Poetry. David Oliveira's new book shows his stunning narrative breadth and intelligence. Oliveira, whose mentor was Philip Levine at Cal-State Fresno, is a former poet laureate of Santa Barbara now living and teaching in Cambodia. The final poem in this collection is a long tapestry which begins "under the Mekong sky" and illustrates the gorgeous loops of journey. Christopher Buckley describes A LITTLE TRAVEL STORY this way: "poems with such a keen sense of humor...accurate in irony and political content...[t]his is work of an accomplished and gifted craftsman".

Author City: Santa Barbra, CA USA

David Oliveira is a native of California's San Joaquin Valley, born in Hanford and raised in Armona-Kings County towns thirty-five miles south of Fresno. He is a graduate of California State University, Fresno, where he studied poetry writing with Philip Levine. After a career as a grade school teacher in Armona, Oliveira moved to Santa Barbara where he worked in data processing. He was publisher and editor of Mille Grazie Press in Santa Barbara, which published poetry by writers primarily from California's central coast. He was a founding editor of Solo, an award winning national journal of poetry, and he founded, with poet Phil Taggart, the long-running Santa Barbara Poetry Series at the Contemporary Arts Forum. In addition, Oliveira is a recipient of an Individual Artist Award from the Santa Barbara Arts Commission, and in 2000, he was named Santa Barbara's poet laureate. In 2002, Oliveira moved to Phnom Penh, where he makes his home on the bank of the Mekong River with his partner, Vic Thong, and is professor of English at Pannasastra University of Cambodia.

Reviews and Other Links
"Why I Am Not a Vegetarian" on Writer's Almanac