Twyla Hansen started this Facebook page for the Bill Kloefkorn CD!! :
https://www.facebook.com/events/194625957355882/
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https://www.facebook.com/events/194625957355882/
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Nominations sought for next Nebraska state poet
June 16, 2013 9:03 am • Associated Press
The Nebraska Arts Council, Humanities Nebraska and the Nebraska Library Commission are seeking nominations for the next Nebraska state poet.
Nominations must be submitted online no later than midnight July 26. The online application site is nebraska.slideroom.com.
Nominations will be reviewed by the State Poet Selection Committee, which is composed of five people who are established members of Nebraska's literary, cultural, education and academic communities. After the committee selects finalists, the governor will make the final selection.
The Nebraska state poet will be selected based on artistic excellence, exemplary professionalism, an established history of community service in the advancement of poetry in Nebraska, and the ability to present poetry and interact effectively with a public audience.
http://journalstar.com/news/state-and-regional/nebraska/nominations-sought-for-next-nebraska-state-poet/article_7f2249c8-d151-5d15-b81a-49049fbf4d63.html
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Petition to the Nebraska Television Network to issue audio tracks of Bill Kloefkorn's NET poetry programs!!!!!
our buddy, Dr John Walker, musician/poet/philosopher - writes to us:
Bon jour, all y'all
A couple of years ago a grass roots effort to get a new school in Lincoln named after Bill Kloefkorn took off with emails and phone calls and letters and, voila, today there is a new school in Lincoln named after Bill Kloefkorn.
Nominations must be submitted online no later than midnight July 26. The online application site is nebraska.slideroom.com.
Nominations will be reviewed by the State Poet Selection Committee, which is composed of five people who are established members of Nebraska's literary, cultural, education and academic communities. After the committee selects finalists, the governor will make the final selection.
The Nebraska state poet will be selected based on artistic excellence, exemplary professionalism, an established history of community service in the advancement of poetry in Nebraska, and the ability to present poetry and interact effectively with a public audience.
http://journalstar.com/news/state-and-regional/nebraska/nominations-sought-for-next-nebraska-state-poet/article_7f2249c8-d151-5d15-b81a-49049fbf4d63.html
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Petition to the Nebraska Television Network to issue audio tracks of Bill Kloefkorn's NET poetry programs!!!!!
our buddy, Dr John Walker, musician/poet/philosopher - writes to us:
Bon jour, all y'all
A couple of years ago a grass roots effort to get a new school in Lincoln named after Bill Kloefkorn took off with emails and phone calls and letters and, voila, today there is a new school in Lincoln named after Bill Kloefkorn.
Now, today, a bunch of us think it would be a good idea to encourage NET to compile a CD of some of Bill's poetry programs.
Ergo, I'm asking each of you who would love to hear Bill's voice reading some of his poems to email or write Nancy Finken, Network Manager at ETV,
( nfinken@netNebraska.org )
and encourage her to pursue this project.
If NET did produce a CD, it could, of course, either be sold outright or used as a fundraising premium. But in addition, and perhaps most valuably, it would stand as a lasting tribute to a treasured poet, reader, teacher, and advocate for the humanities and all education. Our longest standing State Poet deserves such a tribute. NET has the resources to do it. It wouldn't cost very much. We should do it.
John
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check out the new writing blog from Becky Breed and Lucy Adkins:
WRITING IN COMMUNITY: say GOODBYE to writer's block and transform your life
http://writeincommunity.com/
John
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check out the new writing blog from Becky Breed and Lucy Adkins:
WRITING IN COMMUNITY: say GOODBYE to writer's block and transform your life
http://writeincommunity.com/
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Gratitude Bakery and Cafe', Lincoln, is starting writers' open mikes, and readings, and such - check out their FB page!, and this event for June 22nd https://www.facebook.com/events/142440312615369/
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MoJava Coffee in Uni Place is beginning a once or twice a month, a Thursday night for writers --- stop in!! see this FB page for June 6th at 7pm:
https://www.facebook.com/events/535944023122322/
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other book announcements AND
PUBLISHING NEWS
at the bottom of this page !!!
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The Lincoln Underground Magazine
Gratitude Bakery and Cafe', Lincoln, is starting writers' open mikes, and readings, and such - check out their FB page!, and this event for June 22nd https://www.facebook.com/events/142440312615369/
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
MoJava Coffee in Uni Place is beginning a once or twice a month, a Thursday night for writers --- stop in!! see this FB page for June 6th at 7pm:
https://www.facebook.com/events/535944023122322/
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other book announcements AND
PUBLISHING NEWS
at the bottom of this page !!!
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The Lincoln Underground Magazine
is accepting submissions NOW!:
CLIK HERE
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Click HERE
for the latest info on Music and Poetry at
CRESCENT Moon COFFEE
8th & P sts, LINCOLN!!!!
................................................................
Pictures, Pictures: Go to this address for many, many Readings pictures --
https://picasaweb.google.com/110313286591675631051
...................................
check out more info at:
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READING AND PUBLISHING NEWS:
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Writer and Activist Mary Pipher of Lincoln has an opinion piece on the April 17th Editorial page of the New York Times - on the Keystone XL pipeline - it Begins:
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ocal writer and activist Mary Pipher has an article in the Local View area of the March 27 Journal Star that bears repeating --
Here it is, and CLIK HERE for the full commentary -- way to go, Mary!!
Pipeline concerns haven't diminished
By MARY PIPHER, Lincoln author, speaker.
"I am writing in response to the Journal Star editorial March 11 ("Last call on the pipeline"). I am a lifelong Nebraskan, a grandmother and the author of a book coming out in June that required me to study climate change. I also write as one who has closely followed the Keystone XL pipeline story for over two years.
I was dismayed by the aforementioned editorial. The first line compliments President Barack Obama for holding a hearing in Nebraska. Of course, I am grateful to him and urge our citizens to participate in that State Department hearing. But make no mistake, we Nebraskans are responsible for the hearing. We have been the people who protested TransCanada's assault on our natural resources and on the livelihoods of farmers and ranchers. Because of concerned Nebraskans' sustained attention to the problems with TransCanada, we have sparked a national discussion about this pipeline.
