Dave Malone

writer and teacher

Dave Malone was born in Rolla, Missouri. In the mid-1970s when he was six, his family moved to rural Kansas to a small home that overlooked Tuttle Creek Lake. Discovering fossils along an ancient creekbed inspired an interest in history. Listening to Vincent Price’s CBS Radio Mystery Theater on his transistor inspired an interest in storytelling and the macabre. He also ate up books like the Dr. Doolittle series and Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time. In third grade, a teacher introduced haiku to a handful of eager students, and Dave was taken with this combination of math and writing. And his lifelong interest in poetry began.

Encouraged by high school and college teachers to pursue a life of letters, Dave did just that by beginning his studies in Abilene, Texas, then going on to earn a bachelor’s degree from Ottawa University in 1991 and a master’s degree from Indiana State in 1994. For many years, he held a number of fun jobs, traveled, and lived in the Southwest and Midwest. In 2009, he came back to the Ozarks and loves writing about this place that means so much to him.

Dave is the author of 11 works of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and drama. His first book is Poems to Love and the Body (Bliss Station Publishing, 1999) and his most recent book is You Know the Ones (Golden Antelope Press, 2017). Dave’s early writing was commended for its daring, sometimes ribald, nature. His later work has been praised for its refinement, heart, and strong sense of place.

This Game’s Fun

Let’s have some fun out here! This game’s fun,  damn it.

—Crash Davis in Bull Durham

I try not to take my writing (or life) too seriously.

For me, writing is often about discovery, and I find great joy in research. A poem about a dog, a star, an incident, often reveals the wide breadth of the cosmos. That we live on a pale, blue dot. That to see takes time, like having a friend takes time. (Thank you, Carl Sagan and Georgia O’Keefe.)

Moments of insight can occur often if we are open to them. Writing can be a way to navigate the wonderful moments of time—and to give rise to clarity, flow, and action. (Reading, yoga, and meditation ain’t bad for that either.)

Thank you for visiting my site. I look forward to engaging with you in conversation and in the writing life.