Highlighting the talent of our Nebraska poets.
Monthly on the first Tuesday beginning January 4th, 2022, 6:30p CST
Nebraska is home to talented poets, and we want to celebrate them. Each month different Nebraska poets will be featured to read their work and share their writing journey. All sessions are virtual and free to the public in honor of our mission to make poetry accessible to all.
More poets will be announced soon. If you know of a published poet that was born or currently lives in Nebraska, send them our way. We want to celebrate all our Nebraska talent. Their work does not need to be recently published, nor traditionally published.
Trey Moody kicks off our series in January. He is the author of Thought That Nature (available here), winner of the Kathryn A. Morton Prize in Poetry. His more recent poems have appeared in The Believer, Crazyhorse, Gulf Coast, The Massachusetts Review, and New England Review. He teaches at Creighton University and lives with his daughter in Omaha, Nebraska.
Hilda Raz is our featured poet in June. Her work is widely recognized, and her influence can be felt—as a director, award judge, and contributor—in this country’s most prestigious poetry journals and contests. Her many poetry collections include What Happens (available here), All Odd and Splendid (available here), Trans (available here), and Divine Honors (available here). From 1987 to 2010, Raz was editor of the nationally recognized literary journal Prairie Schooner, published out of the University of Nebraska’s English department.
Tryphena Yeboah is featured in March. She is the author of the chapbook A Mouthful of Home, selected by the New-Generation African Poets series. Her stories have appeared in Narrative Magazine and Commonwealth Writers, among others. She is from Ghana and currently lives in Lincoln, where she's a doctoral student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
James Solheim joins us in April for an event for everyone: adults, children, and whole families. James will read from a wide range of his works and show how his poetry for adults is interwoven into his writing for children. His poems for adults have been published in Poetry, The Missouri Review, Poetry Northwest, and The Pushcart Prize, and whose long poems have appeared in The Kenyon Review, Chicago Review, and Northwest Review, to name a few. HarperCollins, Scholastic, Simon & Schuster, and Penguin Random House have published his children’s books, which include It's Disgusting—and We Ate It! (available here), Born Yesterday (available here), and Grandmas Are Greater Than Great (available here).
Adrienne Christian is featured in May before she gets too busy with her new baby. She is the author of three poetry collections: Worn (available here), A Proper Lover (available here), and 12023 Woodmont Avenue (2013). Common themes in her work are family, love, and African-American life. Adrienne's poetry, prose, and photographs have been featured in Prairie Schooner, Hayden's Ferry Review, Phoebe, CALYX, Today's Black Woman, Jolie, The Los Angeles Review, and dozens of others. In 2020, she earned her PhD in English with a concentration in Creative Writing from the University of Nebraska. In 2011, she earned her MFA in English with a concentration in Contemporary Poetics from Pacific University. And In 2001, she earned her BA in English with a concentration in 19th Century British Literature from the University of Michigan. In 2020, Adrienne was nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and won the Common Ground poetry award. In 2016, she was a finalist for the Rita Dove International Poetry Award. In 2007, she won the University of Michigan's Five Under Five Ten Young Alumni Recognition Award.
Heidi Hermanson is a first-generation Nebraskan who has been published in Midwest Quarterly, Hiram Poetry Review, the Omaha World Herald (“Nebraska On A Dollar a Day”) and elsewhere. The recipient of two Pushcart nominations, a Nebraska book award, and various grants from both Amplify Arts and The Nebraska Arts Council, Heidi has organized and directed five ekphrastic shows which she describes as a marriage between visual art and poetry. From 2006 to 2012 she hosted "Naked Words", a monthly open mike. In 2010 she won the Omaha Public Library's annual poetry contest and performed her winning work accompanied by Silver Roots, a New York-based violin and flute duo. In 2008, Heidi received her MFA from the University of Nebraska. Having found herself with an abundance of time during the pandemic, she enjoys exploring every square foot of her state and documenting cemeteries and rivers.
Brandy Prettyman is our July featured poet. She is the author of "Forbidden Fruit: Poems of Love, Loss, Hope, and Regret" (available here). She earned a Bachelor in Business Administration and spent the last decade (maybe it's longer, but let's not make this awkward) reading and writing poetry as well as working on a debut novel. She published in multiple anthologies, including the Nebraska Writers Guild poetry collection How it Looks from Here: Poetry from the Plains and literary anthologies Voices from the Plains, Volume III and Voices from the Plains, Volume IV. Her writing tends to explore the dark emotions we face when confronted by our own morality and mortality.
Scott Abels joins us from rural Nebraska is our featured poet in August. He is the author of the chapbooks "A State of The Union Speech" (Beard of Bees Press, 2015) and "Nebraska Fantastic" (Beard of Bees Press, 2012), as well as the full-length books "Rambo Goes to Idaho" (available here) and "New City" (available here). He is an instructor for Foundational English and English as a Second Language. Bachelor of English Literature, Chadron State College; MFA in Creative Writing (poetry emphasis), Boise State University.
P. Ivan Young is our September featured poet. He received his PhD in English from University of Nebraska and his MFA from the University of South Carolina. He is the author of "Smell of Salt, Ghost of Rain" (available here) and the chapbook "A Shape in the Waves". He is a recipient of a 2011 Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Award and the 2013 winner of the Norton Girault Literary Prize. His work has appeared in North American Review, Crab Orchard Review, Fourteen Hills, Hayden's Ferry Review, The London Magazine, Cream City Review, and Zone 3, among others. He currently teaches in the University of Nebraska system and lives in Omaha, Nebraska, with his wife and two children.
Stacey Waite joins us in October and will be announcing her new book. She is Associate Professor of English and Graduate Chair at the University of Nebraska—Lincoln and is the author of: "Choke" (winner of the Frank O’Hara Prize for Poetry), "Love Poem to Androgyny, the lake has no saint" (Winner of the Snowbound Prize available here), and "Butch Geography" (available here).
Waite’s poems have been published in Court Green, Black Warrior Review, and Indiana Review. Additionally, Waite’s book, "Teaching Queer: Radical Possibilities for Writing and Knowing", (available here) was published in 2017 by the University of Pittsburgh Press. You can connect with Stacey on her website.
Michael Catherwood is our featured poet in November. His awards include a Nebraska Arts Council Grant, Pushcart Nomination, The Holt Prize for Poetry, and Finalist for the Ruth Lily Prize. His books are "Dare" (available here), "If you Turned Around Quickly", (available here) and his latest book is "Projector" (available here). He is former editor at The Backwaters Press and has been Associate Editor at Plainsongs since 1995. Recent poems have appeared in The Common, Pennsylvania English, I-70 Review, and Common Ground Review. He’s a cancer survivor is retired and lives in Omaha with his wife Cindy.
Lorraine Duggin is featured in December. She is a lifelong Nebraskan, born in Omaha, where she has been teaching English as a Second Language and other English classes at Metropolitan Community College since 1999. Her B.A. and M.A. in English and Ph.D. in English/Creative Writing are from UNO and UN-L, respectively. Her poetry, fiction, memoirs, and articles have been published in Prairie Schooner, North American Review, North Atlantic Review, Short Story International, and many other journals and anthologies. Her work has been awarded several prizes in both writing and teaching. She has been a Master Artist with the Nebraska Arts Council and Iowa Arts Council's Poets in Schools/Communities programs since the 1980's. When not reading or writing, she enjoys spending time with family, outdoor activities like gardening and hiking, folk dancing in three groups, playing the recorder in an ensemble, and traveling, especially internationally.
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