Unfortunately, the concerns of many Nebraskans have not been allayed in the slightest.Landowners are frightened of losing their property rights. Nebraskans from Spencer, to Fullerton, to Omaha are concerned about the contamination of the Ogallala Aquifer, rivers and wells. Water, soil and wildlife experts, not tied to the oil industry, have many worries and they were not consulted during the recent Department of Environmental Quality review.
Many safety issues have not been addressed. The public does not know what kinds of chemicals are in the tar sands sludge. We know it contains some highly toxic and carcinogenic substances, including benzene, but TransCanada will not reveal what is in their "proprietary" toxic goop. This means, among other things, that we cannot plan in advance to protect ourselves in case of a leak or spill. First responders cannot prepare for emergencies or respond quickly afterward. Furthermore, how can we say a situation is safe and under control when we don't even know what we are dealing with?
The recent impact report cited by the Department of Environmental Quality was a green wash. It says the new route avoids the Sandhills, but TransCanada did not change the route as much as it changed the map. According to TransCanada's own 2008 map that was submitted to the State Department, the area it is planning to traverse still is in the Sandhills. Meanwhile, the word ?aquifer? has dropped out of the discussion entirely.
I also take exception to the editorial's phrase "dwindling but vocal minority of Nebraskans who oppose the pipeline." The issues are technical and complicated, and many Nebraskans don't quite understand the exact nature of our current situation. Yet, according to a recent University of Nebraska poll, 78 percent of rural citizens want the pipeline route to avoid the Sandhills and the Ogallala Aquifer. The new route does neither.
Farmers, ranchers, urbanites, Republicans and Democrats, students and senior citizens as well as Native peoples oppose this pipeline. More than 880 people attended the DEQ hearing in Albion on a Tuesday evening in December. More than 125 Nebraskans traveled to Washington, D.C., to stand in the wind and the cold Feb. 17 because they cared about stopping the pipeline. We Nebraskans have united around this issue in great numbers. No other cause in my 65-year-old memory has sparked so much passion.
This pipeline will not help the United States with energy independence or security. Instead, the oil TransCanada transports will be sold on the international market to the highest bidder. We Americans could shoulder the risks of this pipeline and yet experience almost none of its suggested benefits.
Finally, I would like to speak up for environmentalists, the people who want to give all the grandchildren of the world a good future. The Journal Star editorial suggests that either people want to protect Nebraska or they want to stop this pipeline and slow down our use of fossil fuels by converting to cleaner energies. I would humbly suggest this is not an either/or situation, but rather a both/and situation.
As a long-term opponent of the Keystone XL pipeline, I both care deeply for our state and I want to work for a cleaner world. The two goals are not antagonistic, but deeply related. "
more books and workshop news:
Fred Zydek, writer living here in NE, writes about a new book of his, a memoir, "The Songs of Angels" ... ( see also http://fredrickzydek.com/ for this other titles by Fred ) :
When my goddaughter was born, her parents weren’t Roman Catholics anymore, but her paternal grandmother was. And Grandma really wanted the infant baptized. Her parents didn’t want a real priest to do it but agreed to have a ceremony at their home if I could do it. I accepted. Not many people know that it doesn’t take a priest to baptize someone. Any baptized person can do it. Who knows - maybe anyone can do it.
And I promised the baby girl’s grandma that I would do my best to get her to mass. I managed a mid-night Christmas mass or two - but that’s about it. Come to think of it, I believe Grandma was with us on a few occasions - and after Grandma passed, I think my goddaughter was only willing to go one last time - but as a tribute to her grandmother, not as a participant in the liturgy of the season.
Humanists exist at all points on the Bell Curve of life. Some of us occupy positions at the “persons of faith” end of the curve, and others occupy positions of Atheism and often as latent (and sometimes blatant) Agnostics. But before I understood and accepted the fact that my goddaughter would not be listed among those who celebrate and feel gratitude for a Divine Animating Principle (usually called “God.”) - I wrote a spiritual fantasy for her about the Archangels. I got the idea from a commentary in an ancient Midrash note that insisted the Archangels were commissioned by God to write and perform music (with the help of cherubims and saraphims, of course) for each phase of creation and each thing created. An enormous task when one understands that there are only four archangels. (I’ll bet you can name three of them right now - but will struggle for the name of the fourth.)
Of course the Archs (as they’re called by those who know them well) won’t have names until Adam comes along. It is, after all, his job to name things. (Think of it! Man had to create his own language!)
And there will be problems for the Archs. After all, how do you understand the concept of matter, or the difference between soft things and hard things, or sharp things and dull things, or hot things and cold things - when you haven’t a clue what things are because you haven’t a clue or ever experience anything made of atoms - because they are matter and you are not. But it may also be true that both matter and Angles are created from the same thing. Light.
And just wait until one of those Archs finds out that while they have been told that human kind will be created “a little lower than the angels” . . .humans can do something not even Archs (the highest form of consciousness in the celestial realm) can do - reproduce after its own kind. And what’s worse - it turns out that even something as lowly as a blade of grass can do it - but not Archangels. That’s going to make one of the archs pretty mad. His music is going to become much more like Stravinsky and Mahler than the music of the other archs.
I never gave the story to my goddaughter, although she was already an avid reader by the time I finished writing the story. By that time she was pretty much of the opinion that Jesus and the tooth fairy had a lot in common and she really didn’t want to be evangelized in any way. I felt like giving her the story could appear as an attempt to convert her to her Grandmother’s faith. It was clear that the fruit had not fallen very far away from the tree, and her that her parents appreciated that while she embraced sound and generous feelings about social justice and the human condition, like they did, she also embraced their distain for organized religion.
And I forgot about the story for a while. Then one day, while looking for a copy of my first novel (The City Camp Adventure) so I could revise it ONE MORE TIME - I found The Songs of Angels. I read through it. Did a minor revision here and there - and sent it off to my publisher for consideration.
Well - it’s ready. You can find out more about it at my web site (go to Fredrickzydek.com ) or click on the link below. It will take you there. You’ll find links to Amazon.com or one that will take you directly to my publisher’s manufacturer in case you don’t have an account with Amazon or don’t like shopping there. You can also order it from you local bookstore - but that takes a couple of weeks. Me? I love Amazon. I even shop for coffee there. I did all my Christmas shopping right here at my PC. And there was frosting! They wrap the gifts!
