South Dakota Poet, Author, Storyteller
David Allan Evans is a broadly published poet and storyteller. Professor Emeritus at South Dakota State University, he was South Dakota Poet Laureate for 12 years.
David Allan Evans: Sioux City Native, Athlete
Born in Sioux City, Iowa in 1940, Evans went to college on a football scholarship, and by the time he graduated, he was writing poems and short stories. He has degrees from Morningside College in Sioux City, the University of Iowa, and the University of Arkansas, where he got his MFA in creative writing.
Evans was a professor of English and Writer in Residence at South Dakota State University from 1968-2006. He is the author of five books of poetry, and the author or editor of seven other books.
In 1974, he was the first South Dakotan to receive a National Endowment for the Arts grant. He also has writing grants from the Bush Artist foundation in St. Paul, Minnesota, and the South Dakota Arts Council. His poems, short stories, and essays have been published in many magazines and journals and in over 80 anthologies, including Best Poems of 1969 (The Borestone Awards), Heartland II: Poets of the Midwest, The Norton Book of Sports, The Sporting Life, Imaging Home, Poetspeak, Motion: American Sports Poems, and Fathers.
A number of his poems have been re-printed frequently in well-known sports literature anthologies as well as K-12 textbooks. He has been a Fulbright Scholar to China twice, once in Nanjing, China and once in Guangzhou. He has done residencies for the South Dakota Arts Council, Iowa Arts Council, and Wyoming Arts Council for over 25 years. He is listed in Contemporary Authors, International Authors and Writers Who’s Who, and Who’s Whos in America.
Books by David Allan Evans
Poetry collections
- the Carnival, the Life
Settlement House Press, 2013 - After the Swan Dive (chapbook)
Finishing Line Press, 2009 - This Water. These Rocks.
San Francisco Bay Press, 2009 - Each Day you’re Gone (chapbook)
Red Dragonfly Press, 2008 - The Bull Rider’s Advice
Center for Western Studies, 2003 - Decent Dangers
Mellen Poetry Press, 2000 - Hanging Out With the Crows
Bk Mk Press, University of Missouri-Kansas City, 1991 - Real and False Alarms
Bk Mk Press, 1985 - Train Windows
Ohio University Press, 1976 - Among Athletes (chapbook)
Folder Editions, 1970
Other Books by David Allan Evans
- Shortcut and other Stories (chapbook)
Sandhills Press, 2000 - Remembering the Soos (memoir)
Plains Press, 1980 - What the Tallgrass Says (Writer and General Editor)
Center for Western Studies, 1982 - Double Happiness: Two Lives in China (journals, with Jan Evans)
University of South Dakota Press, 1995 - New Voices in American Poetry (editor)