Poet James Cihlar will present Ames Reading on Sunday, April 17th

Poet and writer James Cihlar is the author of the chapbook Metaphysical Bailout (Pudding House Press, 2010) and the poetry book, Undoing (Little Pear Press, 2008). Cihlar's poems have also appeared in Prairie Schooner, Bloom, Minnesota Monthly, Northeast, The James White Review, Water-Stone Review, Mankato Poetry Review, Plain Songs, and many other magazines and reviews. His work has been included in the anthologies Aunties (Ballentine, 2004), Regrets Only (Little Pear Press, 2006), and Nebraska Presence (Backwaters Press, 2007). Cihlar is also the former editor of Nebraska Humanities. He is the recipient of a Glenna Luschei Award from Prairie Schooner and a Minnesota State Arts Board Fellowship for Poetry. He lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.

The program begins at 2:00 PM Sunday, April 17th in the Heritage Room on the 3rd floor of Bennett Martin Public Library in downtown Lincoln. Please join us. We look forward to an interesting reading.

56th Annual Willa Cather Spring Conference

The Willa Cather Foundation will host the 56th Annual Willa Cather Spring Conference, Willa Cather and her Popular Culture, April 29-30, 2011 in Red Cloud, Nebraska. Their poster, right, shows Willa dressed as Peter Paragon in "The Fatal Pin," a Union Girls Dramatic Club production in October, 1892.

Joe Starita to Present Wednesday, February 2 Lunch at the Library Program

Distinguished journalist, author and University of Nebraska College of Journalism professor Joe Starita will present the Nebraska Literary Heritage Assocation's February Lunch at the Library Program here at Bennett Martin Public Library. As you may remember from a previous posting here, Joe's I am a Man: Chief Standing Bear's Journey for Justice was the One Book, One Lincoln book for 2010. An earlier book, The Dull Knifes of Pine Ridge (1995) garnered a Pulitzer Prize nomination. Joe has broad interests, and along with Tom Tidball, he is also the author of A Day in the Life: The Fans of Memorial Stadium (1996), a book of photographs and observations on this aspect of our local culture. He delivers an exciting program.

The Program will begin at 12:10 p.m. on Wednesday, February 2nd, in the auditorium on the fourth floor of Bennett Martin Public Library at 14th and N Streets in downtown Lincoln. Please join us.

2011 Nebraska Poet's Calendar will be introduced by Sarah Fairchild at Sunday, January 16th Ames Reading

Sarah Fairchild grew up in Norfolk, Nebraska, and studied English at Doane College and the University of Nebraska. Her Poetry has appeared in many publications, including Plainsongs. Sarah runs Black Star Press, which is once again publishing a Nebraska Poet's Calendar. At our Sunday, January 16th Ames Reading, Sarah and her friends, poets John Johnson, Mary K. Stillwell and Rex Walton will present an exiting program of poetry to celebrate the publication of the Calendar.

The original artwork used in the 2011 Nebraska Poets Calendar is being shown in displays at the entrance to Bennett Martin Public Library and on the library's second floor. Artists Connie Backus-Yoder, Sally Cox, Su Harvey, Sue Kouma Johnson, Tom Meyers, Max Miller, Marilyn Reynolds, Gene Roncka, Donna Schimonitz, Melissa L. R. Sinner, and Richard Terrell contributed to the Calendar and the displays.

The program begins at 2:00 PM Sunday, January 16, 2011 in the Heritage Room on the 3rd floor of Bennett Martin Public Library in downtown Lincoln. Come see the displays and join us for a stimulating reading and discussion.

"Great Books to Give as Gifts"--Vicki Wood will present December 1st Lunch at the Library Talk

Our Wednesday December 1st Lunch at the Library will feature Lincoln City Libraries Youth Librarian Vicki Wood. Vicki will present her very popular annual review of books that make great gifts for all ages. We look forward to hearing her suggestions.

The program begins at 12:10 pm in the auditorium on the 4th floor of Bennett Martin Public Library at 14th and N Streets in downtown Lincoln. Bring your lunch and enjoy coffee provided by The Mill! Please join us!