But I warn you. These aren’t your grandmother’s angels. They can be very funny. One of them can be rude as hell. They’re going to make you laugh and sometimes wish you could actually hear the music I write about. And you may cry.
I know most of you are going to be hit with a massive email blast from my publisher in a week or two. (I gave them every email I had) but I'm so excited about this book, I wanted to let you know about it right away.
I love this story. It’s a novella . . . about half the length of Old Pinhead. Let me know what you think about the story. I think this is the kind of book you’re going to like enough to purchase copies for birthday and Christmas gifts.
I dedicated the story to Nora Borgstrom. Some of you may know her. She’s Pat Borgstrom’s daughter. A Buckley kid. Nora is one of the angels in my life. I think of her as a kid sister.
Click here: Books | Fredrick Zydek
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SP CE is a writing room on the 2nd floor of the 14th & O building, downtown Lincoln:::: go up the stairs next to Novel Idea Bookstore on N 14th, veer right at the top, look for SP CE on the DOOR::::
every Saturday at 2pm, come up to talk writing -- see the FB page at:
https://www.facebook.com/spZce
How SP CE Writer's Group Works:
People who are interested in discussing writing come to SP CE every Saturday at 2 p.m.People who want their writing discussed bring copies of their writing.
All forms of writing are welcomed, but new or actively in-progress works are especially encouraged.
Everyone's writing is discussed for 10-15 minutes.
Those who want a bit of a challenge are encouraged to write for the prompt.
The prompt is: hair
Good times!
For those who wish to be further involved:
Prior to Writer's Group, there will be an Open Meeting where anyone can come and join in on a discussion of plans, goals, and ideas for SP CE as a collective entity. The Open Meeting will begin at 1:30 p.m. and will be held before every Writer's Group.
After Writer's Group, anyone who is interested in continuing a dialog in a more casual setting is invited to reconvene at Yia Yia's* to partake in food and drink and further conversation.
*reconvening location subject to change
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ConStellation IV - A New Hope
Lincoln's own national Science Fiction Convention
is coming April 19-21!!
( http://www.constellationne.net/ for more info)
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We are proud to announce the 2013
Rex Walton has left the helm at Crescent Moon Coffee's 10-year reading Series, Poetry at the Moon. NOW, Crescent Moon Coffee is continuing the series as a weekly Open Mike, with occasional themes and guests, but THE OPEN MIKE CONTINUES!!!!!
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
1. continue to drop in, listen, read, and spread the word about a place to congregate as writers -
2. VOLUNTEER to be a once-in-a-while MC for the event - contact Melinda at Crescent Moon to be put on a list: crescentmoon@inebraska.com
3. GET OUT IN THE community, and use your writing skills to promote active movements in intellectual circles, social needs, political moves, ...
4. Keep Writing, talking, thinking as an aspiring ACTIVE citizen of our city, county, state, country - Democracy works when WE work to keep it active - if you can read and write with a thinking, critical eye, YOU can make a difference - I cite the current wave of activists such as (but certainly NOT limited to) Mary Pipher, Ben Gotschall, Mike Flood, Jane Kleeb, Dave Kramer, Chuck Hagel, Kate Witek, Kim Robak, ... and, you add to this list
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We are saddened to announce that Ed & Diane Stevens, owners of Book Ends bookstore in downtown Kearney, are closing up shop this month -- we'd like to thank Ed and Diane for their many years of friendly, expert service in not only the bookselling world, but the fine monthly reading series, Poetry on the Bricks. Ed's bushy moustache and energetic smile, and Diane's patience and professionalism, will be missed in the Nebraska literary community!
( Ed is trying to find a downtown Kearney venue to host a continuance of their reading series - if you know of one, please send him a note at: bookends@rcom-ne.com )
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newest book out by Barbara Schmitz!
"Path of Lightning"
Author and poet Barbara Schmitz offers a heartful, funny, and deeply moving "spiritual autobiography" that brings the reader along on each stage of her fervent inner quest for mystical experience. Beginning with a Catholic girlhood in Nebraska, she graduates to an unlikely apprenticeship with Allen Ginsberg at the Naropa Institute; a dedicated transcendental meditation practice; and finally to thirty years of joys and struggles with a Sufi teacher (Shahabuddin Less) with whom she travels to Bali, Turkey, India, Kashmir, and the Holy Land. Incisive as lightning-the meaning of her Sufi name, Vajra-her questions and yearning are our own, and she doesn't let God, her teacher, or herself off the hook.
GO HERE to order the book...
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Lincoln professor Joy Castro's book, "Hell or High Water" has been optioned for a movie by Zoe Saldana and friends ... READ HERE
"Hell Or High Water follows New Orleans reporter Nola Céspedes as she is dragged into the city’s post-Katrina underworld on the trail of what she thinks will be her big scoop. The novel was released July 17 by Thomas Dunne Books and was called one of the best books of 2012 by The Kirkus Review."
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Nebraska author news!! emily m. danforth is one of five nominees for the 2013 Morris Award, given for a first-time young adults' book author! emily graduated from UNL last year with an MFA in fiction ....
The Miseducation of Cameron Post, written by emily m. danforth, published by Balzer + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers
On the same day that 12-year-old Cameron kisses her best friend, Irene, her parents are killed in a car accident. Nearly crushed with guilt, Cameron spends the next several years in self-imposed gay-movie therapy with her VCR or drinking and smoking pot with her track and swim team friends, gradually coming to terms with her sexuality. It’s not easy being gay in rural 1990s Montana, and it’s harder still when your aunt drags you to an Evangelical church every weekend — where you meet the girl of your dreams.CLIK HERE for more ---
Nebraska Book Awards, 2012:
2012 (13th annual) for books published in 2011
A short film by Dan Butler, inspired by Ted Kooser's poem "Pearl" has been making the rounds of the film festivals, and the New England Festival has put it online.
