David Radavich
Past President
 
David Radavich is a poet and playwright committed to social justice. Among his poetry volumes are Slain Species (Court Poetry, London, 1980), By the Way: Poems over the Years (Buttonwood, 1998), and Greatest Hits (Pudding House, 2000). His plays have been performed across the U.S., including six Off-Off-Broadway productions, and in Europe.  America Bound: An Epic for Our Time (Plain View, 2007) narrates American history from World War II to the present, while Canonicals (Finishing Line, 2009) explores "love's hours."  His latest book, Middle-East Mezze (Plain View, 2011), takes readers to a troubled yet fascinating part of our world.  

Radavich has also written scholarly and informal essays on poetry, drama, and contemporary issues and has performed in such far-flung locations as Canada, Egypt, England, France, Germany, Greece, and Iceland. Among his awards are the 2012 Zelda and Paul Gitlin Prize for best essay published on Thomas Wolfe in the preceding year, as well as the 2012 MidAmerica Award for his contributions to the midwestern literature and scholarship.  In addition to serving on the Boards of Directors of the Charlotte Writer’s Club and the North Carolina Poetry Society, he is recent president of The Thomas Wolfe Society and poetry editor of Deus Loci.
 
Among his favorite authors: Torquato Tasso and Czeslaw Milosz.
 
Recent memorable reading: Betty Adcock’s The Difficult Wheel and Tony Hoagland’s Unincorporated Persons in the Late Honda Dynasty.