2011 One Book, One Nebraska Title by Ted Kooser

One Book, One Nebraska has chosen Ted Kooser's Local Wonders: Seasons in the Bohemian Alps (University of Nebraska Press, 2002), as the featured title for 2011. Although Kooser is one of America's most distinguished poets, this is not a poetry book at all, but a kind of intimate travel guide to Kooser's backyard. Kooser, who lives in Garland, Nebraska, served two terms as United States Poet Laureate, 2004-2006 and has published many collections of poetry, including Delights and Shadows (Copper Canyon Press, 2004) which won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.

Local Wonders won the Nebraska Book Award for Nonfiction in 2003 and Third Place in the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award in Nonfiction for 2002. The book was chosen as the Best Book Written by a Midwestern Writer for 2002 by Friends of American Writers. It also won the Gold Award for Autobiography in ForeWord Magazine’s Book of the Year Awards. Like his poetry, Kooser's prose parses the details of a rural American landscape, illuminating the hidden lives of its natural and human worlds with humor and insight.

One Book One Nebraska 2011 sponsors include the Nebraska Center for the Book, Nebraska Humanities Council, Nebraska Library Association, Nebraska Library Commission, and University of Nebraska Press.

Cather Event at UNL, 7:00 pm, Wednesday, December 1

The Robert E. Knoll Lecture Series is sponsoring a lecture by American novelist and editor Bradford Morrow. Morrow will present "My Willa Cather" Wednesday, December 1 at 7:00 PM at City Campus's Union Auditorium. Morrow, who currently teaches at Bard College, is the founder and editor of the literary journal Conjunctions. He is Kenneth Rexroth's literary executor. Morrow is also a prize winning short story writer and a distinguished novelist whose work has been published in Portuguese, French, German and Polish translation.

Joseph Wydeven will explore the work of Wright Morris at our Ames Reading on Sunday, November 21

Joseph Wydeven, Professor emeritus of English and Humanities and former dean of Arts and Sciences at Bellevue University, has had an enduring interest in writer and photographer Wright Morris. Wydeven began to read Morris and study his photographs in the early 1970s. He wrote his Purdue University dissertation on Morris, and has since published numerous articles and book chapters on Morris, as well as the 1998 biography Wright Morris Revisted. He first met Morris and his wife Jo in California in 1979 and had at least six visits there with Morris before the writer's death in 1998. He presented a special program on Morris in the Heritage Room in 1985.

Wydeven has sought to give us a deeper appreciation of Morris, who is surely one of the most independent, original, and complex writers to come from our state. Morris was the most productive writer of his generation. He was one of the few who can claim the invention, in the photo-text, of a new literary form. Morris won great critical acclaim, but far less popular success. His works chronicled disquieting aspects of the American experience, and a post-Depression world in which anchors of history and place, seemingly renewed in the 1930s, were once again drifting away. Since Morris' book, The Home Place, has been the 2010 One Book One Nebraska selection, it seemed appropriate to invite Joe Wydeven back to talk about one of his favorite topics.

The program begins at 2:00 PM Sunday, November 21st in the Heritage Room on the 3rd floor of Bennett Martin Public Library in downtown Lincoln. Please join us.

2010 Willa Cather Annual Spring Conference, June 3-5.

The theme of the 2010 Willa Cather Annual Spring Conference in Red Cloud Nebraska will be "Food, Drink, and Willa Cather's Writing." Register online by May 27th at www.WillaCather.org. The keynote speaker will be Susan Meyer of Wellesley College. Cather's O Pioneers! and "The Bohemian Girl" will be specially featured at this year's conference. Conference dates are June 3-5, 2010.

April 7, 2010 Lunch at the Library with Jim Griess

Jim Griess returns this April to continue the story of German Russians who came to Nebraska. Jim was our April speaker last year, and everyone agreed we should bring him back to finish the story. All four sets of Jim's grandparents were German Russians who came to the Sutton, Nebraska area in the last quarter of the nineteenth century from the Volga and Black Sea regions of Russia. He follows the story of the German Russian immigrants in his book length study: The German Russians: Those who came to Sutton (Henderson: Service Press, 2008) The book presents a broad portrait of German Russian history and culture and of the causes and history of this group's immigration to America, before focusing in on the German Russians around Sutton Nebraska.

