Lecturer
107 Andrews Hall
Lincoln, NE 68588-0333
(402)472-0667 (office)
Degrees and institutions granting the degree
- Ph.D. University of Nebraska—Lincoln.
- Dissertation: Being(s) in Place(s): Poetry in and of Nebraska
- M. A. University of Nebraska at Omaha.
- B. A. St. Mary College, Leavenworth, KS.
Teaching Statement
- I believe that all writing is conversation, and that writers at every level and genres are involved in many conversations—with their environment and culture, with one another, with contemporary poetry, with literature from the past, with their own varied selves, with their teachers, and with their readers. Writing and reading are forms of time travel, a way to converse with those who have gone before us, to touch the thoughts of those who will come in the future, as well as to learn about the time and place in which we currently reside. Like all good conversationalists, we as writers and readers must be concerned with speaking truthfully, thinking critically, and listening fairly.
Teaching interests:
- Writing (poetry, composition, personal narrative)
- Environmental literature and eco-critical thought
- Plains literature
- American poetry
- Nebraska literature
Co-founder and Coordinator of the Environmental Writing and Criticism Community: students, faculty, and others from departments throughout the university, as well as the general public, interested in the writing, reading, and /or exploration of literature, life, and the environment. Among events sponsored and promoted. (If you would like to be a member of the group and/or receive notices of upcoming discussions and lectures, drop me an email.)
Manuscripts in Progress:
- Bright Lights Flying Behind: An Introduction to the Work of Ted Kooser.
- Where We Dwell, a full-length manuscript of poems in circulation to publishers.
- Co-editor of Letters From Grass Country: Essays on Contemporary Poets and Poets of the Great Plains (scholarly or personal essays about the poets of the Great Plains, their lives and their work) to be published by Backwaters Press in fall 2011.
- Absolute Danger, a full-length manuscript of poems in circulation to publishers.
Selected publications
- Nebraska Presence, an anthology of 82 contemporary Nebraska poets edited by Mary K. Stillwell and Greg Kosmicki, was published by Backwaters Press in 2007.
- “The Art of Alchemy: Transformation in the Poetry of Hilda Raz,” Midwestern Miscellany 33 (Spring 2006).
- “The Ecologies of Place in the Poetry of Kathleene West,” Midwest Miscellany 32, Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature (spring/fall 2005).
- “When a Walk is a Poem: Winter Morning Walks, A Chronicle of Survival, by Ted Kooser.” The Midwest Quarterly. 45.4 (2004): 399-414.
- Interview: “An Interview with Ted Kooser,” Plains Song Review, Volume V, 2003.
- “In-Between: The Landscape of Transformation in Ted Kooser’s Weather Central,” Great Plains Quarterly, Spring 1999.
- Review: "Gary Gildner's Bunker in the Parsley Fields," Western American Literature, Nov. 1997.
- "Beyond the Absolute Good" (on Linda Hogan's poem, "Seeing Through the Sun"), Notes on Contemporary Literature, 1997.
- Moving to Malibu. Ord: Sandhills Press, 1988. (poetry)
Poetry:
- “Circle Dance.” Crazy Woman Creek. Edited by Linda Hasselstrom, Gaydell Collier and Nancy Curtis. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2004.
- “Circle Dance,” “The Red Barn,” and “Zeit and Sein: Marilyn Monroe in Omaha,” Times of Sorrow/Times of Grace. Omaha: Backwaters, 2002.
- “Winter Song" and "January 4, 1991," Leaning into the Wind. Edited by Linda Hasselstrom, Gaydell Collier and Nancy Curtis. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1997.
- “Travel Plans," The Paris Review Anthology. New York: Norton, 1989 (reprinted 1991).
- “The Geography of the Heart,” Plains Song Review. Volume VII, 2005.
- “The Bookmobile” and “The Red Barn,” Plains Song Review. Volume IV, 2002.
- “Just Morning,” Dazzling Mica: A Journal of Poetry and Culture. Volume 1, Number 3, 2002.
- “Crane River,” Platte Valley Review. Volume 29, Number 2 (Fall) 2001.
- “Six Millennium Blues,” Platte Valley Review. Volume 29, Number 1 (Spring) 2001.
