Poems
An Aging Poet Explains
The Cleansing of Mary Magdalene
The problem is that people are like trees . . .
Education
Background
David Southward grew up in southwest Florida and earned degrees in English from Northwestern and Yale Universities. In 1998 he joined the Honors College at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where he taught introductory courses in literature and graphic novels, as well as advanced courses in poetry and aesthetics. In 2026 David retired from full-time teaching to devote more time to workshops and writing. His first poetry chapbook, Apocrypha, was published by Wipf & Stock in 2018, and his collection Bachelor's Buttons appeared from Kelsay Books in 2020. A new collection, Queer Physics, was released by Kelsay in 2025. David's poems have appeared in Able Muse, Alabama Literary Review, THINK, The Classical Outlook, Light, Bramble, New Verse Review, and Naugatuck River Review. He is a two-time winner of the Lorine Niedecker Prize from the Council for Wisconsin Writers (2016, 2019) and of the Muse Prize from the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets (2017; selected by Mark Doty). In 2019 his poem "Mary's Visit" was awarded the Frost Farm Prize for Metrical Poetry. David resides in Milwaukee with his husband, Geoff, and their beloved beagles.
