"David Wagoner's study of American nostalgias is as eloquent as that of James Wright." --Harold Bloom

Wagoner, the first city incorporated in Indian Territory, was established in 1896 on the dividing line of the Cherokee and Creek Nations and at the intersection of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railway and the Kansas & Arkansas Railway. For the first half of the 20th century, Wagoner's economy was driven by agriculture, and it became known as the "Queen City of the Prairies." In the 1950s, when the Grand Neosho River was turned into Fort Gibson Lake, the door opened for the establishment of a number of resort enterprises. Wagoner has thrived as a visitors' destination ever since. Today, the only remaining evidence of the earliest civilization is the Norman Site--a small island slightly north of Highway 51 and east of Wagoner at Taylor Ferry--which is home to some of Oklahoma's most prominent Indian mounds.

David Wagoner’s wide-ranging poetry buzzes and swells with life. Woods, streams, and fields fascinate him--he happily admits his devotion to Thoreau--but so do people and their habits, dear friends and family, the odd poet, and strangers who become even stranger when looked at closely. In this new collection, Wagoner catches the mixed feelings of a long drive, the sensations of walking against a current, the difficulty of writing poetry with noisily amorous neighbors, and many more uniquely familiar experiences.

David Wagoner has won the acclaim of his peers and been compared with some of the most gifted poets in the English language. His collections have garnered Poetry's Levinson and Union League Prizes, the Ruth Lilly Prize, and nominations for the American Book Award and the National Book Award. For his most recent collection, Walt Whitman Bathing, Wagoner was honored with the Ohioana Book Award in the category of poetry.

The country music life of Porter Wagoner.

Biographical highlights of seventy-eight figures in Mormon history.