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.

"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.

Nebraska's 2010 Letter's About Literature Winners at the Heritage Room.

"Letters About Literature" is a national reading promotion for children and young adults sponsored by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress and locally coordinated through the Nebraska Center for the Book.

Contest participants compete on three levels: Level I for young readers in grades 4-6; Level II for young adult readers in grades 7-8; and Level III for readers in grades 9-12. Young readers are asked to write a letter to an author, living or dead, explaining how that author's work somehow "gave them wings" (Level I), became a part of their life (Level II), or changed their view of the world or themselves (Level III).

On April 7, this year's Nebraska winners gathered in Lincoln. They toured the State Capitol, met with Governor Heineman, were treated to a dinner, and closed their special day at the Heritage Room (where the winner from Alliance was present via video conference) and signed their submissions. Winning letters will be accessible online courtesy of the Nebraska Library Commission.

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.

Sunday April 18th Ames Reader will be Hilda Raz

Hilda Raz is a native of Rochester, New York. She has lived in Nebraska since 1963. She has been editor of Prairie Schooner since 1987. In 1993 she was named the first Luschei Professor and Editor in the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She teaches English and womens' and gender studies. She has published poems, essays, articles and reviews. Her recent books include: What Happens (2009), All Odd and Splendid (2008), and, with Aaron Raz Link, What Becomes You.

The program begins as 2:00 P.M. Sunday April 18th, in the Heritage Room on the third floor of Bennett Martin Public Library in downtown Lincoln. All Ames Readings are taped for later broadcast on 5 City TV, Time Warner Cable Channel 5. Please join us.

The Loren Eiseley Reader Book Launch

The Loren Eiseley Society presented a great book launch program at the Great Plains Art Museum in Lincoln this past Saturday. Eiseley Society president Bing Chen chaired the event. In the snapshot above we see him thanking the folks at Infusionmedia Publishing for their contribution to the project. Ray Bradbury wrote the foreword for the reader and, since he would be unable to travel, Dr. Chen visited him in California and interviewed him on video to introduce the book launch proceedings. Bradbury's remarks about his long friendship with Eiseley were most striking and very memorable. We hope the Eiseley Society will make them more widely available in the future.

The main event was a theatrical reading of Jim Cook's script "Memory's Night Country," adapted from the Loren Eiseley Reader. The distinguished guest readers are seen facing the audience in the snapshot. To Bing Chen's left (moving nearer to the observer) we see Michael Forsberg, Jim McKee, and Matt Harvey (out of the picture are Lisa Knopp and Kam Veney). To Bing Chen's right (moving away) are Jennifer House, Patrice Berger, Polly Wimberly, Lora Black, W. Don Nelson, and Marge Saiser. Also in the picture are Jim and Gwen Cook (at the left, Jim is facing away from the camera), and (at the far right) Ruth Thone, founding president of The Friends of Loren Eiseley, the predecessor of The Loren Eiseley Society.

Beng Chen brought the formal proceedings to an end with a heartfelt invocation of Eiseley's importance in allowing us to see our relationship with nature anew, and change it for the better. The reader is designed to encourage teachers to introduce Eiseley to a new generation of readers.

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.

March 3, 2010--Lunch at the Library with Shirley Maly

Shirley Maly will present the Nebraska Literary Heritage Association's March Lunch at the Library talk. Shirley is a lifelong Lincoln resident. After a long career in public relations, at age 60, she joined the Peace Corps and served for three years in Uruguay. That stay and other travel experiences were the basis of her book Love Affair with the Americas. Shirley's topic will be "Pictures Tell Stories: How Illustrations Enhance the Story."

The program will begin at 12:10 p.m. on March 3 on the fourth floor of Bennett Martin Public Library at 14th and N Streets in downtown Lincoln. Feel free to bring your lunch, free coffee is provided courtesy of the Mill. We look forward to seeing you.

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.

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, May 17th Ames Reading by Harley Jane Kozak

Former Lincoln resident Harley Jane Kozak is an actress whose film credits include Parenthood, The Favor, and Arachnophobia. She is also the author of a popular comic/mystery series featuring greeting card artist and amateur detective Wollie Shelley. Kozak's book titles include Dating Dead Men, Dating is Murder, Dead Ex, and most recently, A Date You Can't Refuse (2009). She will present the Ames Reading at 2:00 PM on Sunday, May 17th.

Some Lincoln Literary Events--May 2009

Ongoing is the play Reviving Ophelia, based on the book by Mary Pipher (Lincoln). This continues through May 24th at the Loft at the Mill, see the Angels Theater Company web page for times and ticket prices.

On Saturday May 2, at 7:30 PM, the Loft at the Mill will host Look Both Ways: Artists and Writers Collaborate. Seven (writer:artist) pairs will share their collaborations, including Karen Gettert Shoemaker and Judy Martindale; Pam Barger and Susan Brasch; Twyla Hansen and Carlos Frey; Marjorie Saiser and Meghan Stratman; Amy Plettner and Janna Harsch; Kathleen Cain and Marjorie Saiser; Kelly Madigan Erlandson and Jaime Hackbart.

Also on Saturday May 2, Lee Booksellers events includes a book signing by former Lincolnite, and Science Fiction and children's author Brandon Sanderson, at 2:00 PM at Lee Booksellers in the Edgewood Center on south 56th Street.

The John H. Ames Reading series at Bennett Martin Library will offer a May reading this year (the series usually closes in April) with Harley Jane Kozak at 2:00 PM on Sunday, May 17th. More about this in a later posting.

On Monday, May 18th at at 6:00 PM writers will read from new plays they are working on at the Loft at the Mill, with writers to include Nebraskans Mary Douglass, Lou Leviticus, Michael Trutna, and new Hastings resident Robin Buckallew.