David Wagoner was born in 1926 in Massillon, Ohio, where he lived with his family until 1933 when the Wagoners moved to Whiting, Indiana. The industrial town served as inspiration for the settings and moods in much of Wagoner’s poetry. He attended Pennsylvania State University from 1944 to 1947 as a member of the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC). He studied with Theodore Roethke, an American poet credited with inspiring many of his contemporaries and students from the Pacific Northwestern region, including Wagoner.

After graduating from Penn State, Wagoner began pursuing his master’s degree, first at the University of Michigan and then at Indiana University, where he earned the degree in 1949. Wagoner then took a series of teaching … [Wagoner also served as a Chancellor for the Academy of American Poets and edited the magazine Poetry Northwest for thirty-six years, from 1966 to 2002] …positions in Indiana and Pennsylvania, settling in the former to work as a reporter for the Hammond Times but quickly returning to the latter to teach at his alma mater. Back in Pennsylvania, Wagoner published his first of many collections of poetry, Dry Sun, Dry Wind (1953). The next year he moved to Seattle, Washington, to teach alongside his friend, mentor, and contemporary Roethke.

Wagoner’s poetry had always reflected the environment and incorporated his perception of his natural surroundings, so his writing changed when he moved to the greener, more lush setting of the Pacific as opposed to his Midwestern hometown. His second collection of poems, titled A Place to Stand (1958), helped the young poet to define his own individual voice and style. Throughout the myriad of other publications in Wagoner’s career, critics continually find him to be one of the most prolific and talented writers of modern American poetry. He has been awarded numerous honors, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Ford Foundation Fellowship, an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award, and prizes from the literary magazine Poetry. Wagoner also served as a Chancellor for the Academy of American Poets and edited the magazine Poetry Northwest for thirty-six years, from 1966 to 2002.

Currently, Wagoner lives in Washington state and teaches at the University of Washington as a professor of poetry, fiction, and playwriting.