johnwalshcopy

From Dr. Seuss to corporate blogs to Sunday op-eds

Thanks to an artifact tucked away by my mother, I know I aspired to be a writer at an early age. Through repeated readings of classics like “Are You My Mother?” by P.D. Eastman and “Green Eggs and Ham” by Dr. Seuss, I fell in love with words and storytelling.

In college, my heroes were James Joyce and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I wrote poetry (mostly bad) and fiction (even worse). But there was a flicker of hope when a non-fiction piece I had written about my dog sneaking into church during Sunday Mass made my writing teacher laugh. She read the piece to my classmates, and they laughed, too. Encouraged, I kept at it.

After earning my English degree, I landed a job as a copywriter at an ad agency. I was thrilled. Someone was going to pay me to work with words every day? That sure beat busing tables at the Turks Head Club, which was the gig I left behind.

I’ve been writing copy ever since, mostly for Walsh & Associates, the agency my brother Rob and I head up.

I’m also a monthly Op-Ed columnist for The Providence Journal, with more than 100 pieces published since 2013, including an updated version of the dog vignette that I wrote in college.

It’s no “Go, Dog. Go!” – one of my favorite children’s books by P.D. Eastman – but I like to think he would have approved.