An edition of Catharine Sedgwick's novel Clarence, co-edited by English department faculty member Melissa J. Homestead, has been awarded an Honorable Mention by the Society for the Study of American Women Writers for its first Edition Award. The SSAWW Edition Award is given every three years at the Society for the Study of American Women Writers’ conference to recognize excellence in the recovery of American women writers. First published in 1830, Sedgwick's novel of manners is set in New York City in the 1820s. Co-edited by Homestead and Ellen A. Foster (Clarion University of Pennsylvania) and published by Broadview Press, the edition features an introduction authored by Homestead focusing on Sedgwick's place in transatlantic literary culture and her imaginative engagements with New York City and the Caribbean, as well as a selection of contextual documents and images.
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from the Bookguide at Lincoln city Libraries:
..... and, the Selection for the
2012 One Book - One Lincoln
is:
Destiny of the Republic
BookGuide
The readers' services page of the Lincoln City Libraries
Lincoln, Nebraska
http://www.lincolnlibraries.org/depts/bookguide/front.htm
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Click HERE
for the latest info on Music and Poetry at
CRESCENT Moon COFFEE
8th & P sts, LINCOLN!!!!
................................................................
Pictures, Pictures: Go to this address for many, many Readings pictures --
https://picasaweb.google.com/110313286591675631051
...................................
check out more info at:
...................................
Prairie Moon Reading & Music News:
http://moonreading.blogspot.com/
Matt Mason's Poetry Menu:
The Nebraska Poetry Menu at www.poetrymenu.com
Brett Spencer's Nebraska Center for Writers:
http://mockingbird.creighton.edu/NCW/
PRAIRIE SCHOONER BLOG: CLIK HERE
YouTube page at Creighton:
http://www.youtube.com/user/CreightonCCAS
Nebraska Center for the Book:
http://centerforthebook.nebraska.gov/index.asp
Backwaters Press - Omaha:
http://www.thebackwaterspress.org/
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THE DAILY SCHEDULE:
Prairie Moon Reading & Music News:
http://moonreading.blogspot.com/
Matt Mason's Poetry Menu:
The Nebraska Poetry Menu at www.poetrymenu.com
Brett Spencer's Nebraska Center for Writers:
http://mockingbird.creighton.edu/NCW/
PRAIRIE SCHOONER BLOG: CLIK HERE
YouTube page at Creighton:
http://www.youtube.com/user/CreightonCCAS
Nebraska Center for the Book:
http://centerforthebook.nebraska.gov/index.asp
Backwaters Press - Omaha:
http://www.thebackwaterspress.org/
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THE DAILY SCHEDULE:
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Wednesday, June 26th -- 8pm-12am, Acoustic Open Mic for musicians and poets at Meadowlark Coffee & Espresso (1624 South St, Lincoln). Hosted by Spencer. For more information call 402-477-2007.
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Monday, July 1st, 7pm:
Poetry at the Moon
at Crescent Moon Coffee, 140 N. 8th, Lincoln (lower level)
every Monday:open mike, and sometimes a feature writer or two: this Monday - JOSETH MOORE
for info, see www.crescentmooncoffee.com
and for more info, email Jeff at poetryatthemoon@gmail.com
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Tuesday, July 2nd - TUESDAYS with Writers
at the South Mill, 48th & Prescott, Lincoln
the 14th anniversary party of the "Tuesdays"!
send a note to Deborah, to be put on the list to read !!
dmcginn@inebraska.com
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Wednesday, July 3rd -- 8pm-12am, Acoustic Open Mic for musicians and poets at Meadowlark Coffee & Espresso (1624 South St, Lincoln). Hosted by Spencer. For more information call 402-477-2007.
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POETRY SLAM
Wednesday, June 26th -- 8pm-12am, Acoustic Open Mic for musicians and poets at Meadowlark Coffee & Espresso (1624 South St, Lincoln). Hosted by Spencer. For more information call 402-477-2007.
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Monday, July 1st, 7pm:
Poetry at the Moon
at Crescent Moon Coffee, 140 N. 8th, Lincoln (lower level)
every Monday:open mike, and sometimes a feature writer or two: this Monday - JOSETH MOORE
for info, see www.crescentmooncoffee.com
and for more info, email Jeff at poetryatthemoon@gmail.com
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Tuesday, July 2nd - TUESDAYS with Writers
at the South Mill, 48th & Prescott, Lincoln
the 14th anniversary party of the "Tuesdays"!
send a note to Deborah, to be put on the list to read !!
dmcginn@inebraska.com
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Wednesday, July 3rd -- 8pm-12am, Acoustic Open Mic for musicians and poets at Meadowlark Coffee & Espresso (1624 South St, Lincoln). Hosted by Spencer. For more information call 402-477-2007.
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POETRY SLAM
CAMP!!
SLAM
POETRY CAMP!
CAMP 4
SLAM POETRY!!
JULY 22-26, M-F-- 1-4pm, Poetry Slam Camp by Metropolitan Community College and the Nebraska Writers Collective. See Page 3 of the College 4 Teens brochure at www.mccneb.edu/ce/pdf/college4/C4T_brochure_2013.pdf and register for only $75. Information on registration is at: www.mccneb.edu/ce/default.asp#college4kids. The class is taught by Katie F-S along with local and national teaching artists.
JULY 22-26, M-F-- 1-4pm, Poetry Slam Camp by Metropolitan Community College and the Nebraska Writers Collective. See Page 3 of the College 4 Teens brochure at www.mccneb.edu/ce/pdf/college4/C4T_brochure_2013.pdf and register for only $75. Information on registration is at: www.mccneb.edu/ce/default.asp#college4kids. The class is taught by Katie F-S along with local and national teaching artists.
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--------------------- AND NOW -----
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Mindful Writing Retreat
Saturday, May 11, 2013 ... 9:00am-4:00pm
Platte River State Park ~ Louisville, Nebraska
Cost: $85 (includes state park usage fee)
Seats still available. Register before April 15 and receive $10 off!
for more information and to register.
also see FB page: https://www.facebook.com/omahamindfulwriters
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Lighting a Spark on the High Plains
By MARY PIPHER
LINCOLN, Neb.
I GREW up in Nebraska. My great-grandparents homesteaded here. Generally, Nebraskans are a polite, cautious people more interested in weather than politics, and in pie than causes. That is, until recently.
