David Russell Wagoner (June 5, 1926 – December 18, 2021) was an American poet, novelist, and educator.

Biography

David Russell Wagoner was born on June 5, 1926, in

Massillon, Ohio Massillon is a city in Stark County, Ohio, Stark County in the U.S. state of Ohio, approximately west of Canton, Ohio, Canton, south of Akron, and south of Cleveland. The population was 32,146 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. Mass ...

. Raised in

Whiting, Indiana Whiting is a city located in the Chicago Metropolitan Area in Lake County, Indiana, which was founded in 1889. The city is located on the southern shore of Lake Michigan. It is roughly 16 miles from the Chicago Loop and two miles from Chicago' ...

, from the age of seven, Wagoner attended

Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvan ...

where he was a member of

Naval ROTC The Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) program is a college-based, commissioned officer training program of the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps. Origins A pilot Naval Reserve unit was established in September 192 ...

and graduated in three years. He received an

M.A. A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

in English from the

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universit ...

in 1949 and had a long association with the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

where he taught, beginning in 1954, on the suggestion of friend and fellow poet

Theodore Roethke Theodore Huebner Roethke ( ; May 25, 1908 – August 1, 1963) was an American poet. He is regarded as one of the most accomplished and influential poets of his generation, having won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1954 for his book ''The Wa ...

. Wagoner was editor of ''

Poetry Northwest ''Poetry Northwest'' was founded as a quarterly, poetry-only journal in 1959 by Errol Pritchard, with Carolyn Kizer, Richard Hugo, Edith Shiffert and Nelson Bentley as co-editors. The first issue was 32 pages and included the work of Richmond Latt ...

'' from 1966 to 2002. He was elected chancellor of the

Academy of American Poets The Academy of American Poets is a national, member-supported organization that promotes poets and the art of poetry. The nonprofit organization was incorporated in the state of New York in 1934. It fosters the readership of poetry through outreac ...

in 1978 and served in that capacity until 1999. One of his novels, ''

The Escape Artist ''The Escape Artist'' is a 1982 film starring Griffin O'Neal and Raúl Juliá. It was based on a book by David Wagoner, and was the directorial debut of Caleb Deschanel. It was the final film of Joan Hackett, Desi Arnaz, and Gabriel Dell, and t ...

'', was turned into a film by executive producer

Francis Ford Coppola Francis Ford Coppola (; ; born April 7, 1939) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is considered one of the major figures of the New Hollywood filmmaking movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Coppola is the recipient of five A ...

. Wagoner was Professor Emeritus at the University of Washington, but after his retirement from full-time university teaching, Wagoner continued to lecture and teach in various workshop and low-residency writing programs, including the Hugo House and the MFA program of the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts on

Whidbey Island Whidbey Island (historical spellings Whidby, Whitbey, or Whitby) is the largest of the islands composing Island County, Washington, in the United States, and the largest island in Washington State. (The other large island is Camano Island, ...

Poetry and recognition

The natural environment of the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though ...

was the subject of much of David Wagoner's poetry. He cited his move from the Midwest as a defining moment: " en I came over the Cascades and down into the coastal rainforest for the first time in the fall of 1954, it was a big event for me, it was a real crossing of a threshold, a real change of consciousness. Nothing was ever the same again." David Wagoner's ''Collected Poems'' was nominated for the

National Book Award The National Book Awards are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. The Nat ...

in 1977 and he won the

Pushcart Prize The Pushcart Prize is an American literary prize published by Pushcart Press that honors the best "poetry, short fiction, essays or literary whatnot" published in the small presses over the previous year. Magazine and small book press editors are ...

that same year. He was again nominated for a National Book Award in 1979 for ''In Broken Country''. He won his second Pushcart Prize in 1983. He is the recipient of the

American Academy of Arts and Letters The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, music, and art. Its fixed number membership is elected for lifetime appointments. Its headqu ...

award, the Sherwood Anderson Foundation Fiction Award, the

Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize The Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize is awarded annually by The Poetry Foundation, which also publishes ''Poetry'' magazine. The prize was established in 1986 by Ruth Lilly. It honors a living U.S. poet whose "lifetime accomplishments warrant extraordina ...

(1991), the

English-Speaking Union The English-Speaking Union (ESU) is an international educational membership organistation. Founded by the journalist Sir Evelyn Wrench in 1918, it aims to bring together and empower people of different languages and cultures, by building skill ...

prize from ''Poetry'' magazine, and the Arthur Rense Prize in 2011. He has also received fellowships from the

Ford Foundation The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a US$25,000 gift from Edsel Ford. By 1947, after the death ...

, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

Death

Wagoner died in his sleep at a nursing home in

Edmonds, Washington Edmonds is a city in Snohomish County, Washington, United States. It is located in the southwest corner of the county, facing Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains to the west. The city is part of the Seattle metropolitan area and is located no ...

, on December 18, 2021, at the age of 95. He was survived by his wife, Robin Seyfried, and their two daughters.

Bibliography

Poetry collections

Novels

* ''The Man in the Middle'' (1954) * ''Money, Money, Money'' (1955) * ''Rock'' (1958) * ''The Escape Artist'' (1965) * ''Baby, Come On Inside'' (1968) * ''Where is My Wandering Boy Tonight?'' (1970) * ''The Road to Many a Wonder'' (1974) * ''Tracker'' (1975) * ''Whole Hog'' (1976) * ''The Hanging Garden'' (1980)

Edited volumes

* ''Straw for the Fire: From the Notebooks of Theodore Roethke'' (1972) (selected and arranged by David Wagoner) * ''

The Best American Poetry 2009 ''The Best American Poetry 2009'', a volume in ''The Best American Poetry series'', was edited by poet David Wagoner, guest editor, who made the final selections, and David Lehman David Lehman (born June 11, 1948 Theodore Roethke Theodore Huebner Roethke ( ; May 25, 1908 – August 1, 1963) was an American poet. He is regarded as one of the most accomplished and influential poets of his generation, having won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1954 for his book ''The Wa ...

(2007).

References

External links

Biography
at

HistoryLink HistoryLink is an online encyclopedia of Washington state history. The site has more than 8,100 entries and attracts 5,000 daily visitors. It has 500 biographies and more than 14,000 images. The non-profit historical organization History Ink prod ...

David Wagoner
at Poets.org

Poetry Foundation

poem 'In Distress''"
David Wagoner
Sound, Rhythm and Meaning: A Pacific Northwest Chapbook Curated by David Wagoner {{DEFAULTSORT:Wagoner, David 1926 births 2021 deaths 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American poets 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American poets American male novelists American male poets Indiana University alumni National Endowment for the Arts Fellows The New Yorker people Novelists from Ohio Novelists from Washington (state) Pennsylvania State University alumni People from Massillon, Ohio People from Whiting, Indiana Poets from Ohio University of Washington faculty