Native Son - American Poems from the Heart of Oklahoma by Ron Wallace     Native Son was selected as a finalist for the Oklahoma Book Awards. His book was one of only four in the poetry category.  Oklahoma Book Awards BUY NOW   back to bookstore

"Native Son is a testament to Ron Wallace's hard work and dedication, but what I enjoy most in reading his work is his very apparent deep love of family and our great state."  Oklahoma State Representative - John W. Carey.

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Name : Ron Wallace

Location : Durant, Oklahoma (You can throw a rock into Texas from here)

Age : 51 - Born December 17^th 1953

Occupations : I was a carpenter, a cement worker, a brick layer and a truck driver all in a period of about five years as I went through college to be a lawyer. Two years before graduation, I switched majors to English Education and obtained my Master's in the same field. I've taught English, History, Humanities, Creative Writing, GED Prep. and coached P.E. and baseball at Colbert, Oklahoma Jr. and Sr. High School at different times over the past twenty-seven years.

Family: I come from dust bowl parents who returned to Oklahoma where I was born twelve years after my nearest sibling. I have two brothers and a sister. My Father was a police captain and my mother was a Mom.

I am married to my college sweetheart, Jane, for twenty-four years after a seven-year engagement. We have a fifteen-year old son, Matthew.

Favorite poets : James Dickey, Howard Starks, John Keats, Robinson Jeffers, Henry Longfellow, Jackson Browne, John Keats and a host of EP Poets

Favorite authors : Larry McMurtry, John Irving, Ken Kesey, Mark Twain, William Faulkner, John Steinbeck and of course, James Ronald Ruel Tolkien

Favorite philosophers: Baruch Spinoza, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Michel de Montaign, Albert Einstein, Mark Twain and Jesus Christ

Favorite athletes : Mickey Mantle, Bobby Murcer, Thurman Munson, Don Mattingly, Derek Jeter, Jim Thorpe, Kenny Stabler (They can't all be Yankees)

Other heroes : Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Cochise, Tasunke Witko, Chief Seattle, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Martin Luther King Jr., Robert Kennedy, Jimmy Carter, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Guy Clark, Chris Wall, all Hawks (yes, the bird) and almost anyone who demonstrates a level of genius and humanity at the same time.

How long have I been writing poetry? Since I was around sixteen, in earnest about ten years.

I'm a sports nut, a New York Yankee fanatic for over forty years, an Oklahoma Sooner fan, a former baseball player and an avid golfer. My world revolves around my family and friends. I have an abundance of both making me the luckiest guy I know.

 

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