In 2008 TransCanada announced plans for its Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry tar sands crude oil across the state’s fertile Sand Hills region and over the Ogallala Aquifer, a vital source of fresh water for irrigation. But it wasn’t until after the BP oil spill in 2010 that most Nebraskans became concerned. Suddenly, small groups of people gathered in living rooms, churches and cafes to discuss what might happen in the event of a spill or leak. ....
for the rest of it, CLIK HERE ...
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LOUDER THAN A
!BOMB! 2013:
Katharen Hedges
2nd: Marian HS: Haley Minnick
results from the NE state Individual Slam meet, at Andersen Hall, UNL, Sunday night the 21st!
1st: Lincoln North Star: Katharen Hedges
2nd: Marian HS: Haley Minnick
3rd: Bellevue West HS: Drew Shifter
( there originally was a TIE for first, so we had a Haiku writing contest to decide - really!!!)
THE STATE CHAMPIONSHIP SLAM-OFFS !
Lincoln High Slam TEAM WON the Team competition!
Friday night in Omaha, here come the Links!
First: Lincoln High!
second: Duchesne Academy!
third: Lincoln North Star!
fourth: Omaha Central!
congrats to all the fine work, immense effort, and superb sportsmanship shown by all teams!
congrats to our Lincoln teams: North Star, with coach Stacey Waite & friends, who brought a first-year team into state!!
congrats to Lincoln High, with coaches Andrew Ek & Katie F S, and creative writing teacher Deborah, and a so-fine group of team-members and big-time supporters from all over Lincoln High!
see FB page Louder than a Bomb Omaha
and the Lincoln Journal Star's fine article (Journal Star reporter Margaret Reist was at the Finals, sitting in front of us, typing/editing/cheering madly to write this article! Way to go, Margaret! )
Lincoln High Slam TEAM WON the Team competition!
Friday night in Omaha, here come the Links!
First: Lincoln High!
second: Duchesne Academy!
third: Lincoln North Star!
fourth: Omaha Central!
congrats to all the fine work, immense effort, and superb sportsmanship shown by all teams!
congrats to our Lincoln teams: North Star, with coach Stacey Waite & friends, who brought a first-year team into state!!
congrats to Lincoln High, with coaches Andrew Ek & Katie F S, and creative writing teacher Deborah, and a so-fine group of team-members and big-time supporters from all over Lincoln High!
see FB page Louder than a Bomb Omaha
and the Lincoln Journal Star's fine article (Journal Star reporter Margaret Reist was at the Finals, sitting in front of us, typing/editing/cheering madly to write this article! Way to go, Margaret! )
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and, not NEW news, but still sadly crushing for many here in Lincoln and Nebraska writer scene:
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The Nebraska Summer Writers Conference
is currently on hiatus
and will
not
be offering workshops
in 2013
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AND, WINE WRITERS AND SONG 2013 is coming to Brownville IN JUNE - postponed from April -- stay tuned for more info by clicking here >>> http://www.brownville-ne.com/main.taf?p=1,3
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the Winter 2013 edition of The MacGuffin is finally out--now that it's spring! Local writer Shoshana Sumrall Frerking's story, "This is How I Know You," appears in it.
click here for info on MacGuffin
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the Winter 2013 edition of The MacGuffin is finally out--now that it's spring! Local writer Shoshana Sumrall Frerking's story, "This is How I Know You," appears in it.
click here for info on MacGuffin
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ocal writer and activist Mary Pipher has an article in the Local View area of the March 27 Journal Star that bears repeating --
Here it is, and CLIK HERE for the full commentary -- way to go, Mary!!
Pipeline concerns haven't diminished
By MARY PIPHER, Lincoln author, speaker.
"I am writing in response to the Journal Star editorial March 11 ("Last call on the pipeline"). I am a lifelong Nebraskan, a grandmother and the author of a book coming out in June that required me to study climate change. I also write as one who has closely followed the Keystone XL pipeline story for over two years.
I was dismayed by the aforementioned editorial. The first line compliments President Barack Obama for holding a hearing in Nebraska. Of course, I am grateful to him and urge our citizens to participate in that State Department hearing. But make no mistake, we Nebraskans are responsible for the hearing. We have been the people who protested TransCanada's assault on our natural resources and on the livelihoods of farmers and ranchers. Because of concerned Nebraskans' sustained attention to the problems with TransCanada, we have sparked a national discussion about this pipeline.
Unfortunately, the concerns of many Nebraskans have not been allayed in the slightest.Landowners are frightened of losing their property rights. Nebraskans from Spencer, to Fullerton, to Omaha are concerned about the contamination of the Ogallala Aquifer, rivers and wells. Water, soil and wildlife experts, not tied to the oil industry, have many worries and they were not consulted during the recent Department of Environmental Quality review.
Many safety issues have not been addressed. The public does not know what kinds of chemicals are in the tar sands sludge. We know it contains some highly toxic and carcinogenic substances, including benzene, but TransCanada will not reveal what is in their "proprietary" toxic goop. This means, among other things, that we cannot plan in advance to protect ourselves in case of a leak or spill. First responders cannot prepare for emergencies or respond quickly afterward. Furthermore, how can we say a situation is safe and under control when we don't even know what we are dealing with?
The recent impact report cited by the Department of Environmental Quality was a green wash. It says the new route avoids the Sandhills, but TransCanada did not change the route as much as it changed the map. According to TransCanada's own 2008 map that was submitted to the State Department, the area it is planning to traverse still is in the Sandhills. Meanwhile, the word ?aquifer? has dropped out of the discussion entirely.
I also take exception to the editorial's phrase "dwindling but vocal minority of Nebraskans who oppose the pipeline." The issues are technical and complicated, and many Nebraskans don't quite understand the exact nature of our current situation. Yet, according to a recent University of Nebraska poll, 78 percent of rural citizens want the pipeline route to avoid the Sandhills and the Ogallala Aquifer. The new route does neither.
Farmers, ranchers, urbanites, Republicans and Democrats, students and senior citizens as well as Native peoples oppose this pipeline. More than 880 people attended the DEQ hearing in Albion on a Tuesday evening in December. More than 125 Nebraskans traveled to Washington, D.C., to stand in the wind and the cold Feb. 17 because they cared about stopping the pipeline. We Nebraskans have united around this issue in great numbers. No other cause in my 65-year-old memory has sparked so much passion.
