David Pearson Etter (March 18, 1928 – July 10, 2015) was an American poet. He was known for poems evoking small-town midwestern life. His most famous volume was written as 222 monologues in the voices of citizens of the imaginary community of "Alliance, Illinois,"John Hallwas Nov 13, 2011 Small-Town Stuff: A Visit with Poet Dave Etter,” The McDonough County Voice. http://www.mcdonoughvoice.com/article/20111113/NEWS/311139996David R. Pichaske. 2000. Dave Etter: fishing for our lost American souls. Journal of Modern Literature (23:3/4) [Summer 2000], p. 393-427. which was based in part on his experiences living for many years in his adopted hometown of Elburn, Illinois.Thomas McNulty Remembering Dave Etter: Poet of the Prairie, Dispatches from the Last Outlaw. Monday, July 13, 2015. https://tommcnulty.blogspot.com/2015/07/remembering-dave-etter-poet-of-prairie.htmlDavid R. Pichaske. 2009. Rooted: Seven Midwest Writers of Place, "Ch. 2: Dave Etter: Call it Cornbelt Baroque." University Of Iowa Press.
Reviewing an early collection of his work, poet Lisel Mueller notes that Etter was “strongly influenced by Masters, Lindsay, and Sandburg, he is a chronicler of Midwest prairie towns and the disappearing race of semi-rural people, with their inarticulate dreams and dark secrets”.Lisel Mueller, “Versions of Reality” Poetry, Vol. 117, No. 5 (Feb., 1971), pp. 322-330. Poet Jay Paul noted that Etter converted colloquialism into “a poetic innovation that displays the variety and humor of midwestern speech."Jay Paul, "Dave Etter's Rural Modernism," The Midwest Quarterly. June 1, 1992, p. 385.
Etter's poems have been published in eight foreign countries and translated into German, Polish, and Japanese. He published thirty books and chapbooks of his own poems,Chicago Suburban Daily Herald, July 19, 2015. http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/dailyheral /obituary.aspx?pid=175318715#sthash.aD6q4ard.dpuf which were included in over 100 textbooks and anthologies.Thomas McNulty Remembering Dave Etter: Poet of the Prairie, Dispatches from the Last Outlaw. Monday, July 13, 2015. https://tommcnulty.blogspot.com/2015/07/remembering-dave-etter-poet-of-prairie.html The literary journal Spoon River Quarterly published a special issue in 1983 devoted to Dave Etter, including an autobiographical essay, and interviews with the poet by Norbert Blei, Robert C. Bray, Victor Contoski, Jim Ellege, and Dan Jaffe.Spoon River Quarterly. Spring 1983 issue, Vol. 8, No. 2.
Biography Etter was born in Huntington Park, California. He received a degree in history from the University of Iowa in 1953. He served two years in the U. S. Army. At age 30 he settled in the midwest, living in turn in Evanston, Geneva, Lilly Lake, and Elburn, Illinois.Dave Pichaske, Dictionary of Midwestern Literature, Vol 1, Indiana University Press, p. 181. He was an editor of the Encyclopædia Britannica from 1964 to 1973.Robert Cromie, New Poetry Column to Begin in the Tribune. Chicago Tribune, Nov. 13, 1967. Section 1, p. 19. He was a manuscript editor at Northern Illinois University Press from 1974 to 1980.Center for the Book | Illinois Authors. http://www.illinoisauthors.org/authors/Dave_Etter The Exponent, vol 76, issue 8, Oct. 21, 1976. http://digitalcollections.northern.edu/cdm/ref/collection/nimages/id/34398
Awards He won a Carl Sandburg Award for poetry in 1981-82 for the book West of Chicago.Northwestern University Press | Alliance, Illinois. http://www.nupress.northwestern.edu/content/alliance-illinois He won a Society of Midland Authors Kenneth F. Montgomery Poetry Award in 1967 for the book Go Read the River.Society of Midland Authors. http://www.midlandauthors.com/winners_past.html#1979 He received the Illinois Sesquicentennial Commission Poetry Prize.Chronicaling Illinois, Illinois Sesquicentennial Commission Records, 1965-1969. http://alplm-cdi.com/chroniclingillinois/items/show/332 He won the Theodore Roethke award from the journal Poetry Northwest in 1971.Poetry Northwest. Theodore Roethke Prize and Richard Hugo Prize 2008. http://www.poetrynw.org/theodore-roethke-prize-richard-hugo-prize-2008/
Bibliography Go Read the River (1966), University of Nebraska Press Last Train to Prophetstown (1968), University of Nebraska Press Strawberries (1970), Northeast/Juniper Books Crabtree's Woman (1972), BkMk Press 8x8: New Poems, in Broadside Format (1975), Dunes House Bright Mississippi (1975), Juniper Press Well, You Needn't: The Thelonious Monk Poems (1975), Raindust Press Television (1977), Poetry in Public Places Central Standard Time: New and Selected Poems (1978), BkMk Press Open to the Wind (1978), Uzzano PressReview by Victor Contoski. The Great Lakes Review Vol. 7, No. 1 (Winter, 1981), pp. 63-64. Riding the Rock Island through Kansas (1979), Wolfsong Cornfields (1980), Spoon River Poetry Press Hollyhocks (1980), Pentagram Press West of Chicago (1981), Spoon River Poetry Press Boondocks (1982), Uzzano Press Alliance, Illinois (1983), Northwestern University PressNathan Whiting reviews "Alliance, Illinois," "Cornfields" and "West of Chicago" by Dave Etter. American Book Review Volume 4, Number 6, September/October 1982.Review, "Alliance, Illinois" by Dave Etter, Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, Vol. 99, No. 2, Constitution Making in Illinois (Summer, 2006), pp. 137-142 Home State: A Prose Poem (1985), Spoon River Poetry Press Live at the Silver Dollar (1986), Spoon River Poetry Press Selected Poems (1987), Spoon River Poetry Press Electric Avenue (1988), Spoon River Poetry Press Midlanders (1988), Spoon River Poetry Press Carnival (1990), Spoon River Poetry Press Sunflower Country (1994), Spoon River Poetry Press I Want to Talk About You (1995), Cross Roads Press How High the Moon (1996), Spoon River Poetry Press Next Time You See Me (1997), Wolfsong The Essential Dave Etter (2001), Spoon River Poetry Press Greatest Hits, 1960-2000 (2000), Pudding House Publications Looking for Sheena Easton (2004), Spoon River Poetry Press The Liontamer's Daughter: Poems of Humor and Satire (2008), Red Dragonfly Press Dandelions: New Poems (2010), Red Dragonfly PressReviewed by Lou Roach. Verse Wisconsin Online. http://versewisconsin.org/Issue108/reviews/etter.htmlReview by Thomas McNulty, Dispatches from the Last Outlaw, June 20, 2011. https://tommcnulty.blogspot.com/2011/06/review-dandelions-by-dave-etter.html Blue Rain: New Poems (2012), Red Dragonfly Press The Yellow House (2014), Red Dragonfly Press
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