Murphey, Joseph Colin, 1915-

Joseph Colin Murphey was born on December 13, 1915 in Lufkin, Texas. He was a professor and a poet. Murphey taught English and Creative Writing at Austin College, Indiana State University, Sam Houston State University and Cooke County College. He published over two hundred poems in various poetry journals as well as two complete books of poetry, Trajectories: Twelve Space Poems (Sam Houston State University Press, 1970), A Return to the Landscape (Prickly Pear Press, 1970) and a novella, The Blue Razor Murders (Thomas Cade Publications, 1984). He served as poetry editor for the literary journals Southwest Review and Quartet, faculty advisor for the journals Harlequin, Whetstone and Stone Drum and later published Stone Drum independently for several years. In 1982, he was nominated for the title of Texas Poet Laureate. Joseph Colin Murphey died at the age of 77 in Denton, Texas, on November 25, 1993.