Dan Denton wrote poetry and short stories in the obscurity of rustbelt factories, and through a gauntlet of addictions, homelessness, rehabs and multiple divorces. His first poem was published at the age of 34, and at 36 he won the Toledo City Paper’s annual poetry contest. Since then his work has appeared in countless zines, magazines, union trade journals, newspapers, and small press anthologies around the world, and he has been voted as the City of Toledo’s best writer. He spent over 25 years laboring in the blue collar world, including a decade spent as a union autoworker, where he was fortunate to serve as an elected chief union steward, and as a constitutional delegate to the international UAW’s annual bargaining and negotiating conventions. He took an early retirement for health concerns and to be able to spend more time writing, and now lives in an old, tiny travel trailer that he has dubbed “the Scrapes of Wrath.” He is 18 years California sober.