Here is the print-out of the program, which is also on the link directly
below, on the Brownville city site --
http://www.brownville-ne.com/main.taf?p=1,3
Brownville's Wine Writers & Song 2011
FRIDAY EVENING, APRIL 15
Meet up at the River Inn, just follow the signs to where she's docked on the
Missouri River.
5-7 PM Social Hour from 5-7 PM
Cash Bar and the popular band Midwest Dilemma
6-7 PM dinner featuring a variety of pastas, salads & breads. Dessert and
coffee follow.
Reservations required, call Nora at 402-825-3992 or email
nora.tallmon@gmail.com. OR
RESERVE YOUR SPOT NOW ($15.75 PER PERSON)
7:30-9 PM Entertainment by celebrated Comedian & Writer T. Marni Vos
SATURDAY MORNING, APRIL 16
9 AM Bright & Early Guided Walk through the Furnas Arboretum with John
Lauber
9-11 AM Weekend Writers' Workshop First Session with Amy Plettner
Pre-registration required, call Nora at 402-825-3992 or email
nora.tallmon@gmail.com.
Ongoing Event: Schoolhouse Gallery Exhibition, TBA
Childrens' Program
10-10:45 AM in the Schoolhouse Gallery Music by Mike Mennard
11-11:30 AM in the Schoolhouse Gallery Author Pippa White
Nonfiction Program
10-11 AM in the Lyceum Author Donald-Brian Johnson
11 AM - NOON in the Lyceum Author Charlotte Endorf
SATURDAY AFTERNOON & EVENING
1-2 PM come cruise the Missouri River, adults $9.95 PP, children 5 and under
free.
2-3 PM in the Antiquarium, Author Nina Murray
2:30-4 PM Songwriters' Roundtable in The Brownville Town Hall. A salon-type
conversation in which the songwriters discuss their writing process, play
snippets of music, and entertain questions from the audience, features Robin
Harrell & Emily Dunbar.
3-4 PM in the Antiquarim, Author Sherrie Flick
4:30-6 PM Weekend Writers' Workshop: Session Two
Preregistration is required,call Nora at 402-825-3992 or email
nora.tallmon@gmail.com.
Pairing Food & Wine Program
At Whiskey Run Creek Winery, second level,$8 per person, space is limited,
paid reservations are required,register online here, call Nora at
402-825-3992 or email nora.tallmon@gmail.com.
Vintner Ron Heskett and chef/authors Sean Carmichael and Maggie Pleskac will
team up to show participants which wines best complement which flavors. Each
chef will offer an appetizer to be paired with a Whiskey Run Creek Winery
wine. Sean & Maggie will sign copies of their cookbook, Dueling Chefs: A
Vegetarian & A Meat Lover Debate the Plate.
Session 1: 4:30-6:00
Session 2: 6:30-8:00
The first half hour of each session will be a tour of the historic Whiskey
Run Creek cave.
RESERVE YOUR SPOT NOW ($8.55 PER PERSON)
SESSION 1: 4:30-6:00 PM, 50 of 50 seats currently open.
SESSION 2: 6:30-8:00 PM, 50 of 50 seats currently open.
8-10 PM Evening Revelry featuring Burnt Biscuits at Whiskey Run Creek Winery
SUNDAY, APRIL 17
9:30-10:45 AM Weekend Writers' Workshop Open House at the Village Theatre
Residence
11-11:30 AM Christopher James will present at Porridge Papers
11:30 AM - NOON Kevin Oliver will present at his Bookbinding Shop
1-4 PM at the Lyceum Bookstore, Free Range Readings hosted by Rex Walton and
featuring popular writers (TBA)
Please consider supporting this worthwhile event, your contributions are tax
deductible!
2011 Authors & Musicians
Midwest Dilemma
A guitar, red trucker hat, folk songs, and an old Toyota wagon on open road.
Justin Lamoureux has been performing as Midwest Dilemma for nearly a decade.
Over hills, valleys, across high plains, mountains, forests, deserts,
rivers, oceans and destinations near and far to share his experiences and
stories of life in the Midwest. But there is nothing typical about Midwest
Dilemma.
