David Wagoner

About David Wagoner

Who is it?: Poet, Novelist, Professor
Birth Day: June 05, 1926
Birth Place: Massillon, Ohio, United States
Birth Sign: Cancer
Occupation: Poet, novelist, professor

David Wagoner Net Worth

David Wagoner was born on June 05, 1926 in Massillon, Ohio, United States, is Poet, Novelist, Professor. David Wagoner is one of the prolific writers amongst the list of modern American literary scholars. Though media glare and attention has always eluded Wagoner, in comparison to his contemporaries, his work has been received with much appreciation and respect. Often compared to his early mentor, Theodore Roethke, Wagoner is best known for his insightful writing and evocative poems, the most notable of which are ‘Staying Alive’ and ‘Lost.’ Though majorly famous as a poet, he is also a skilled novelist with ten popular novels to his name. Born in Ohio and raised in Indiana, the young boy developed an early interest in literature and started writing by the time he was ten. Bright and creative, he was also an amateur magician and interested in the theatre. He served in the United States Navy for a while before graduating from the Pennsylvania State University. He proceeded to earn his M.A. in English from the Indiana University before embarking on an academic career. His deep love for poetry manifested itself with the publication of ‘Dry Sun, Dry Wind’, the first one of his many collections of poetry. He went on to publish two novels in quick succession while also focusing on establishing himself in his teaching career. By the mid-1960s he had successfully established himself as both a much respected teacher and an insightful poet. Wagoner is the recipient of numerous prestigious literary awards including two Pushcart Prizes and the Academy of Arts and Letters Award.
David Wagoner is a member of Writers

💰David Wagoner Net worth: $169.1 Million

Some David Wagoner images

Awards and nominations:

David Wagoner's Collected Poems was nominated for the National Book Award in 1977 and he won the Pushcart Prize 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 award, the Sherwood Anderson Foundation Fiction Award, the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize (1991), the English-Speaking Union prize from Poetry magazine, and the Arthur Rense Prize in 2011. He has also received fellowships from the Ford Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Biography/Timeline

1949

Born in Massillon, Ohio and raised in Whiting, Indiana from the age of seven, Wagoner attended Pennsylvania State University where he was a member of Naval ROTC and graduated in three years. He received an M.A. in English from the Indiana University in 1949 and has taught at the University of Washington since 1954 on the suggestion of friend and fellow poet Theodore Roethke.

1954

The natural environment of the Pacific North West is the subject of much of David Wagoner's poetry. He cites his move from the Midwest as a defining moment: "[W]hen 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."

1966

Wagoner was Editor of Poetry North West from 1966 to 2002 and his play An Eye For An Eye For An Eye was produced in 1973. Wagoner was elected chancellor of the Academy of American Poets in 1978 and served in that capacity until 1999. One of his novels, The Escape Artist, was turned into a film by executive Producer Francis Ford Coppola. He currently teaches in the low-residency MFA program of the North West Institute of Literary Arts on Whidbey Island.

1977

David Wagoner's Collected Poems was nominated for the National Book Award in 1977 and he won the Pushcart Prize 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 award, the Sherwood Anderson Foundation Fiction Award, the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize (1991), the English-Speaking Union prize from Poetry magazine, and the Arthur Rense Prize in 2011. He has also received fellowships from the Ford Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.