rivers of the driftless region

“Intensely aware of the ways that violence and humiliation conspire not just to silence voices but also the capacity to think, Mark Conway has written a dazzling quest-rodeo of the inner life. rivers of the driftless region takes us inside the lush, divided terrain of the mind . . .” —Mary Szybist

Past Praise: “Reading these poems, I hear the clatter of my own footsteps through cities of hieroglyphs and pinball machines—a paradise run-through with ghosts, whom Conway conjures with grit and grace. Dreaming Man, Face Down hits me in the head and heart with image after stunning image, and the hard true language of love and regret.” —Tracy K. Smith

Mark Conway, author of rivers of the driftless region (Four Way Books 2019), holds an MFA from Bennington College, and has studied at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, Wharton School, and Harvard Graduate School of Education. He has received residencies from the MacDowell Colony and the Corporation of Yaddo, a fellowship from the Jerome Foundation, a scholarship from Breadloaf (2002), and won a number of prizes, including the 2005 Gerald Cable Book Award, the 2004 Aldrich Poetry Competition, and the 2003 Grolier Poetry Prize. He has worked as a poetry editor for Deadsnake, Apotheosis, and Minnesota Monthly, and is currently a poetry editor for Post Road.