Best Local Writer

Tall, lanky, low-key Robert Stewart is a mass of contradictions: He teaches professional writing at the University of Missouri-Kansas City but doesn't consider himself a snooty scholar (the son of a St. Louis plumber, he once worked as a plumber's assistant himself); he's proud of his Italian-American heritage, though his name and Midwestern looks don't seem even vaguely ethnic; he certainly doesn't exude a great deal of charisma, yet he's dated some of the most beautiful women in Kansas City. "Bob Stewart is a classic case of not being able to read a book by its cover," says one longtime admirer. Stewart's first full-length volume of poetry, published in 1988, was called Plumbers. His newest book of essays, published by Helicon Nine Editions in August, is called Outside Language and is, he says, "the search for creating a life as an artist." He takes offbeat side trips on his journey, including an unexpected stroll into the middle of San Francisco's Gay Pride Parade. "I'm not an academic poet at all," Stewart says, even though his vita includes his longtime role as director of the Midwest Poets Series and editor of New Letters. "I feel very close to ordinary life." His writing, on the other hand, is extraordinary.