Dean’s Medalist finds freedom — and a second chance — in literature

When Phoenix resident Wade Sharp was last sent to what he termed “the hole” — solitary confinement in a county jail — he wasn’t sure how long he would be there.

“COVID-19 was just starting out,” he remembered. “I’d heard lots of cell blocks were being locked down indefinitely. I could only bring one book. So I picked the biggest book I could find.”

That book was "Anna Karenina" by Leo Tolstoy. It is a big book, by many standards — usually 800-900 pages and arguably one of the weightiest in terms of historical literary achievement. Sharp had no idea what was in store, however. “I knew who Tolstoy was, vaguely, but I didn't know... you know?”

He considers this his “aha” moment. “I was addicted to heroin, homeless in downtown Phoenix/Tempe for a long time. I was in and out of jail quite a bit during that time for things like shoplifting and possession of narcotics. The last time I ever went back, it was for about a year's time.”

During that year in a county jail, with a pandemic raging and mounting anxiety about the future, Sharp opened the book.

“It took me about a week to read,” he said, “and, considering that I'm here now, having succeeded in an English degree and am pursuing a graduate education in the same field, it's safe to say that book changed my life. I wish I could say it more poetically, but the cliché is true enough: Literature frees your mind. It was a powerful thing. I want to spend the rest of my life trying to understand it and sharing it with other people.”

This fall, Sharp is achieving something that at one point seemed only a dream. He is completing his Bachelor of Arts in English online at Arizona State University with a cumulative 4.26 GPA and has been selected as The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Dean’s Medalist for the Department of English.

The Dean’s Medal committee found an easy task in selecting Sharp for the honor. “His success story embodies ASU’s charter to its fullest,” they wrote. “By granting access to all students and providing pathways for success in the public sector, ASU has done a great service to students like Wade. It’s one for which he is ever so grateful. ‘Instead of being in jail, or homeless or dead,’ he says, ‘I am a Sun Devil.’”

Having been on the Dean’s List since spring 2023, Sharp has contributed creatively and materially to the university and wider community in so many ways. He published two short stories in Canyon Voices Literary & Art Magazine, with one, “The Victory,” drawn from his own experience of homelessness. For his research and creative work, Sharp earned an Online Undergraduate Research Scholarship Award from ASU and the Louis Owens Essay Prize for Excellence in Steinbeck Scholarship from the Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies, where he also participated in a seven-week-long research seminar.

Though proud of these achievements, Sharp’s “greatest success,” as he put it, is applying his love of critical theory and storytelling toward meaningful public service. He won the Department of English’s High Impact Internship Award for his accomplishments in two “high impact” internships. First, at Daybreak Arts in Nashville, Tennessee, Sharp helped housing-insecure artists to sell and create their work for free; and second, at the Pen Project Prison Education Internship, Sharp participated in the education of incarcerated people by providing constructive feedback on their essay writing. Currently, he is interning as a grant writer for Millionaire Grant Lady to craft proposals on a range of social issues including child abuse and senior care.

We talked with Sharp to find out a bit more about his ASU journey.

Question: What’s something you learned while at ASU — in the classroom or otherwise — that surprised you or changed your perspective?

Answer: Learning about Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalysis continues to blow my mind every day. The idea of "the death drive" has really resonated with me as an addict. It's this notion that our individual progression from babyhood into a state of language deprives us of the ability to wholly fulfill our desires. Because language doesn't match the world one-for-one, we lack the ability to communicate our unconscious desires to ourselves and others. Even if we could, they likely wouldn't line up with the mandates of the social order, so we're lost in a perpetual chain of almost-ness, a sort of spiral that circles around the unknowable, unnameable truth of our desire.

It's called "the death drive" because when our unconscious desires do come to fruition, it's as something that feels self-defeating or as a transgression to the opposing force of the ego... (like, say, trying heroin for the first time). I still have a lot to learn, but this has been my favorite perspective to study and from which to apply to literature. If anybody reads this who enjoys Lacan, please forgive me for the oversimplification.

Q: Why did you choose ASU?

A: I flunked out of ASU a long time ago when I became an addict. When I got out of jail, it seemed absolutely impossible to go back. I was a felon. I'd been homeless for a very long time. Anything above "dishwasher" seemed completely out of reach. But I was writing all the time. I'd really fallen in love with words. Going back to ASU to study English again became a dream. ... It was like my promised land, the place where I could prove myself as talented or smart or a good writer, or whatever. I felt like if I could just get back into ASU and do well, then when people find out I'm a felon, they'd choose to see the talent instead. It would be a "success story" and not just a failure. ... I started driving downtown and walking around the campus, looking at the buildings, just dreaming, you know?

Finally, I'd saved up enough cash and paid off the sum of money that I'd owed the school, re-applied, and they let me try again! I guess you could say I chose ASU because I wanted desperately to finish what I'd started so long ago. The faculty, advisors, professors — they all helped me make this dream come true and I can't thank them enough.

Q: Which professor taught you the most important lesson while at ASU?

A: (Professor of English) David Hawkes: “Don't ever write your introductory paragraph first. Always save it for last.”

Q: What’s the best piece of advice you’d give to those still in school?

A: Study only what you love. Intrigue: That's how you find success in school.

Q: What was your favorite spot for power studying?

A: My desk at home in the dead silence.

Q: What are your plans after graduation?

A: I want more than anything on Earth to pursue my master's degree in either English or creative writing. Then, hopefully my PhD.

Q: If someone gave you $40 million to solve one problem on our planet, what would you tackle?

A: I would spend it on putting great humanities programs into Arizona's county jails and state prisons. I would try to work through ASU to set up a program that allows convicts to get their BA while incarcerated in prisons where they currently can't. Everybody deserves an education. Then, once I had my PhD and my MA, I would teach in them myself as Professor Sharp. I would start a literary journal for the incarcerated men and women of this state.

Bonus answer: I would also start a nonprofit that pays for their phone calls home. The cost of making phone calls from jail is exorbitant. Phone calls to family should be free. Lots of studies show that if incarcerated felons are able to be in touch with home, they are more likely to stay clean and out of trouble when they get out.