A Texan Returns to Malta Dave Oliphant, a native of Fort Worth, Texas, moved with his wife Maria and their son Dario from New Mexico to Illinois in 1969. For five years he would teach English at NIU and work toward the PhD. After living briefly in Sycamore, the family came to Malta and rented one side of Del Sandberg’s duplex on Orput Street. During the next four years Dave would write poems about Malta and other places in northern Illinois. Several decades later, after having graduated in 1975 from NIU with his doctorate, Dave would write a memoir about his life and career, with one chapter devoted to his years in Malta. This year of 2025 marks the 50th anniversary since his graduation, and he, his son Dario, and his daughter Elisa, who was born in the DeKalb hospital in 1972, will return to NIU and Malta. Dave’s wife Maria was a native of Chile and had been a librarian in her own country, where she and Dave had met and married in 1966. To remember Maria, Dave will revisit Malta with their son and daughter, read some of his poems on their years here, and speak of the people in the village and in nearby farms who were so welcoming to him and his family. He will share photos of the village and some of its citizens, show a printed copy of a wall tapestry created by Maria in Malta, and tell of a tornado that struck the village in 1973.
Dave Oliphant was born in Fort Worth, Texas. He earned his BA from Lamar University, his MA from the University of Texas at Austin, and his PhD from Northern Illinois University. Oliphant worked at the University of Texas at Austin in various roles for 30 years until his retirement in 2006. He is the author of numerous collections of poetry including Maria’s Poems (1987), which won an Austin Book Award; Memories of Texas Towns & Cities (2000); Backtracking (2004); KD a Jazz Biography (2012), a book entirely in rhyming quatrains; The Pilgrimage: Selected Poems, 1962-2012 (2013); The Cowtown Circle (2014); and Maria's Book (2016). He has contributed significantly to the translation of Chilean poets and has edited numerous poetry anthologies. He has a special interest in jazz studies; titles include Texan Jazz (1996); The Early Swing Era, 1930 to 1941 (2002); and Jazz Mavericks of the Lone Star State (2007).
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