Max Garland's latest book is Into the Good World Again. Previous books received the Juniper Prize for Poetry, Cleveland State Poetry Center Prize, and Brittingham Poetry Prize. Among other honors are an National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Fellowship, James A. Michener Fiction fellowship, Literary Fellowships from the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing and the Bush Foundation, inclusion in Best American Short Stories, a fellowship from the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing, the Arts and Letters Poetry Prize, a Folio Poetry Prize, selected by Naomi Shihab Nye, and literary fellowships from the Wisconsin Arts Board. A musician and songwriter with a local band for over 20 years, his poems and songs have also been adapted for large orchestral and choral performances. In addition to teaching writing at UW-Claire for many years, he's a Fellow at the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters, and regularly reads and advocates on behalf of the creative imagination and power of language across Wisconsin and elsewhere, including readings at the Frank Lloyd Wright Theatre at Taliesin, the 100th Anniversary of Wisconsin Public Radio at the Overture Center, and the 100th Anniversary of the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Originally from western Kentucky, where he worked for almost a decade as a rural letter carrier on the route where he was born, he has served as Writer-in-Residence for the City of Eau Claire and is the former Poet Laureate of Wisconsin.