Colo-State-Pen: 18456, A Dark Miscellany

by W. K. Stratton

W. K. Stratton's Colo—State—Pen: 18456, A Dark Miscellany is volume three in the Dreaming Sam Peckinpah Quintet (earlier entries are Dreaming Sam Peckinpah and Ranchero Ford/Dying in Red Dirt Country). The poems and prose deal with pain, sorrow, regret, disillusion, history, family breakdown, and Western landscapes. The title piece of Colo—State—Pen: 18456 is an epic-length poem dealing with Stratton's grandfather, a life-long criminal who served a prison at the Colorado State Penitentiary. In other pieces, Stratton increasingly turns his gaze to la frontera, the border between Texas and Mexico, and the Desert Southwest. Many of the pieces deal with the record of men mistreating women in abhorrent ways, one of the worst offenders being Stratton's grandfather. As with Stratton's previous books, oilfield roughnecks, bootleggers, brawlers, and outlaws turn up. Colo—State—Pen: 18456, A Dark Miscellany is a dirge for lives gone astray.

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W.K. Stratton's first book of verse, Dreaming Sam Peckinpah, was a finalist for the Texas Institute of Letters' first book of poetry award and the Oklahoma book award. His second, Ranchero Ford/Dying in Red Dirt Country, was a finalist for the PEN Southwest poetry award. Colo-State-Pen: 18456 is volume three in a series he calls the Dreaming Sam Peckinpah Quintet. He is the author of four books of nonfiction and co-editor of a fifth, including the award-winning biography, Floyd Patterson. His book about Sam Peckinpah and the making of The Wild Bunch will appear in early 2019. In addition, he has published in such magazines as Texas Monthly, GQ, Outside, Sports Illustrated, and D the Magazine of Dallas. He has been a contributor to the Dallas Morning News for many years. Stratton is a Fellow of the Texas Institute of Letters.