Lamoureux recruited 23 musical collaborators for the debut release titled
Timelines & Tragedies in 2008. The revolving cast of characters fill out the
woodwind, brass, string, and percussion sections. Timelines & Tragedies is a
time line of family history. Tracing Lamoureux's ancestors to their days of
French Canadian fur trading, the Great Depression, the struggles of his
parents' generation with Vietnam, and eventually concluding with his life in
the Omaha.
T. Marni Vos
T. Marni Vos is a clean and refreshing humorist. She is as funny as she is
inspiring. She became one of only seven women in 20 years to be a Finalist
in the prestigious San Francisco International Stand-up Comedy Competition,
where over 400 comics compete each year. She has performed on Life Time's
"Girls Night Out" and opened for Jay Leno at the Comedy and Magic Club in
Hermosa Beach. A former high school instructor in a stressful environment,
T. Marni Vos used humor and creativity to inspire and motivate students to
go beyond their potential. Through laughter and communication she continues
to educate people in all walks of life to meet their challenges with a light
heart and the echo of laughter.
John Lauber
Curator, Furnas Arboretum 1991-2011. Lauber is a graduate of Nebraska
Wesleyan and holds a Master of Music degree from the University of Colorado,
Boulder. With his wife, Mary, founded Brownville Summer Music Festival in
1972, has been a resident of Brownville and Lincoln, Nebraska since that
time. Currently serves as promotion/marketing manager for the Brownville
Concert Series, and is sales representative for Whiskey Run Creek Vineyard
and Winery in Brownville.
Amy Plettner
Amy Plettner is a student in the University of Nebraska MFA writing program.
Her poetry has appeared in the anthologies Nebraska Presence and Times of
Sorrow, Times of Grace. Other publications include Plains Song Review, Omaha
World-Herald's "Everyday Poetry" series, Nebraska Life, and Celebrate: A
Collection of Women’s Writing. She lives south of Denton with her family,
and enjoys bicycling, taking baths, and life in Nebraska.
Mike Mennard
Mike Mennard has been performing throughout Nebraska, California, West
Virginia, Illinois, Oregon, and Montana since 2004. He has produced four
albums, Something’s Rotting in the Fridge, When Mother Goose Laid an Egg,
Night at the Whaler’s Inn, Pirates… do the Darnedest Things, and We've Got
It All In Nebraska. In 2010, he will release his first complete collection
of kids' poetry entitled, To the Ledge at the Edge of the Universe. “Mike is
a creative genius,” says Cindy Johnson of Hill Elementary School. “Few poets
and songwriters have so effectively captured what it is to be a kid. And few
have done so as compassionately and humorously as he has. He is a treasure.”
Mike lives in Lincoln, Nebraska with his wife, Michelle, and son, Ramsey. He
teaches English and Communication at Union College.
Pippa White
Pippa White calls her One's Company Productions "part theatre, part
storytelling, part history." Audiences call them unique, captivating, and
touching. To date she has crisscrossed the country many times touring to
over twenty-five states, including California, New York, Connecticut,
Colorado, Texas, Florida, Illinois, Washington and Alaska. She has performed
at universities and colleges, conferences, performing arts centers, museums,
libraries, and festivals. The Director of Special Projects at the Iowa
Department of Cultural Affairs calls Pippa "the highest quality artist," and
the Kansas Storytelling Festival said her performance was "one of the high
points in our festival history." An audience member recently captured the
gist of Pippa's unique presentations when he said, "her performances are
entertainment wrapped in history intertwined with inspiration." Pippa has a
BA in English from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. In addition to
performing, she offers workshops and residencies, and has been a teaching
artist with Nebraska Arts Council since 1990. She has received several
awards in recognition of her work, including two Individual Artist
Fellowship awards from the Nebraska Arts Council.
Donald-Brian Johnson
Donald-Brian Johnson is co-author, with photographer Leslie Pina, of the
books Deco Décor; Higgins: Poetry in Glass; Higgins: Adventures in Glass;
Moss Lamps: Lighting the ‘50s; Whiting & Davis Purses: The Perfect Mesh;
Popular Purses: It’s In The Bag!, and Specs Appeal: Extravagant Eyewear of
the 1950s and 1960s; Additional Johnson/Pina collaborations include a
four-volume series on the American Art Deco giftware and lighting lines of
the Chase Brass & Copper Co: Chase Complete; 1930s Lighting: Deco &
Traditional by Chase; The Chase Catalogs: 1934 & 1935, and The Chase Era.
