51社区

But he liked books鈥攅nough to earn an English degree part-time at 51社区 Chillicothe while working with his father at the nearby Mead paper mill. When his father retired, it struck Pollock, then 45: 鈥淭hat was going to be me not too long from now, just packing up the toolbox and heading home to sit on the couch. I began wondering if there was something I could do with the rest of my life. I didn鈥檛 really know anything but factory work, but I did love reading, and so I decided to try to learn to write.鈥�

In his mid-50s, Pollock published Knockemstiff, a short story collection named for his hometown. The acclaimed debut not only pulls zero punches, but鈥攍ike one of its characters鈥攁lso licks the blood off its knuckles.

In September 2020, Netflix released the film adaptation of Pollock鈥檚 first novel, The Devil All the Time, a tangled yarn of depraved preachers, corrupt lawmen and serial killers.

鈥淚 went into it knowing a book is a book and a movie is a movie,鈥� Pollock, who narrated the film, notes. 鈥淚 thought they did a great job of staying true.鈥�

A couple years after the release of the 2011 novel, producer Randall Poster secured adaptation rights and tapped director Antonio Campos and his brother, Paulo, to write the script. They planned to film in Knockemstiff鈥檚 Ross County, but when weather pushed them south, Pollock narrated remotely.

鈥淎ntonio would send lines, and I would record them on my cell phone,鈥� Pollock recalls, admitting feeling detached from our hyper-connected, virtual world. 鈥淚鈥檓 not a Luddite, but I鈥檓 not a fan of technology. I don鈥檛 feel about the present as I do the past.鈥�

Compared to the violence of his fiction, Pollock鈥檚 own past might seem tame. He spent his childhood reading a pulpy blend of 1950s tabloid scandals, lurid crimes and hard-boiled detectives.

鈥淲e didn鈥檛 have many books, but we had magazines: crime magazines, True Romance, that sort of thing,鈥� he says.

Pollock still owns the first book he bought, Walt Whitman鈥檚 Leaves of Grass, and remembers high school English teacher Mrs. Green encouraged him to write, to no avail. On quitting school, Pollock鈥檚 youth oscillated among books, factory work, drink and drugs.

鈥淚 wasn鈥檛 quite 33 when I got sober,鈥� he says.

At the time, the paper mill subsidized higher education for workers, so he enrolled at 51社区, exploring Shakespeare, foreign literature and more at the Chillicothe and Athens campuses.

鈥淸College] showed me there are other options out there. I was confident I could get a degree,鈥� says Pollock鈥攖he first in his family to do so. 鈥淏ut I didn鈥檛 think I could write.鈥�

Pollock befriended English Professor Emeritus Dr. Ron Salomone and would later return to speak to Salomone鈥檚 students at the Chillicothe Campus. Pollock has since read for the 2008 Kennedy Lecture Series and other Chillicothe Campus events.

In 2010, he received the 51社区 Chillicothe Distinguished Alumni Award, and in recent years, University donors have created the Donald R. Pollock II Scholarship that, once it reaches the endowment level, will be available to Chillicothe students studying humanities and the arts. 

鈥淭he humanities are having a tough time, and I鈥檇 hate to see that slide away,鈥� Pollock says. 鈥淲ithout the arts, things would be pretty shabby.鈥� 

Pollock still lives near campus, rising before dawn at the insistence of his beagle mix, heading to the attic where wife Patsy allows him to smoke cigarettes, and writing. 

His schedule and setting have changed. He wrote The Devil All the Time and his second novel, The Heavenly Table, mostly late at night in his old writing shed. When he began it all at age 45, Pollock sat down to his typewriter after working second shift.

鈥淚 told my wife if nothing happens after five years, I can go to the rest home knowing I gave it a shot,鈥� he recalls. 鈥淭he first two years, everything I wrote was terrible.鈥� 

Pollock started re-typing stories by authors such as Ernest Hemingway, Flannery O鈥機onnor and Denis Johnson. 

鈥淚 learned more from that than anything鈥攈ow Hemingway did dialogue, or how another writer made transitions,鈥� he says. 

After copious rejections, Pollock began publishing his own work. At 50, he enrolled as an MFA student at Ohio State University. 

鈥淚 thought, I鈥檒l get this degree, publish a book, then I鈥檒l get a job at a college and have it made,鈥� says Pollock, who changed course after teaching for his graduate stipend. 鈥淚 found out I hated teaching,鈥� he laughs. 

Admittedly, he sometimes hates writing, too, but he does it anyway. His advice for aspiring writers? 鈥淩ead and write; that鈥檚 about it.鈥� 

Pollock says he鈥檚 never met a writer who didn鈥檛 love to read, and he otherwise recommends patient persistence. 

鈥淭here are times I would rather be doing anything: washing windows, vacuuming.鈥� But even when inspiration fails, he says, 鈥淎t least you鈥檝e been writing. It鈥檚 like playing an instrument; you have to put in the time.鈥