Dave turns up in an American state (6)
I believe the answer is:
nevada
'american state' is the definition.
(I know that Nevada is a U.S. state)
'dave turns up in an' is the wordplay.
'turns' indicates an anagram.
'up' becomes 'n' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'an' becomes 'a'.
'dave' is an anagram of 'evad'.
'evad' enclosing 'n' is 'nevad'.
'nevad'+'a'='NEVADA'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for nevada that I've seen before include "US state, NV" , "See 14" , "Curiously, Dan and Eva are in the US" , "South-west US state" , "American state, capital Carson City" .)