Their latest collaboration, Postwar Pop: Memorabilia of the Mid-Twentieth
Century is scheduled for a Spring, 2011 release. Working with Tim Holthaus
and Jim Petzold, Johnson also co-authored Ceramic Arts Studio: The Legacy of
Betty Harrington. All are published by Schiffer Publishing, Ltd. Mr. Johnson
received his undergraduate and graduate degrees in English and Speech from
Northwestern University. Prior to his career as an author, he worked in the
Midwest as an award-winning theatre director, television/radio reporter, and
advertising writer.
In addition to his books on mid-twentieth century decorative arts, Johnson
has been a frequent seminar speaker for such groups as the Art Deco Society
of New York, the Ceramic Arts Studio Collectors Association, and the Whiting
& Davis Co. He is also a contributing writer for various design
publications, including The Old Times; Antiques & Collecting Magazine;
Antiques & Auction News and Paper & Advertising Collectors Marketplace. His
monthly column, “Smack Dab in the Middle: Design Trends of the Mid-Twentieth
Century” is syndicated throughout the United States. A native of Chatfield,
Minnesota, Mr. Johnson now lives in Omaha, Nebraska.
Charlotte Endorf
Charlotte Endorf traveled over 15,000 miles to research this often-ignored
slice of American history, and in the process she discovered that she, too,
was a descendent of an actual Orphan Train rider. She keeps the Orphan Train
history alive with nationwide radio shows and through her website,
www.unsungneighbors.com. Endorf travels her home state as one of the select
four “high use” speakers on the Nebraska Humanities Council Speakers Bureau,
and dressed in period attire, brings history to life, dressed in period
attire, for schools, museums, festivals, nursing facilities, senior centers,
and libraries. Also by Endorf: After the Rain, Oh the Beautiful Rainbow;
Plains Bound: Fragile Cargo; By Train They Came (Volumes 1 and 2); Unsung
Neighbors; and They Call Me Teddy.
Nina Shevchuk–Murray
Has a Master of Arts in English with Creative Thesis. She received a
Nebraska Book Award, Nebraska Humanities Council, for The Big-Empty, An
Anthology of Nebraska Non-Fiction. Her other presentations include “Walt
Whitman in Russia: A Love Affair in Three Acts” and “A Russian, A Frenchman,
And an Englishman are Stranded on a Desert Island: Narrative Analysis and
Translatability of Humor,” “Yuri Andrukhovych’s ‘Letters to Ukraine’:
Post-colonial Literary Strategies” and “Ukrainian Poetry: Translating the
Lesbian, or Lesbian Translating?” She is also a translator, essayist and
poet.
Robin Harrell
Robin Harrell has taught guitar for 26 years. In 2004, she was awarded
Hastings' YWCA Tribute to Women Award for her teaching and musical mentoring
to children and adults. She has been a featured performer at: Rocky Mountain
Folk Festival, Wildflower Stage (Lyons CO), North American Folk Alliance
(2002 with Paul Reisler, Nashville TN), City Stages, (Greensboro, NC),
Cottonwood Festival (Hastings, NE), Flatwater Folk Festival (Hastings, NE),
LAFTA Concert Series (Lincoln, NE) and Birdhouse (Manhattan, KS). She has
also performed many times on Nebraska Public Radio's “Friday Live” and has
been featured on nationally syndicated “River City Folk” with Tom May. She
is the founder/ producer of The Listening Room, (www.thelisteningroom.org )a
non-profit concert series founded in 1991. She also started "The Song
School" as part of Prairie Loft Center's Flatwater Folk Festival in 2008.
The school is a three-day intensive seminar on songwriting. To learn more,
please visit: www.prairieloft.org.
