to teach
that words gained strength
from the quiet silence
of what had been first

trimmed and cut away.

“Tools of the Trade”

Karl Plank is the author of The Grace of Falling Things: Poems (Grayson Books, 2024).  His poetry has appeared in journals such as Notre Dame Review, Beloit Poetry Journal,  Zone 3, New Madrid, Tahoma Literary Review, Presence, and Spiritus, and has been featured on Poetry Daily. A past winner of the Thomas Carter Prize for nonfiction (Shenandoah, 1993) and a Best of the Net (2022 and 2025) Pushcart Prize nominee (2025), he is the J.W. Cannon Professor of Religion, Emeritus, at Davidson College where he taught from 1982-2023.

Contact: kaplank@davidson.edu