Murphy, 56, is a professor at Penn State Altoona. “Human Resources” is Murphy’s tenth poetry book. She is also the editor of several anthologies of poetry and prose, including a collection of essays on healthcare. She’s served as the Poet Laureate of Blair County since 2022.

De Prospo, 75, is the Ernest A. Howard Professor of English and American Studies at Washington College in Chestertown, Md.,where he’s taught for 50 years and is its longest tenured faculty member. His previous works were books on Edgar Allan Poe, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Jonathan Edwards and literary theory.

De Prospo’s latest scholarly work published May 17 by Algora Publishing of New York, N.Y., is entitled “Exceptionally Backward: Economic, Racial, Gender and Generation Inequality in a Neo-Colonial U.S.”

It focuses on how ancient discriminations “were baked into the founding documents such as the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the Federalist Papers and the writings of Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison. They persist into contemporary United States in ways that are basically making inequality very, very easy to defend.”

Murphy’s book, “Human Resources,” was published June 2. Courtesy photo

Murphy’s book, “Human Resources,” was published June 2 and is a collection of documentary poetry about labor and employment. Her publisher is Grayson Books of Hartford, Conn.

The subjects range from a personal account of her grandfather’s job in a helicopter plant to poems about Hurricane Katrina rescue workers, migrant farm laborers, and Chinese cell phone manufacturers.

The couple has four adult children and through a relationship with a Siamese cat breeder, has three “retired” Siamese cats whom they spoil.

Their daily conversations include a lot of these issues in their books.

“These are things we discuss over dinner or during car rides. Rich takes them in one direction, and I take them in another,” Murphy said. “A lot of our conversations end up feeding into what we’re writing and what we’re teaching so it all feels sort of interconnected.”

Courtesy photos Shown above are the covers of the new books of Erin Murphy (left) and Richard De Prospo. De Prospo’s book, “Exceptionally Backward: Economic, Racial Gender and Generation Inequality in a Neo-Colonial U.S.,” was published May 17. Courtesy photo

What they share is an awareness and recognition of economic injustice.

“We were working on these books independently, so it’s remarkable that they both share a theme of compassion for the underprivileged,” observed De Prospo.

They also help each other in a practical sense, for it was Murphy who suggested the framework for his book’s introduction.

“Erin also comes up with clever cover designs,” he said, adding that the press designer incorporated Murphy’s idea into the cover of “Exceptionally Backward. It shows the “We the People” text backwards.

“Rich may not be a poet, but he gives excellent feedback,” Murphy said. “He is always my first and best reader.”

She began working on the book in 2014 and finished it early this year. In addition to extensive reading for the book, she conducted research in archives and at historical sites, such as the Emma Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center in Austin, Texas, and the Whitney Plantation in Wallace, La.

Award-winning writer Brian Turner calls the book “a love song to the profound work of survival,” observing that the poems “examine social and environmental injustice” while highlighting “people who rarely make it into verse.”

De Prospo began his book in spring 2020 during the COVID-19 lockdown and completed it last fall. He read more than 250 books, articles, and other sources for the project. He’s a familiar site to those walking to the nearby Blair Regional YMCA because on nice weather days, he reads on their porch.

Despite the seriousness of the subject matter, Exceptionally Backward also contains humor and references to popular culture. For example, the book opens with a cartoon by Kaamran Hafeez. Under an image of the Founding Fathers signing the U.S. Constitution, the caption says, “Whatever we do, we don’t put in a comments section.”

American Book Award winner Darryl Dickson-Carr says Exceptionally Backward is “deeply researched and argued with passionate complexity” and concludes that “We need this book.”

Both books are available to order from local bookstores and online retailers, including Barnes and Noble and Amazon.

De Prospo’s willingness to commute to Maryland and elsewhere during their marriage is evidence of their true love, Murphy said.

“I feel grateful that he’s been willing to do the drive because it’s allowed me to have my career here,” she said. “A lot of times in academia, there aren’t many tenure track positions in different fields. The year I was applying (at Penn State) there were four positions worldwide in poetry that were tenure track. We were lucky that it was close enough to Maryland that we didn’t have to have airlines involved.”

The couple is already at work on their next projects. Murphy is editing an anthology of poems about labor and employment. “The Book of Jobs: Poems About Work” will be published by “ONE ART: a journal of poetry” in the fall. For De Prospo, a work about Joseph Conrad’s novel “Heart of Darkness.”

Mirror staff writer Patt Keith can be reached at pkeith@altoonamirror.com

If you go

“Human Resources,” by Erin Murphy, a community poetry workshop and reading event

Community Poetry Workshop: Write a Poem about Work from 1-3 p.m. followed by a reading by Murphy and workshop participants.

WHEN: Both events are Sept. 7

WHERE: ArtsAltoona, 2212 Sixth Ave., Altoona

While free, pre-registration for the workshop is required. The reading is open to the public. To register, call ArtsAltoona at 814-770-6631 or email at info@artsaltoona.org. Space is limited, and registrations will be taken until all spots are full.

Human Resources: A Staged Reading of Poems by Erin Murphy

WHEN: 7 p.m. Oct. 2

WHERE: Misciagna Family Center for the Performing Arts, Penn State Altoona

Area actors and public officials will act out the various perspectives found in her latest book under the direction of Jonathan O’Harrow