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HARBINGERS OF BOOKS TO COME: A TEXAN’S LITERARY LIFE

“Dave Oliphant’s voice —as poet, critic, teacher, editor, publisher, historian of Texas jazz, and translator of Chilean poetry—has been a significant one in Texas letters for over forty years. With detail and clarity this new memoir, Harbingers of Books to Come, traces the young Fort Worth boy’s odyssey to Beaumont, Austin, Mexico City, Santiago, and beyond and demonstrates the fullness of a literary life.” 

- Mark Busby, Past President, Texas Institute of Letters; author of Fort Benning Blues

A collection of essays, articles, book reviews, and other writings on Texas poets published in magazines and books between 1973 and 2013.

“When it comes to Texas literature, there has never been a greater champion of the state’s poetry than Dave Oliphant. . . . [He] has established himself firmly as the most knowledgeable and vigorous cataloguer of Texas poets and their work.”—Roger Jones, in Texas Books in Review (2001)

“Oliphant  .  .  .  has dutifully  track[ed]  the  writers  great  and  small,  and  is  the  assiduous  reader  of  each  text  he  writes  about.”  

Paul Christensen, in Texas  Writers’  Newletter  (1983)

"Oliphant has contributed significantly to the development of poetry in Texas, and he is not slowing down."—Lyman Grant, The Texas Observer (1999)

List of Translated Works:

• Anthology of 22 Chilean Poets, Special Issue of Road Apple Review (1972).
• Figures of Speech. Poems by Enrique Lihn (1999).
• Love Hound. Poems by Oliver Welden (2006). Winner of New York Poetry Award (2007).
• After-Dinner Declarations. Poems by Nicanor Parra (2009). Winner of Texas Institute of Letters Book Translation Award (2011).
• Hallazgo y traducción de poesía chilena. (2019). Dave’s  writings on  Chilean poetry, translated by friends or written by him in Spanish.

The exhibit featured Dave’s trumpet he played with The Technicians, the Lamar college dance band,  and on Take Four, an album recorded by the band in 1958. Also on display was his prize-winning poem entitled “An Afternoon of Debussy,” published in the Lamar literary magazine Pulse, which has been publishing student writing since its inception in 1958. Dave's essay on American composer Charles Ives was published in the inaugural issue of Pulse and was  his first publication.

Dave chose TCU, in his Cowtown hometown, to house his

Archive Collections: 

 Prickly Pear Press  1973-1998

Dave Oliphant Bulk Papers 1970-2013

First opened in October 2013, Malvern Books

was an Austin bookstore owned by Joe Bratcher,  founder of the bilingual translation magazine, The Dirty Goat, and publisher of Host Publications (founded in 1988), which published Dave’s poetry collections, Memories of Texas Towns & Cities and Backtracking, and also his translated  works: Figures of Speech by Enrique Lihn; Love Hound by Oliver Welden; and After-Dinner Declarations by Nicanor Parra.

Established in 2013 by Pamela Booton, Lowell Mick White, and Diane  Wilson, Alamo Bay Press has published an eclectic range of books by local and international writers and artists. Alamo Bay has published or issued revised editions of six of Dave’s poetry collections: María’s Book; The Cowtown Circle; Austin: a Poem; KD: a Jazz Biography; The Hero’s Fall I Fell For; and Memories of Texas Towns & Cities.