Finalist for the 2013 Oklahoma Book Award for Poetry. 
 
Reviews--
 
Centered in the plains of Oklahoma, this powerful collection of poetry by Ron Wallace invites us to his country where red-tailed hawks circle a landscape made real by the grace of his writing, writing that seems to come from his soul. He is an exciting new voice in American poetry. What grace! -- Billie Letts, New York Times best selling author of Where the Heart Is and Made in the U.S.A., winner of the Walker Percy and Oklahoma Book Awards
 
Elegaic in the best sense of the word, Ron Wallace, in "Cowboys and Cantos," offers tender, dusty elegance that informs us of a rich history composing family, heroes, and the poet himself into the song that is Oklahoma -- a hallowed hymn for all of us here at home, a moving performance that will speak to many others as well! -- Ken Hada, author of Spare Parts  and The River White, winner of the 2011 Western Heritage Award
 
In Ron Wallace's first book, Native Son, my father wrote in the introduction that he'd love to take even the slightest credit for making Ron a poet, but he couldn't. He also said Howard Starks and James Dickey could claim powerful influences. But I think Ron would agree with me, after five volumes of poetry, there is a piece of Dennis Letts in there. My father and mother both have written introductions to Ron's work. They called his writing "powerful, and beautiful, and sensual, and absolutely honest." Now his collection Cowboys and Cantos echoes those sentiments from Texoma to Tulsa. I know Mom is proud and Dad would be too. -- Tracy Letts, actor and playwright; winner of 2008 Pultizer Prize for drama for August Osage County and finalist for the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for drama for The Man From Nebraska