Emily Dunbar
Sherrie Flick
Sherrie Flick published her debut novel Reconsidering Happiness with
University of Nebraska Press as part of their Flyover Fiction series in
September 2009. She is also author of the award-winning flash fiction
chapbook I Call This Flirting (Flume Press, 2004). Anthologies include
Sudden Fiction (Norton, 2007) and Flash Fiction Forward (Norton, 2006), as
well as Sudden Stories: The Mammoth Book of Minuscule Fiction (MAMMOTH
Press, 2003) and You Have Time for This (Ooligan Press, 2007). Her essay
“Flash in a Pan” appears in The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing
Flash Fiction, 2009. Her fiction has appeared in Prairie Schooner, North
American Review, Quarterly West, Puerto del Sol, Quick Fiction, and Freight
Stories, among others.
Flick has received artist residencies from the Ucross Foundation, Atlantic
Center for the Arts, and Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, as well as a
Tennessee Williams Scholarship from Sewanee Writers’ Conference. In 2005,
she was honored as one of Pittsburgh’s “40 under 40.” In 2007, she received
an individual artist fellowship from Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. She
teaches graduate students at Chatham University and undergraduate classes at
University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University. Sherrie has also
taught interdisciplinary writing workshops in many arts institutions,
including Carnegie Museum of Art and Silver Eye Center for Photography. She
often helps curate literary programs in alternative settings, such as
Wood-Fired Words with UnSmoke Systems in Braddock, Pa. and isReads
Pittsburgh. Flick is artistic director and co-founder of the Gist Street
Reading Series, now in its tenth year. Gist Street is a literary reading
series focusing on national and local poets and prose writers publishing
their first or second books. She is also a freelance writer and editor. She
lives in Pittsburgh, where she likes to garden. And if you visit her
mini-blog here on this site you’ll also see she likes to cook.
Pairing Food & Wine:
Sean Carmichael
Sean Carmichael is the executive chef of Chez Hay Catering. He attended the
University of Nebraska Art College and in 1996, graduated from the Colorado
Art Institute with a degree in Culinary Arts. After college, Sean returned
to Lincoln and worked as a chef for Inn Harms Way and helped open
restaurants DiNapoli and J. Finnegan's. He has been featured on two local
television programs: “10-11 News: In the Kitchen” and “Time Warner Cable:
Now We’re Cookin”. Sean is also the co-author of Dueling Chefs: A Vegetarian
& A Meat Lover Debate the Plate, published by University of Nebraska Press.
Maggie Pleskac
Maggie Pleskac is the owner of Maggie’s Vegetarian Café and the co-author of
Dueling Chefs: A Vegetarian & A Meat Lover Debate the Plate, published by
University of Nebraska Press. She is on the board of directors of Open
Harvest Natural Foods Grocery and the vice president of Slow Food Nebraska.
Christopher James
Christopher James is president and founder of Porridge Papers, a nationally
recognized hand papermill & letterpress studio, often referred to as
“Lincoln’s littlest big papermill.”
A self taught and highly creative papermaker and letterpress printer,
Christopher is a pioneer in the industry with an uncanny ability to think
beyond traditional techniques. His distinctive “try anything” ability to
create remarkable paper has been compared to Jeffery Adam "Duff" Goldman
star of the Food Network reality television show Ace of Cakes.
Advocates of recycling and local business, Christopher and his team at
Porridge Papers consider every project a challenge and rewarding experience.
They give back to the community with their annual Love on the Run project
where the public is invited to type love notes on antique typewriters that
are then placed into glass bottles and delivered free of charge.
Kevin Oliver
A classically trained hand bookbinder, Oliver been applying his trade in
Lincoln, Nebraska since 1995. Mr. Oliver sees his work as the finishing
touch on the many trades and crafts which come together to produce a book. A
student of Daphne Beaumont-Wright, one of the finest British bookbinders in
the last hundred years, Kevin primarily produces fine bindings and performs
restoration work. His specialty is 16th and 17th century period style
bindings. He is the owner/operator of Signature Bindery, and as a
traditional bookbinder, he only makes use of hand tools and finds simple
pleasure in applying gold leaf to fine leather and vellum bindings. Kevin
often teaches bookbinding classes and workshops from his home studio.
Free Range Readers & Rex Walton
Rex Walton has been writing poetry for nearly twenty years, beginning in the
mid 80s as a student of UNL English professors Greg Kuzma, Marcia Southwick,
Mordecai Marcus and Warren Fine. He co-edited the English Department's
LAURUS undergraduate annual magazine with Season Harper. His poems have been
published in literary magazines such as Plainsong, and the Plains Song
Review. A poem of his was used as the lyics for Color of Silence, a musical
piece by Anthony Lanman (http://www.thenewstyle.org/catalogue.php?id=54). He
has hosted The Crescent Moon Reading Series since 2005 and operates “Rex’s
Writerly List,” a literary email list with hundreds of subscribers.