Mr. Griess will present our Lunch at the Library talk on Wednesday April 7, 2010 at 12:10 pm on the fourth floor of Bennett Martin Public Library. Bring your lunch and enjoy coffee provided by The Mill! Anyone interested in history or genealogy will enjoy the talk.

Eiseley Society Sponsors April Book Launch Events

The Loren Eiseley Society is sponsoring two April book launch events for the Society's new Loren Eiseley Reader. The reader, with a foreword by famed science fiction writer Ray Bradbury, is a special collection of some of Eiseley's most popular essays and poems intended to introduce new generations to his work.

Book Launch events in Lincoln and Omaha will feature local authors and Eiseley admirers Michael Forsberg, Margery Saiser, Lisa Knopp and others.

LINCOLN EVENT:
Date: April 10, 2010
Time: 7-9pm

Location: Lincoln, NE at Great Plains Art Museum, 1155 Q St.

OMAHA EVENT:
Date: April 17, 2010
Time: 7-9pm

Location: Omaha, NE at The KANEKO / UNO Library, 1111 Jones St.

All are invited to attend!

Sunday, March 21 Ames Reading with Dominique Garay and Oscar Rios

Dominique Garay was born and raised in Lincoln. He is interested in writing and performing poetry, especially slam poetry, and in writing plays. Oscar, originally from Mexico, performs music with traditional South American instruments. Working together, Dominique and Oscar will bring us an exciting performance that combines poetry and music.

We welcome the dynamic duo as our Ames Readers, Sunday, March 21 at 2:00 P.M. in the Jane Pope Geske Heritage Room on the third floor of Bennett Martin Public Library in downtown Lincoln.

2010 Neihardt Spring Conference

The 29th Annual Neihardt Spring Conference topic will be "Neihardt and the Short Story," Speakers will be Chickasaw author Linda Hogan, Dr. James Work of CSU, UNL Professor of writing Ricardo Garcia, and UNL professor of literature Dr. Karen Shoemaker. Dr. Neil Harrison, Dean of English Department at Northeast Community College will moderate. The conference takes place each year on the last Saturday in April, this year the date is Saturday, April 24th.

2010 Sandoz Conference, March 25-27

The 2010 Mari Sandoz Heritage Society Annual Conference will be held March 25-27th in Chadron, Nebraska. This years conference is titled "Son of the Gamblin' Man: Identity on the Plains." The Conference will focus on Sandoz's 1960 novel, Son of the Gamblin' Man, and will explore concealed and conflicted identities in the American West and law and life on the frontier. Accompanying the Conference, the Mari Sandoz Heritage Center will host a special exhibit of materials relating to artist Robert Henri (born Robert Henry Cozad).

February 3, 2010--Lunch at the Library with Kwakiutl Dreher

Dr. Kwakiutl Dreher will present the Nebraska Literary Heritage Association's February Lunch at the Library Program. Dr. Dreher is Associate Professor of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where she teaches English and Ethnic Studies. Her interests include African American literature, and film and visual culture. She is also a writer and performer who has presented her own plays and musicals in a variety of venues from Georgia to California. Locally, she has served on the Lincoln Community Playhouse Reading Committee, on the Lincoln Arts Council, and as Editor of the NAACP-Lincoln Branch newsletter. Her numerous articles explore the roles of African American women in literature and the cinema. Her recent book Dancing on the White Page (SUNY Press, 2008) examines popular autobiographies of six well known black women entertainers.

The Program will begin at 12:10 p.m. on February 3rd, in the auditorium on the fourth floor of Bennett Martin Public Library at 14th and N Streets in downtown Lincoln. We look forward to an exciting presentation from Dr. Dreher.

