David R. Altman, an Ohio native who resides in Hoschton, Georgia, was named Finalist for Georgia Author of the Year (GAYA) by the Georgia Writers Association for his poetry chapbook, Cold Remembered (Finishing Line Press. 2023).
Judges comments included:
“David R. Altman’s book, Cold Remembered, presents an incredible offering of poems in both form and content. The opening poem, “Picking Up My Crying Father at the Airport,” and the gut-wrenching title poem, “Cold Remembered,” display Altman’s dexterity when engaging the reader. Later poems in the collection reflect a skilled and disciplined poet who meticulously demonstrates mastery of rhythm and rhyme. Altman’s versatility offers the reader a potpourri of verse and he does so with great knack and artistry.”
It was Altman's second GAYA nomination, the first coming ten years ago for his chapbook Death in the Foyer (Finishing Line Press, 2014).
Altman's latest poem, "The Last Triple", was published in the August 2023 edition of Beyond Words Literary Magazine. His poem “Picking Up My Crying Father at the Airport” was published in the July 2017 edition of the American Journal of Poetry and his poem “Turning Away from Sarah McLachlan” was published in the December 2017 edition of the Blue Mountain Review.
Altman, 72, is a columnist for MainStreet News, Inc. which operates five weekly newspapers serving northeast Georgia. He has been married for 49 years to his high school sweetheart, Lisa Roberts Altman. They have three grown daughters and seven grandkids. Altman is currently working on a third collection of poems and a memoir.
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Altman's professional writing career has included broadcast news copywriting, corporate speech writing, strategic communication plans, newspaper articles, editorial and personal columns and, most recently, book reviews and author profiles for a number of weekly newspapers in north Georgia. He has also published in the Athens Banner-Herald, atlantadailyworld.com and several literary publications, including the American Journal of Poetry. Altman is also a passionate outdoorsman and edits a blog called georgiabigsticks.com, about tournament bass fishing in Georgia. But poetry remains his first love. He has been nominated twice for Georgia Author of the Year, and was the 2024 Finalist in that category for Cold Remembered. His work has been called "profound", "rare" and "insightful" by some of the country's great contemporary poets.
What are your favorite poems and quotes? Altman shares with us some of his all-time favorites, with classic poems from Dickinson, Auden, Plath & Frost to great contemporary voices like David Bottoms, Richard Blanco, Alice Friman, Ted Kooser, Campbell McGrath, Sandra Meek, Kevin Young, Natasha Trethewey, William Wright, and Matt Zapruder. Besides selected poems by these remarkable poets, you will find some of Altman's favorite quotes--quotes that make us think and feel, ranging from Dante and Angelou to Faulkner and Heaney.