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Info for the Writers Workshop, led by Amy Plettner:
Writers' Workshop!
As part of the Wine, Writers and Song Festival, we offer a Weekend Writers'
Workshop for 15 participants. NOTE: THERE ARE TWO WORKSHOP ONLY SLOTS AND
ONE RESIDENTIAL SLOT LEFT...CALL TODAY!
Amy Plettner is the 2011 Instructor, read more about Amy in the listings
with the main program (way above)
..............RIVER OF WORDS ...........
River of Words Prepare to sweep away any blocks you may have experienced as
we spend the weekend generating new work. Guided by the Missouri River to
our east, we will get in the flow and use a variety of tools and techniques
to banish the inner critic and write. Our goal will be to head home with
many pages of fresh material, newly forged connections with our fellow
writers, and a few new strategies to add to our writing practice.
The Residential Workshop includes: 2 nights' lodging at the Brownville
Village Theatre Actors' Residence, meals (including the Friday opening
dinner), Saturday's “Pairing Food & Wine” program, two writing sessions, the
opportunity to read your work to a supportive audience at the Writers'
Workshop Open House on Sunday morning, a canvas bag, all festival
programming and the chance to meet and hang out with some really neat
people. The Workshop Instructor will spend the weekend at the Brownville
Village Theatre's Actors' Residence as well.
Residential Workshop participation is limited to 13. Cost for this package
is $160.
The Non-Residential Workshop includes all the above except meals and
lodging. There are 2 Non-Residential Workshop spots available. Cost for this
package is $60.
Registration for the Weekend Writers' Workshop – both packages – is taken on
a first-come, first-serve basis.
If you're interested in participating – or if you have questions – please
contact Nora Tallmon, Festival Director, at nora.tallmon@gmail.com or call
her at 402-825-3992.
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Rex Walton
rexwalton@windstream.net
Prairie Moon Reading & Music News
www.moonreading.blogspot.com
Tuesdays with Writers
www.tuesdayswithwriters.blogspot.com
Brownville Writers
www.brownvillewriters.blogspot.com
Jeff Barnes, a freelance writer and fifth-generation Nebraskan, is a former newspaper reporter and editor, past chairman of the Nebraska Hall of Fame Commission, former marketing director for the Durham Western Heritage Museum and present board member of the Douglas County Historical Society.
Todd Brown strives to be a designer, carpenter, artist and musician. He has performed on several stages throughout the United States solo and with his wife Cody Carson-Brown. His songwriting has won regional competitions and his guitar playing is ok. He can be found at the Listening Room as a performer and volunteer in Hastings, Nebraska where he resides.
Sean Carmichael is the executive chef of Chez Hay Catering. He attended the University of Nebraska Art College and in 1996, graduated from the Colorado Art Institute with a degree in Culinary Arts. After college, Sean returned to Lincoln and worked as a chef for Inn Harms Way and helped open restaurants DiNapoli and J. Finnegan's. He has been featured on two local television programs: “10-11 News: In the Kitchen” and “Time Warner Cable: Now We’re Cookin”. Sean is also the co-author of Dueling Chefs: A Vegetarian & A Meat Lover Debate the Plate, published by University of Nebraska Press.
Shelly Clark Geiser was born and has spent most of her life in Imperial, Nebraska. She moved to Omaha in 2005. She taught English and Journalism for 17 years at Chase County High School and for two years at Midlands Lutheran College. She now owns a small business with her husband, Jack. In 2003, Shelly and Marjorie Saiser co-edited an anthology of Nebraska writers, Road Trip: Conversations With Writers, published by Backwaters Press and winner of two Nebraska Book Awards. Shelly’s poems have been anthologized in Times of Sorrow, Times of Grace, and Nebraska Presence. Other poems have appeared in Nebraska Territory, Nebraska English Journal and Plain Song Review.