This pipeline will not help the United States with energy independence or security. Instead, the oil TransCanada transports will be sold on the international market to the highest bidder. We Americans could shoulder the risks of this pipeline and yet experience almost none of its suggested benefits.
Finally, I would like to speak up for environmentalists, the people who want to give all the grandchildren of the world a good future. The Journal Star editorial suggests that either people want to protect Nebraska or they want to stop this pipeline and slow down our use of fossil fuels by converting to cleaner energies. I would humbly suggest this is not an either/or situation, but rather a both/and situation.
As a long-term opponent of the Keystone XL pipeline, I both care deeply for our state and I want to work for a cleaner world. The two goals are not antagonistic, but deeply related. "
........... this Local View is from the Journal Star, March 27, responding to a Journal Star editorial board piece.. CLIK HERE FOR THAT
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more books and workshop news:
Fred Zydek, writer living here in NE, writes about a new book of his, a memoir, "The Songs of Angels" ... ( see also http://fredrickzydek.com/ for this other titles by Fred ) :
When my goddaughter was born, her parents weren’t Roman Catholics anymore, but her paternal grandmother was. And Grandma really wanted the infant baptized. Her parents didn’t want a real priest to do it but agreed to have a ceremony at their home if I could do it. I accepted. Not many people know that it doesn’t take a priest to baptize someone. Any baptized person can do it. Who knows - maybe anyone can do it.
And I promised the baby girl’s grandma that I would do my best to get her to mass. I managed a mid-night Christmas mass or two - but that’s about it. Come to think of it, I believe Grandma was with us on a few occasions - and after Grandma passed, I think my goddaughter was only willing to go one last time - but as a tribute to her grandmother, not as a participant in the liturgy of the season.
Humanists exist at all points on the Bell Curve of life. Some of us occupy positions at the “persons of faith” end of the curve, and others occupy positions of Atheism and often as latent (and sometimes blatant) Agnostics. But before I understood and accepted the fact that my goddaughter would not be listed among those who celebrate and feel gratitude for a Divine Animating Principle (usually called “God.”) - I wrote a spiritual fantasy for her about the Archangels. I got the idea from a commentary in an ancient Midrash note that insisted the Archangels were commissioned by God to write and perform music (with the help of cherubims and saraphims, of course) for each phase of creation and each thing created. An enormous task when one understands that there are only four archangels. (I’ll bet you can name three of them right now - but will struggle for the name of the fourth.)
Of course the Archs (as they’re called by those who know them well) won’t have names until Adam comes along. It is, after all, his job to name things. (Think of it! Man had to create his own language!)
And there will be problems for the Archs. After all, how do you understand the concept of matter, or the difference between soft things and hard things, or sharp things and dull things, or hot things and cold things - when you haven’t a clue what things are because you haven’t a clue or ever experience anything made of atoms - because they are matter and you are not. But it may also be true that both matter and Angles are created from the same thing. Light.
And just wait until one of those Archs finds out that while they have been told that human kind will be created “a little lower than the angels” . . .humans can do something not even Archs (the highest form of consciousness in the celestial realm) can do - reproduce after its own kind. And what’s worse - it turns out that even something as lowly as a blade of grass can do it - but not Archangels. That’s going to make one of the archs pretty mad. His music is going to become much more like Stravinsky and Mahler than the music of the other archs.
I never gave the story to my goddaughter, although she was already an avid reader by the time I finished writing the story. By that time she was pretty much of the opinion that Jesus and the tooth fairy had a lot in common and she really didn’t want to be evangelized in any way. I felt like giving her the story could appear as an attempt to convert her to her Grandmother’s faith. It was clear that the fruit had not fallen very far away from the tree, and her that her parents appreciated that while she embraced sound and generous feelings about social justice and the human condition, like they did, she also embraced their distain for organized religion.
And I forgot about the story for a while. Then one day, while looking for a copy of my first novel (The City Camp Adventure) so I could revise it ONE MORE TIME - I found The Songs of Angels. I read through it. Did a minor revision here and there - and sent it off to my publisher for consideration.
Well - it’s ready. You can find out more about it at my web site (go to Fredrickzydek.com ) or click on the link below. It will take you there. You’ll find links to Amazon.com or one that will take you directly to my publisher’s manufacturer in case you don’t have an account with Amazon or don’t like shopping there. You can also order it from you local bookstore - but that takes a couple of weeks. Me? I love Amazon. I even shop for coffee there. I did all my Christmas shopping right here at my PC. And there was frosting! They wrap the gifts!
But I warn you. These aren’t your grandmother’s angels. They can be very funny. One of them can be rude as hell. They’re going to make you laugh and sometimes wish you could actually hear the music I write about. And you may cry.
I know most of you are going to be hit with a massive email blast from my publisher in a week or two. (I gave them every email I had) but I'm so excited about this book, I wanted to let you know about it right away.
I love this story. It’s a novella . . . about half the length of Old Pinhead. Let me know what you think about the story. I think this is the kind of book you’re going to like enough to purchase copies for birthday and Christmas gifts.
I dedicated the story to Nora Borgstrom. Some of you may know her. She’s Pat Borgstrom’s daughter. A Buckley kid. Nora is one of the angels in my life. I think of her as a kid sister.
Click here: Books | Fredrick Zydek
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SP CE is a writing room on the 2nd floor of the 14th & O building, downtown Lincoln:::: go up the stairs next to Novel Idea Bookstore on N 14th, veer right at the top, look for SP CE on the DOOR::::
every Saturday at 2pm, come up to talk writing -- see the FB page at:
https://www.facebook.com/spZce
How SP CE Writer's Group Works:
People who are interested in discussing writing come to SP CE every Saturday at 2 p.m.People who want their writing discussed bring copies of their writing.
All forms of writing are welcomed, but new or actively in-progress works are especially encouraged.
Everyone's writing is discussed for 10-15 minutes.
Those who want a bit of a challenge are encouraged to write for the prompt.
The prompt is: hair
Good times!
