W.K. (Kip) Stratton is best known as the author of the nonfiction books Backyard Brawl, Chasing the Rodeo,Boxing Shadows, and the forthcoming Floyd Patterson(scheduled for publication in 2012 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), as well as for his magazine journalism for such publications as GQ andSports Illustrated. But Stratton also has been writing poetry since he was a teenager, and as a college student, he took part in workshops and seminars led by N. Scott Momaday, James Dickey, Donald Hall, William Pitt Root, and William Stafford. Prior to this collection (his first), he has been somewhat reluctant to publish his verse, although some of these poems previously appeared (most in different form) inPoint Riders Great Plains Poetry Anthology, Territory of Oklahoma,Greenfield Review, and Cenizo Journal. He lives in suburban Austin, Texas.

      Read a poem from Dreaming Sam Peckinpah