Milton J. Bates is the author of books about the poet Wallace Stevens, the Vietnam War, and the Bark River valley in Wisconsin. A former Guggenheim Fellow, he has held Fulbright lectureships in American literature at universities in Beijing and Madrid. He is the author of two poetry chapbooks, Always on Fire (Five Oaks Press, 2016) and As They Were (YellowJacket Press, 2018). He keeps his wife, Elizabeth, supplied with copy for her elegant photographs.