Dana's first book, Grace, a collection of poems, was published in 2008 by Spoon River Poetry Press.
Here is an excerpt from the Introduction to The Right Place:
"Read separately, the essays and poems may seem unconnected, stand-alone images or studies of a person, place, event or period of time--a glimpse into what someone thinks, into how a decision affected a community or family. But read together, I hope, the works of this book add up to a broader understanding of the rural prairie and southwest Minnesota in particular."
Here's a sample poem from the book:
"Fence Work"
We hammer and haul
the long steel rods,
once used to bore for
oil--make-shifted now
for cattle fencing. It is
August, sweaty summer
afternoon, the four of us
lugging the rods, drilling
clamps into place, my wrist bone
bruised from rapping it
against stubborn steel.
Piece by piece, the fence
takes shape: a pen, giving
the cattle a few extra
hundred square feet
to pace, chew,
rub their foreheads to
relieve the itch. The work
is hard, good, almost feels
unfamiliar: we are actually
building something.
You can't outsource
a job that demands boots
in the dirt, gauging metal
by feel and fit, pounding posts
with a loader. I sweat, and
the leather work gloves
--"genuine elk skin"--stick to my hands,
but I leave satisfied, the growing
stiffness in my lower back
proof of something done.
-Dana Yost