David Hightower was born into a household with roots in the Kentucky mountains on his mother’s side and the north Georgia mountains on his father’s side. He was raised on farms in the foothills of the Appalachians in Bartow County, Georgia. He became serious about poetry while serving in the army and continued to write during his years as an English teacher at Rockmart Middle School and at Cass High School where he was the advisor for the yearbook, newspaper and literary magazine. His poetry uses images of the Appalachians and nature to express the universal themes of life. He has published poems in The Atlanta Review, The Lullwater Review, Artword, The Savannah Literary Journal, Wind Magazine,Apppalachian Heritage, Literary House, Old Red Kimono, Goose River Anthology, and the anthology, Georgia On My Mind. He is the author of The Hanging Man Dreams and was selected as The Writing Forum's 2007 Poet Of The Year.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

-Poet of the Year 2007 - The Writing Forum
-Second Place in the 2007 Byron Herbert Reece International Awards competition
-Second Place in the 2007 Langston Hughes Award poetry contest
- Third Place in the 2008 Byron Herbert Reece International Poetry Awards