With a bibliographic note by Paul Merchant

ABOUT THE BOOK

Winterward is the title of the 1954 creative dissertation that William Stafford wrote for his Ph.D. in English at the University of Iowa. This collection contains poems that would eventually be published in West of Your City, Traveling through the Dark, and The Rescued Year. In addition to shining a light on Stafford’s early poetic gifts, Winterward is a blueprint for the themes, tones, and concerns that were central to Stafford’s life as writer, thinker, and citizen. This collection is as much an aesthetic bookmark of a moment as it is a looking glass into a narrative that includes Stafford as a National Book Award Winner, Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, and ultimately as one of the major poets of his generation. 

"William Stafford is a master. He belongs to that category of artists the Japanese have named 'national treasures.' He offers the work of art as well as sharp ideas about the craft. One of his most amazing gifts to poetry is his theme of the golden thread. He believes that whenever you set a detail down in language, it becomes the end of the thread...and every detail...will lead you to amazing riches." 

—Robert Bly, writing in The Darkness Around Us Is Deep

REVIEWS

William Stafford Book Review: ‘Winterward’ is his 1954 PhD Dissertation, by Jeff Baker (Oregon Live)

Tavern Books, by Oregon Cultural Trust

Three Books by William Stafford, by Katie Rensch (Dislocate)

ABOUT WILLIAM STAFFORD

William Stafford (1914-1993) was born in Hutchinson, Kansas, in 1914. During the Second World War, as a conscientious objector, he was interned in former Civilian Public Service camps, an experience he described in Down in My Heart. Stafford published over sixty books of poetry and prose, including Traveling through the Dark, which won the National Book Award. He served as the Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, and taught at Lewis & Clark College for over thirty years. He died at his home in Lake Oswego, Oregon, on August 28, 1993.

72 pages | 5.5 x 7.5 in.
ISBN-13: 978-1-935635-31-4 (paperback)
ISBN-13: 978-1-935635-20-8 (hardcover)