David Anstaett

David Anstaett has been, since 1969, an English and creative writing teacher whose students have been recognized, nationally, for their achievements in writing; until he retired in 1998, he also served in the Hickman Mills C-1 School District, Kansas City, Missouri, as a challenging, innovative, and forward-looking administrator in alternative education and gifted education.

Beginning in 1976, Dave became managing editor of The Mid-America Press, Inc.; he has been managing editor of The Mid-America Poetry Review since its beginning in Spring 2000.

Although now nominally retired, Dave continues: Most recently he received the Missouri Arts Award 2003 in the category of Arts Education for the magnitude of his contributions to the development and improvement of teaching and learning about the arts of literature, drama, music, dance, and film in Missouri.

Dave’s approach both to poetry and to the teaching/learning process is exemplified in his poem, “Teaching”: “Just when the pieces are all shaped, / at that exact moment in time /when all the trimming is finished, / when all the puzzle pieces are / placed at the edge of the mold, / at that precise moment, / you realize they have outgrown / the form . . . .”