For those who wish to be further involved:
Prior to Writer's Group, there will be an Open Meeting where anyone can come and join in on a discussion of plans, goals, and ideas for SP CE as a collective entity. The Open Meeting will begin at 1:30 p.m. and will be held before every Writer's Group.
After Writer's Group, anyone who is interested in continuing a dialog in a more casual setting is invited to reconvene at Yia Yia's* to partake in food and drink and further conversation.
*reconvening location subject to change
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ConStellation IV - A New Hope
Lincoln's own national Science Fiction Convention
is coming April 19-21!!
( http://www.constellationne.net/ for more info)
We are proud to announce the 2013
Louder Than a Bomb
Lincoln High School Slam Poetry Team
(there will be four individual performances, and a four-person group slam piece)
In alphabetical order:
Lillian Bornstein
Reagan Myers
Rawson Ngoh
Elaine Samsel
Itahi Sanchez
Paul Schack
Katherine Stangl
Natalie Wiebelhaus
Alternates:
Charlie Curtis-Beard
Bobbi Dyas
Thanks to our judges:
Jen Davis-Korn, Eric Holt, Charlene Neely and Rex Walton
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Rex Walton has left the helm at Crescent Moon Coffee's 10-year reading Series, Poetry at the Moon. NOW, Crescent Moon Coffee is continuing the series as a weekly Open Mike, with occasional themes and guests, but THE OPEN MIKE CONTINUES!!!!!
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
1. continue to drop in, listen, read, and spread the word about a place to congregate as writers -
2. VOLUNTEER to be a once-in-a-while MC for the event - contact Melinda at Crescent Moon to be put on a list: crescentmoon@inebraska.com
3. GET OUT IN THE community, and use your writing skills to promote active movements in intellectual circles, social needs, political moves, ...
4. Keep Writing, talking, thinking as an aspiring ACTIVE citizen of our city, county, state, country - Democracy works when WE work to keep it active - if you can read and write with a thinking, critical eye, YOU can make a difference - I cite the current wave of activists such as (but certainly NOT limited to) Mary Pipher, Ben Gotschall, Mike Flood, Jane Kleeb, Dave Kramer, Chuck Hagel, Kate Witek, Kim Robak, ... and, you add to this list
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( Ed is trying to find a downtown Kearney venue to host a continuance of their reading series - if you know of one, please send him a note at: bookends@rcom-ne.com )
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newest book out by Barbara Schmitz!
"Path of Lightning"
Author and poet Barbara Schmitz offers a heartful, funny, and deeply moving "spiritual autobiography" that brings the reader along on each stage of her fervent inner quest for mystical experience. Beginning with a Catholic girlhood in Nebraska, she graduates to an unlikely apprenticeship with Allen Ginsberg at the Naropa Institute; a dedicated transcendental meditation practice; and finally to thirty years of joys and struggles with a Sufi teacher (Shahabuddin Less) with whom she travels to Bali, Turkey, India, Kashmir, and the Holy Land. Incisive as lightning-the meaning of her Sufi name, Vajra-her questions and yearning are our own, and she doesn't let God, her teacher, or herself off the hook.
GO HERE to order the book...
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Lincoln professor Joy Castro's book, "Hell or High Water" has been optioned for a movie by Zoe Saldana and friends ... READ HERE
"Hell Or High Water follows New Orleans reporter Nola Céspedes as she is dragged into the city’s post-Katrina underworld on the trail of what she thinks will be her big scoop. The novel was released July 17 by Thomas Dunne Books and was called one of the best books of 2012 by The Kirkus Review."
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Nebraska author news!! emily m. danforth is one of five nominees for the 2013 Morris Award, given for a first-time young adults' book author! emily graduated from UNL last year with an MFA in fiction ....
The Miseducation of Cameron Post, written by emily m. danforth, published by Balzer + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers
On the same day that 12-year-old Cameron kisses her best friend, Irene, her parents are killed in a car accident. Nearly crushed with guilt, Cameron spends the next several years in self-imposed gay-movie therapy with her VCR or drinking and smoking pot with her track and swim team friends, gradually coming to terms with her sexuality. It’s not easy being gay in rural 1990s Montana, and it’s harder still when your aunt drags you to an Evangelical church every weekend — where you meet the girl of your dreams.CLIK HERE for more ---
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Doug Smith of the Lincoln Arts Council sends us this:
How can I make a living with my art?
Where is the most colorful art for giving this season? What are they going to do with Canopy Street?
How can First Friday get more attention?
What’s up with Union Plaza on Antelope Creek?
Why don’t ducks wear shoes?
If these questions matter to you, and they should (mostly), we suggest that you seek the answers with the ever-changing group of people who join our Creative Conversations at the Mill in the Haymarket on Fridays from 8:30am to 10:00am.
Doug Smith of the Lincoln Arts Council sends us this:
How can I make a living with my art?
Where is the most colorful art for giving this season? What are they going to do with Canopy Street?
How can First Friday get more attention?
What’s up with Union Plaza on Antelope Creek?
Why don’t ducks wear shoes?
If these questions matter to you, and they should (mostly), we suggest that you seek the answers with the ever-changing group of people who join our Creative Conversations at the Mill in the Haymarket on Fridays from 8:30am to 10:00am.
We focus on the arts, but aren’t above contemplating the higher mysteries of life. We can promise you great coffee, great conversation, and a chance to make a difference in the lives of every Lincoln resident. Join us.
