David Romtvedt was born in Portland, Oregon, and raised in southern Arizona. He is a writer and a musician. A recipient of two NEA fellowships, the Pushcart Prize, and the Wyoming Governor’s Arts Award, David served as the poet laureate of the state of Wyoming from 2003 to 2011, his work has appeared in numerous magazines, and he has published books of fiction, poetry, and essays including Gernikako Arbola, translations of the nineteenth century songwriter and poet Joxe Mari Iparragirre, and the 2021 poetry collection No Way, an American Tao Te Ching. He is a multi-instrumentalist and for many years played dance music of the Americas with the Wyoming-based band the Fireants. He is an ambassador of Basque culture and plays trikitixa, a two-row accordion designed specifically for Basque music. Romtvedt served as the program manager for the Centrum Foundation’s Festival of American Fiddle Tunes and International Folk Dance and Music Festival and continues to work with the Children’s Band Lab program at Fiddle Tunes. He lives in Buffalo, Wyoming, with his wife, the potter Margo Brown.
Interviewed by Raquel Paraíso, 09/10/2020.