David Meischen

A Pushcart honoree, with a personal essay in Pushcart Prize XLII, David Meischen is the author of Unbuckled: Poems (University of New Mexico Press, 2026) Nopalito, Texas: Stories (University of New Mexico Press, 2024) and Caliche Road Poems (Lamar University Press, 2024). Anyone’s Son, from 3: A Taos Press, won Best First Book of Poetry from the Texas Institute of Letters in 2020. David’s personal essay, published in The Common (Spring 2024) is listed as a Notable Essay in Best American Essays 2025. Cofounder and Managing Editor of Dos Gatos Press, David lives in Albuquerque, NM with his husband—also his co-publisher and co-editor—Scott Wiggerman.

“All the Lost,” “Autography,” and “Crookedest Street in the World”

Upon waking, you rise into the almost-no-longer dark and step into clothing rendered black and white by the dusting of light at the heavily shaded window.

Upon waking, Carat stretches and yawns, curls into her fur-lined basket, embraces sleep again.

Little Boy at Home

On our way to the family reunion west of Yorktown, Texas, we stop at Uncle Anton and Aunt Frieda’s house. Inside, my sister and I wander among the tumbled syllables of German. It is a language we can no more comprehend than the calls of cows and sheep and chickens.
Return to Author Index