Doug Smith --- doug@artscene.org
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Nebraska Book Awards, 2012:
2012 (13th annual) for books published in 2011
Anthology:
Aspects of Robinson: Homage to Weldon Kees, edited by Christopher Buckley and Christopher Howell
Publisher: The Backwaters Press
Anthology Honor:
Women on the North American Plains, edited by Renee Laegreid and Sandra K. Mathews
Publisher: Texas Tech University Press
Cover/Design/Illustration:
First Telegraph Line across the Continent: Charles Brown’s 1861 Diary, edited by Dennis Mihelich and James E. Potter
Publisher: Nebraska State Historical Society Books
Designer: Reigert Graphics
Cover/Design/Illustration Honor:
Flushed During Play: 51 Pet Rodent Deaths, compiled by Jeff Lacey
Artwork: Calvin Banks
Publisher: Rogue Faculty Press
Fiction:
To Be Sung Underwater, by Tom McNeal
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Nonfiction: Biography:
Rattlesnake Daddy: A Son's Search for His Father, by Brent Spencer
Publisher: The Backwaters Press
Nonfiction: History:
The Rhythm Boys of Omaha Central: High School Basketball at the ‘68 Racial Divide, by Steve Marantz
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Nonfiction: Nebraska as Place:
Portraits Of The Prairie: The Land That Inspired Willa Cather, by Richard Schilling
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Nonfiction: Reference:
Field Guide to Wildflowers of Nebraska and the Great Plains, by Jon Farrar
Publisher: University of Iowa Press
Poetry:
Dirt Songs: A Plains Duet, by Twyla M. Hansen and Linda M. Hasselstrom
Publisher: The Backwaters Press
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Ted Kooser's Poem Inspires a Film!
A short film by Dan Butler, inspired by Ted Kooser's poem "Pearl" has been making the rounds of the film festivals, and the New England Festival has put it online.
(CLICK HERE for online version
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Melissa Homestead Receives Honorable Mention by the Society for the Study of American Women Writers for its first Edition Award
An edition of Catharine Sedgwick's novel Clarence, co-edited by English department faculty member Melissa J. Homestead, has been awarded an Honorable Mention by the Society for the Study of American Women Writers for its first Edition Award. The SSAWW Edition Award is given every three years at the Society for the Study of American Women Writers’ conference to recognize excellence in the recovery of American women writers. First published in 1830, Sedgwick's novel of manners is set in New York City in the 1820s. Co-edited by Homestead and Ellen A. Foster (Clarion University of Pennsylvania) and published by Broadview Press, the edition features an introduction authored by Homestead focusing on Sedgwick's place in transatlantic literary culture and her imaginative engagements with New York City and the Caribbean, as well as a selection of contextual documents and images.from the Bookguide at Lincoln city Libraries:
..... and, the Selection for the
2012 One Book - One Lincoln
is:
Destiny of the Republic
by Candice Millard!
Readers in Lincoln cast their votes in June and July, and by an overwhelming majority, the tome you all selected for this year's One Book - One Lincoln title was Millard's engrossing look at the assassination of President James A. Garfield.
You can visit this year's official One Book - One Lincoln website for resources related to this year's selected title. The special programs for this year are still being finalized, and we'll announce those on the libraries' website, on Facebook, and via the One Book - One Lincoln e-mail list and Blog as soon as possible.
Thanks for your continued support for One Book - One Lincoln -- we look forward to another Fall of engaging discussions and informative programming related to the selected book!
Readers in Lincoln cast their votes in June and July, and by an overwhelming majority, the tome you all selected for this year's One Book - One Lincoln title was Millard's engrossing look at the assassination of President James A. Garfield.
You can visit this year's official One Book - One Lincoln website for resources related to this year's selected title. The special programs for this year are still being finalized, and we'll announce those on the libraries' website, on Facebook, and via the One Book - One Lincoln e-mail list and Blog as soon as possible.
Thanks for your continued support for One Book - One Lincoln -- we look forward to another Fall of engaging discussions and informative programming related to the selected book!
BookGuide
The readers' services page of the Lincoln City Libraries
Lincoln, Nebraska
http://www.lincolnlibraries.org/depts/bookguide/front.htm
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Kwame Dawes, professor of English and Glenna Luschei Editor of Prairie Schooner, has received a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship. He is among 181 scholars, artists and scientists in the United States and Canada who were selected for the honor from nearly 3,000 applicants.
The fellowship will support his work on the poem cycle, “August: A Quintet,” which is based on the work of August Wilson, an American playwright and Pulitzer Prize winner whose work illustrated the African-American experience in the 20th century.
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The fellowship will support his work on the poem cycle, “August: A Quintet,” which is based on the work of August Wilson, an American playwright and Pulitzer Prize winner whose work illustrated the African-American experience in the 20th century.
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UNL professor Joy Castro's forthcoming debut novel, Hell or High Water, has been chosen as the September 2012 Book of the Month by the Las Comadres and Friends National Latino Book Club. It's good national publicity for a first novel: there are book club chapters all over the country, and Joy will be doing teleconferencing in September.
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UNL professor Wheeler Winston Dixon's book A History of Horror (Rutgers UP) has been chosen by Choice, the ALA Library Journal, as an Outstanding Academic Book of the Year for 2011. As Choice notes, their list of Outstanding Academic Books "comprise[s] less than 9 percent of the titles reviewed during 2011 and 2.5 percent of those submitted during that same time span, [ensuring that] these exceptional titles are truly the 'best of the best.'" In addition, A History of Horror will be released as an audio book by Redwood Audiobooks in 2012, and has just gone into a second printing from Rutgers.
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The William Kloefkorn Award for Excellence in Poetry was established in memory of the late Nebraska State Poet William Kloefkorn. Bill was named the Nebraska State Poet by proclamation of the Unicameral in 1982. In addition to his many publications and honors, he also won first-place in the 1978 Nebraska Hog-Calling Championship. A retired professor of English at Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln, he was the author of over twenty collections of poetry and other books, including Alvin Turner as Farmer (Logan House, 2004), Sunrise, Dayglow, Sunset, Moon (Talking River Publications, 2004), andWalking the Campus (Lone Willow Press, 2004). He also published four memoirs, This Death by Drowning, Restoring the Burnt Child, At Home on This Moveable Earth and Breathing in the Fullness of Time (U. of Nebraska Press). He was the author of two collections of short fiction, A Time to Sink Her Pretty Little Ship and Shadow Boxer (Logan House Press). Other books include Sergeant Patrick Gass, Chief Carpenter: On the Trail with Lewis and Clark (Spoon River), Uncertain the Final Run to Winter (Windflower Press), Loup River Psalter (Spoon River), Welcome to Carlos (Spoon River), and Drinking the Tin Cup Dry (White Pine Press, 1989). His poems have appeared in Prairie Schooner, Georgia Review, Poet & Critic, and elsewhere. Bill mentored innumerable students and folks interested in the written word. Bill was a great friend and inimitable teacher.