Sunday, January 17th Ames Reading with Michael Forsberg

Nebraska native Michael Forsberg is a professional photographer whose work has appeared in National Wildlife, National Geographic, Audubon, and Natural History and in National Geographic and Smithsonian books. He is a charter member of the North American Nature Photographers Association and Fellow, International League of Conservation Photographers. His 2004 book, On Ancient Wings: The Sandhill Cranes of North America has been called “the finest body of work on Sandhill cranes ever published.” His 2009 Great Plains: America’s Lingering Wild, with additional text contributions from Ted Kooser, Dan O’Brien, and David Wishart is receiving rave reviews in the national press.

We welcome Michael Forsberg as our January, 2010 Ames Reader on Sunday, January 17 at 2:00 PM in the Heritage Room on the third floor of Bennett Martin Public Library.

Sunday, November 15th Ames Reading with Jeff Barnes

The Heritage Room welcomes Jeff Barnes as its November Ames Reader. Barnes has recently published his first book, Forts of the Northern Plains. In preparing this guide to the historic military posts of the Plains Indian wars, Barnes traveled some 13,000 miles to visit 51 historic sites making photographs, doing research and interviewing informants about the forts and their history. A freelance writer and fifth-generation Nebraskan Barnes has worked as a newspaper reporter and editor. He is the past chairman of the Nebraska Hall of Fame Commission and former marketing director of the Durham Western Heritage Museum. We look forward to hearing about his adventures. The Reading will take place Sunday, November 15th at 2:00 PM in the Jane Pope Geske Heritage Room of Nebraska Authors on the third floor of Bennett Martin Public Library in downtown Lincoln.

Sunday, October 18th Ames Reading by Amil Quayle

Amil Quayle was born and raised near Henry's Fork on the Snake River in Idaho. He earned a degree in sociology from the University of Utah, ranched in Nebraska for seven years, and then got his M.A. and Ph.D. in English from the University of Nebraska. He is a poet with a deep appreciation for the land and the natural world gained from years of working on the farm and ranching. Grand Canyon and Other Selected Poems is his latest work. We welcome him as our October Ames Reader on Sunday, October 18 at 2:00 P.M. in the Heritage Room on the third floor of Bennett Martin Public Library

Some Upcoming Lincoln Events for October

Those readers familiar with Lincoln's literary history will know that some of Lincoln's most interesting literary conversations have taken place among the graves at Wyuka Cemetery. Wyuka will celebrate its 140th Anniversary Celebration on Sunday, October 4, with a free day of fun family activities, to include walking tours, living history vignettes by the Flatwater Shakespeare Company, a photography contest, old fashioned toys and games, and a concert by the Southeast Nebraska Community Band. The entire Wyuka property is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Time is 1:00-5:30 PM, Sunday, 10-4-2009. Tel: (402) 416-5056 or 474-3600
Wyuka Funeral Home & Cemetery
3600 O Street, Lincoln, NE 68510, USA

On a very closely related topic, Nebraska author Alan Boye's book, The Ghosts of Lincoln, is the most frequently stolen item at Lincoln City Libraries. Any librarians present will be looking sideways at folks who show up for the Ghosts of Lincoln Bus Tour on October 6th and 7th. Ghosts of Lincoln Tour Director Dale Bacon will tell stories about ghosts and what people saw. Lots of new ghost stories plus the best of the old. The tour is family friendly, but please do not bring small children, toddlers and babies. Do not bring purloined copies of the above mentioned book, either.
Cost:$10 per person. Times: 6:45-9:10 p.m., 10/6/09 - 10/7/09.
Telephone:(402) 770-8604 or 580-1402
Tour will depart from and return to: Here and Back Again, Indian Village Shopping Center, 3219 S. 13th Street, Lincoln, NE 68502, USA (View Map)
Phone:(402) 817-4177 No alcoholic beverages allowed.

Sunday, September 20th Ames Reading by Amelia Maria de la Luz Montes

The Heritage Room welcomes Amelia Montes to begin our 25th year of Ames Readings. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Montes has been a professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln for a decade. She writes fiction, critical literary theory, non-fiction and criticism. Most recently, she introduced and edited a critical edition of Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton's 1872 novel, Who Would Have Thought It? Burton was the first Mexican-American woman to write novels in English.

The program will begin at 2:00 P.M., Sunday, September 20th.