Andrew Ek was raised in Colorado Springs, but arrived in Nebraska by way of the university in Lincoln. He is a published author of several short stories, and was an opinion columnist for UNL's student newspaper. Along with that, he is a regular presence at Nebraska's poetry slams, and was a member of the 2008 and 2009 poetry slam teams from Lincoln, the highlight of which was a 12th-place team finish at the 2008 National Poetry Slam in Madison, Wisconsin. In addition to his writing, Andrew teaches high school English and is a curriculum advisor and member of the Nebraska Writers Collective's board of directors.
Robin Harrell has taught guitar for 26 years. In 2004, she was awarded Hastings' YWCA Tribute to Women Award for her teaching and musical mentoring to children and adults. She has been a featured performer at: Rocky Mountain Folk Festival, Wildflower Stage (Lyons CO), North American Folk Alliance (2002 with Paul Reisler, Nashville TN), City Stages, (Greensboro, NC), Cottonwood Festival (Hastings, NE), Flatwater Folk Festival (Hastings, NE), LAFTA Concert Series (Lincoln, NE) and Birdhouse (Manhattan, KS). She has also performed many times on Nebraska Public Radio's “Friday Live” and has been featured on nationally syndicated “River City Folk” with Tom May. She is the founder/ producer of The Listening Room, (www.thelisteningroom.org )a non-profit concert series founded in 1991. She also started "The Song School" as part of Prairie Loft Center's Flatwater Folk Festival in 2008. The school is a three-day intensive seminar on songwriting. To learn more, please visit: www.prairieloft.org.
David and Julie Humphrey have been collecting books for over a decade, amassing an impressive library of nearly 1200 titles. David got his start in college by collecting Stephen King 1st editions. After meeting Julie, who thought collecting books was a great idea, the collection spread to include fantasy, science fiction, and mystery titles. The Humphrey's have taken several trips around America and up to Canada to attend conventions and book signings for their favorite authors. There are two things that make them smile: the thrill of finding a first edition and getting to meet an author they admire.
Paul Johnsgard is by far the most prolific writer of non-fiction or fiction books in Nebraska’s history, and correspondingly is the world’s most prolific author of ornithological literature. Nearly all of Johnsgard’s monographs deal in part with conservation of groups, species, or habitats. His 51 published books total about 3 million words, and occupy nearly five linear feet of shelf space.
Amy Knox Brown is a fourth-generation Nebraskan currently living in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where she is assistant professor of creative writing at Salem College and director of the school's Center for Women Writers. Her story collection Three Versions of the Truth was a finalist for the 2008 Shenandoah/Glasgow Emerging Writers Award, and she is also the author of a poetry chapbook, Advice from Household Gods. She and her husband John McNally, share their home with three dogs and seven cats.
Katie Logan is a singer/songwriter who plays lead and rhythm guitar covering a variety of rock, reggae, blues, folk, country, and good ol’ American pop, as well as, performing and recording dozens of her own original songs. She’s been writing songs for twenty-five years and has recorded eleven albums. Katie has earned her position in the music scene playing her originals and covers all over Las Vegas, the Midwest, and points beyond. She has recently relocated to her hometown of Lincoln, Nebraska with plans to tour the Midwest and busy working on her twelfth album. Her dynamic stage presence is evidenced in the upbeat dialogue, the stories, and the easy rapport with audiences, and of course, the jumpin’ energy, therefore, the well deserved nickname--Jumpin' Kate.
Kelly Madigan Erlandson is the author of Getting Sober: A Practical Guide to Making it Through the First 30 Days (McGraw-Hill). Her poems and essays have appeared in Best New Poets 2007, Crazyhorse, The Massachusetts Review, and Prairie Schooner. She was awarded the Distinguished Artist Award in Literature from the Nebraska Arts Council in 2006, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in 2008. Visit her website at www.KellyMadiganErlandson.com.
Matt Mason has won 2 Nebraska Book Awards as well as had his poems published in over 150 magazines and anthologies. His first full length collection, Things We Don’t Know We Don’t Know (The Backwaters Press, 2006), besides winning a Nebraska Book Award, was a Contemporary Poetry bestseller. He has done poetry programs for the United States Department of State in Minsk, Belarus, colleges and universities around the country, and dozens of high schools in Nebraska,Iowa, and Missouri. Mason earned his MA in Creative Writing from the University of California at Davis, then, of course, moved to Omaha where he now lives with his wonderful wife Sarah and baby daughters Sophia and Lucia. He also edits PoetryMenu.com, a listing of every Nebraska poetry event (and, yes, there are a lot, see for yourself)and is the Executive Director for the Nebraska Writers Collective.
