Dave Holt

Dave Holt was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, of English, Irish, and Ojibwe(O-jib-way) Indian ancestry. He is descended from a great storytelling family, the Debassiges of West Bay First Nation Ojibwe, notable on Manitoulin Island, Ontario, for preserving the history of their Ojibwe leaders, elders, and warriors for over 300 years. His book, Voyages to Ancestral Islands (Literary Cultural Arts award winner) tells the story. After high school, he began putting poems to music. He moved to the Bay Area to become a songwriter and played with several music acts and wrote music for theater.

He completed a B.A. and M.A. in San Francisco State University’s Creative Writing program. His honors include the Thomas Merton Foundation’s Poetry of the Sacred Prize, the Ina Coolbrith Prize (Nature category), and the Maggie Meyer Memorial Award. The Berkeley Poetry Festival has chosen him as a featured poet. His poems are published in Santa Clara Review, News From Native California (Heyday), Raven Chronicles, Tiger’s Eye, Pedestal Magazine, Spillway Magazine, Bay Area Poets Seasonal Review, and other journals.

His work is in the anthologies Red Indian Road West: Native American Poetry from California; Fire and Rain: Ecopoetry of California; The Marin Poetry Center Anthology (2016, 2019, 2023); Descansos, Words from the Wayside (Pushcart Prize nomination), and River of Stars: Poets of the Vineyard (2022). During his time with the Fellowship, he presented workshops and worship programs at International Conferences and Summer Study conferences. Dave lives in Santa Rosa, California, with his wife Chappell and has a daughter, Kelsey.