
Todd Davis is the author of six full-length collections of poetry—Native Species; Winterkill; In the Kingdom of the Ditch; The Least of These; Some Heaven; and Ripe—as well as of a limited-edition chapbook, Household of Water, Moon, and Snow. He edited the nonfiction collection, Fast Break to Line Break: Poets on the Art of Basketball, and co-edited the anthology Making Poems. His writing has won the Midwest Book Award, the Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Prize, the Chautauqua Editors Prize, the Bloomsburg University Book Prize, and the Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Silver and Bronze Awards. His poems appear in such noted journals and magazines as American Poetry Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, Iowa Review, North American Review, Missouri Review, Gettysburg Review, Orion, Poetry Northwest, Willow Springs, Sycamore Review, and Poetry Daily. He teaches environmental studies, creative writing, and American literature at Pennsylvania State University’s Altoona College. Todd’s website can be found here.

Noah Davis grew up in Tipton, Pennsylvania, and writes about the Allegheny Front. Davis’ manuscript Of This River was selected by George Ella Lyon for the 2019 Wheelbarrow Emerging Poet Book Prize from Michigan State University’s Center for Poetry, and his poems and prose have appeared in The Sun, Best New Poets, Orion, North American Review, River Teeth, Sou’wester, and Chautauqua among others. His work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize by Poet Lore and Natural Bridge, and he has been awarded a Katharine Bakeless Nason Fellowship at the Bread Loaf Writers Conference and the 2018 Jean Ritchie Appalachian Literature Fellowship from Lincoln Memorial University. Davis earned an MFA from Indiana University and now lives with his wife, Nikea, in Missoula, Montana. Noah’s website can be found here.
What a great interview. Todd and Noah Davis, each published poets in their own rights, made for a fascinating discussion because of the way they view nature, the world, and their writing, but the fact that they are father and son brought a unique dynamic that made the discussion that much richer. We talk about poetry and writing as “making a life,” rather than “making a living.” We talk a lot about what Todd refers to as, “a way of being more fully present in the world,” and about Noah’s experience being raised by a poet-father. I think this is one of my best conversations so far and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Todd’s books:
- Ripe: Poems 2002
- Some Heaven 2007
- Household of Water, Moon, & Snow: The Thoreau Poems 2010
- Making Poems: Forty Poems with Commentary by the Poets 2010
- The Least of These 2010
- Fast Break to Line Break: Poets on the Art of Basketball 2012
- In the Kingdom of the Ditch 2013
- Winterkill 2016
- Native Species 2019
Noah’s book
- Of This River 2020
Other books mentioned in this episode:
- Hoop: A Basketball Life in Ninety-Five Essays by Brian Doyle
- Thirteen Moons: A Novel by Charles Frazier
- Be Holding: A Poem by Ross Gay
- Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
- Ruthie Fear by Maxim Loskutoff
- Home Ground: A Guide to the American Landscape by ed. Barry Lopez
- The Language of Elk by Benjamin Percy
- In the Valley: Stories and a Novella Based on Serena by Ron Rash
- Serena: A Novel by Ron Rash
- The Nickle Boys by Colson Whitehead
Other people mentioned in this episode:
- Harrison Barnes
- Rick Bass
- Wendell Berry
- Craig Blietz
- Catherine Bowman
- Ray Bradbury
- Chris Dombrowski
- Brian Doyle
- Harlan Ellison
- William Faulkner
- F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Robert Frost
- Ross Gay
- Dan Gerber
- Donald Hall
- Jim Harrison
- Ernest Hemingway
- Lightnin’ Hopkins
- Jane Kenyon
- Robin Wall Kimmerer
- Galway Kinnell
- Maxine Kumin
- Stanley Kunitz
- Ted Kooser
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- Barry Lopez
- Joyce Mateson
- Adrian Matejka
- Benjamin Percy
- Scott Russell Sanders
- Larry Smith
- Lucien Stryk
- John Greenleaf Whittier
Like what you read here? Click the “Subscribe” button on the right side of the page and get each new blog post delivered to your inbox.
As always, please leave your comments below, both good and bad. We love to hear from you.