Dave joined Walker’s in 2018 from Florida State University where he completed his Ph.D. He enjoyed teaching for 11 years at the university level but was eager to join Walker’s to be able to spend more time focused on teaching and student growth. Dave’s first book, Some Hard Stars, was published in 2026 by Signature Books, and his poems have appeared widely in national literary journals. He earned a B.S. in English from Weber State University and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from The University of Idaho. Dave is passionate about community partnerships and is the director of Walker’s Community Partnerships program.

What is your favorite part of the subject(s) you teach now?

I love teaching all kinds of writing, and I love witnessing students learning to adapt and employ all kinds of writing, too. It’s a demystification process: students often begin with the feeling that academic essays, or poetry, or proposals are beyond their understanding or capacities, and then we work from inside out to identify and use the parts and pieces that make a text do what it does. It takes iteration and effort of course, but students learn that, too.

What is your favorite Walker’s tradition?

My favorite Walker’s tradition is a relatively new one — the Visiting Writer Seminar. It gives students at Walker’s an utterly unique educational experience — to study one living female or nonbinary writer’s works in depth, and then to host that writer for a week of master classes and community events. Students get the benefits that come from prolonged, deep investment in one writer’s works and also an up-close example of an individual navigating a career and life. Students are always inspired.

Please list any notable publications on which you are author or co-author:

Book: Some Hard Stars (Signature Books)

Poem: “Thanks in Florida” (Orion Magazine)

Do you have a professional website?

www.davidthackerwriter.com