Maryfrances Wagner

Maryfrances Wagner is the author of several collections, including Solving for X (Spartan Press, 2022); Red Silk (BKMK Press, 2022), winner of the Thorpe Menn Literary Excellence Award; The Silence of Red Glass (Bob Woodley Memorial Press, 2018); The Immigrants’ New Camera (Spartan Press, 2018); Light Subtracts Itself (The Mid-America Press, Inc. 2008); and Salvatore’s Daughter (BKMK Press, 1995). 

Wagner serves as president of The Writers Place (TWP) in Kansas City. She also chairs the TWP’s programming committee, where she helps sponsor and promote emerging and established writers. She has also been a member of the American Poets Project Series board, as well as a member of the board on Kansas City Creates. Wagner currently coedits the literary journal I-70 Review, where she has been a staff member since 2010.

The Missouri Arts Council selected Wagner as the Independent Artist of 2020. Wagner served as poet laureate of Missouri from 2021 to 2023.