Joseph Amato is the author of some twenty books and countless articles. He’s written about faith, family and life in the Midwest and investigated the meaning of place and home. He’s also taken intellectual and cultural journeys into the human relationship with dust and surfaces. He’s written memoirs about golfing and bypass surgery. Amato taught for more than thirty-five years at Southwest State University in Marshall, Minnesota and helped create the university’s Center for Rural and Regional Studies.
In his latest book,“Buoyancies: A Ballast Master’s Log,”Amato tackles many of the same themes of his earlier works, but this time through poetry. During a visit to the SDPB Radio studios Amato said he likes writing poetry because it gives him more of an opportunity to work with metaphor.