Shields’ formative years. Thorne was widely read and shared the poetry of Hoosier poet James Whitcomb Riley with him. Shields also read his father’s book club collection of “golden age” science fiction. This led to the publication of his first work in Marion High School Excalibur, an apocalyptic poem about the aftermath of a nuclear war. Radio career Shields attended Ball State University and graduated in August 1974 with a BA in Radio-TV-Film and a minor in English. While attending, Shields discovered an interest in radio announcing while working for a carrier-current AM station housed in his dormitory. In 1971, he worked for WBAT-AM, Marion first as a part-time weekend announcer and later as the overnight show host. In 1973, Shields left WBAT for WGOM-AM and WMRI-FM, Marion. In early 1974, he began working for WNAP-FM, Indianapolis as a part-time weekend announcer while completing his senior undergraduate year. Shields eventually became the overnight show host at WNAP-FM, using the air name “Majik Mitch.” He stayed with WNAP until late 1979, working as an all-night announcer, music director and coordinator of call-out music research for other Fairbanks Broadcasting company stations. While working part-time, Shields also was program director for WHON-AM, Centerville, Indiana and completed a Master’s Degree in Journalism at Ball State in late 1978. In 1980 Shields began work for an Indianapolis suburban weekly newspaper chain, Topics Newspapers, Inc. Shields eventually was made the editor of the Noblesville Topics and the Northside Topics. At the same time, he also worked as a part-time weekend announcer for WIKS-FM (KISS-99), a suburban Indianapolis station. University teaching Dissatisfied with both radio station and newspaper employment, Shields located a university instructor position of broadcasting at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and moved to Wisconsin in August 1980. In October 1980, he wed Janet Jones of Indianapolis, who had been one of his assistants at WNAP. Shields taught at UW-Whitewater from 1980 – 2000, earning a Ph.D. in Mass Communication from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in late 1988 and earning the rank of tenured full professor by 1995. The university also had a student-run broadcast FM station, WSUW-FM, which Shields supervised from 1980 to 1993. Shields’ two children were born during this period: son Bradford in 1987, daughter Alyson in 1991. Although Shields wrote and published numerous scholarly articles and conference papers during his 20 years at UW-Whitewater, he authored no poems or other creative works. Wife Janet meanwhile had worked steadily in customer call center management and training. In 1997 she was offered a position in the Atlanta area for Witness Systems, Inc., a maker of recording and training software for the customer call center industry. The family soon moved to what is today Johns Creek, Georgia. Shields left UW-Whitewater in 2000, not resuming his academic career until 2010 at the University of North Georgia (then Gainesville State College) in the Department of Communication, Media and Journalism. In addition to teaching and research, he is an adviser to campus webcast station WVNG-DB. Poetry During a sabbatical year in 1998 and a subsequent return year to Wisconsin in 1999, Shields’ interest in creative writing reawakened. After a failed attempt at a novel in 2000, he turned his attention to a serious study of the poem while searching for work as a professor and serving as a stay-at-home father. At first, his poems were heavily metrical and rendered in forms. After publishing some early work in literary magazines, a privately-printed sampler chapbook Ten Poems appeared in 2001. His first full collection, Daimonion Sonata (Birch Brook Press) was published in 2005 with each poem’s form listed in the table of contents. Subsequent interaction with local poets, attendance at workshops and involvement with groups like the Georgia Poetry Society led Shields to form a more surreal and relaxed poem. During this time he also began to compose micro-fictions, or “prose poems.” His 2019 collection Creation Story from Brick Road Poetry Press was the result of this interplay.

Works Ten Poems, privately printed, 2001. Daimonion Sonata, Birch Brook Press, 2005, ISBN 0-913559-92-x Search this book on . Valentines for Many People, self-published, 2012, ISBN 9780615572901 Search this book on . Friends and Neighbours: The Poems of Edna Rice Crane (ed.), 2018, ISBN 9781974335671 Search this book on . Creation Story, Brick Road Poetry Press, 2019, ISBN 978-0-9979559-7-2 Search this book on . Notes References External Links

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