Robert Nordstrom was raised in Ohio, where as a child he climbed trees in suburbia searching for a way up and out. After a stint in Vietnam, a number of years sweating in front of restaurant kitchen broilers, a year in Paris with his wife Linda, he finally found his way to Wisconsin where he obtained an MA in creative writing from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. In 2018, he and his wife moved to Oregon to be closer to children and grandchildren.
For more than 30 years he worked as an editor and writer for various trade and scholarly publications and taught writing at the university level. After retiring he drove a school bus for several years teaching high schoolers how to respond when an adult says good morning and informing kindergarteners that it’s probably best they not lick the seat in front of them.
Nordstrom’s poetry, essays, and fiction appear in numerous national and regional literary publications. His poem “Old Lovers” won the 2014 Hal Prize, and his 2015 collection The Sacred Monotony of Breath garnered honorable mention from the Council for Wisconsin Writers. His collection Dust on the Sill (Kelsay Books) was published in 2023.
Paperback: 88 pages
Publisher: Kelsay Books (April 22, 2026)