Mike Mennard has been performing throughout Nebraska, California, West Virginia, Illinois, Oregon, and Montana since 2004. He has produced four albums, Something’s Rotting in the Fridge, When Mother Goose Laid an Egg, Night at the Whaler’s Inn, Pirates… do the Darnedest Things, and We've Got It All In Nebraska. In 2010, he will release his first complete collection of kids' poetry entitled, To the Ledge at the Edge of the Universe. “Mike is a creative genius,” says Cindy Johnson of Hill Elementary School. “Few poets and songwriters have so effectively captured what it is to be a kid. And few have done so as compassionately and humorously as he has. He is a treasure.” Mike lives in Lincoln, Nebraska with his wife, Michelle, and son, Ramsey. He teaches English and Communication at Union College.
Charlene Neely plays with words like a three-year-old plays with blocks -- shuffling them around, stacking up, knocking down and rearranging them until they suit her. She likes the sound, feel and look of words. She has lived in Lincoln and several small towns in Nebraska and Iowa. Charlene is a member of Lincoln Chaparral Poets, Nebraska Chaparral Poets, Nebraska Writers Guild and several other smaller and more informal writing groups which all keep her muse on alert. Her poetry has been published in Plains Song Review; Songs For The Granddaughters; Dreams For Our Daughters; Times of Sorrow, Times of Grace; Nebraska Presence; Perceptions from Nowhere and many other magazines and anthologies.
Maggie Pleskac is the owner of Maggie’s Vegetarian Café and the co-author of Dueling Chefs: A Vegetarian & A Meat Lover Debate the Plate, published by University of Nebraska Press. She is on the board of directors of Open Harvest Natural Foods Grocery and the vice president of Slow Food Nebraska.
Amy Plettner is a student in the University of Nebraska MFA writing program. She lives south of Denton Nebraska where she enjoys the wind, native grasses, fireflies, and moonlight. Her poetry has appeared in the anthologies Nebraska Presence and Times of Sorrow, Times of Grace both from Backwaters Press. Other publications include Plains Song Review, The Omaha World-Herald’s “Everyday Poetry” series, Nebraska Life, Celebrate: A Collection of Women’s Writing, and Bill Kloefkorn’s, radio broadcast, Poetry of the Plains.
Roy Scheele is Poet in Residence at Doane College,where he has taught since 1982. His collection Pointing Out the Sky (Sandhills Press, 1985) was a finalist for the William Carlos Williams Award of the Poetry Society of America in 1986, and in 1993 he won an Individual Artist Award from the Nebraska Arts Council. His latest collection of poems is A Far Allegiance from Backwaters Press. 1993 he won an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Nebraska Arts Council.
Ember Schrag lives in Lincoln, Nebraska, where she curates a vibrant house concert venue and arts community called “Clawfoot House”. She has shared stages with Jake Bellows (Neva Dinova), Lowry, The Bruces, Shelley Short, Mal Madrigal, Samuel Locke Ward, Bill Hoover, You & Yourn and The Chiara Quartet. After performing all around the Midwest for almost eight years, Schrag released her debut album, A Cruel, Cruel Woman, in June of 2009 on Lone Prairie Records. She has a solo EP and second full-length album in the works, and her band appears (along with Jad Fair of Half Japanese) on the LoFidelity Living 5 compilation released by Workerbee in December 2009. She was recently nominated for Best Alternative Singer-Songwriter in the 2010 Omaha Entertainment Awards.
Nancy Sharp Wagner, aka N. L. Sharp, loves to share her enthusiasm and knowledge about writing and the writing process with writers of all ages. A native Nebraskan, Nancy is the author of four picture books. Today I’m Going Fishing with My Dad was a 1995-1996 Nebraska Golden Sower nominee. The Ring Bear was selected by Nebraska’s Center for the Book as the 2004 winner in the children’s category. Effie’s Image was named a 2006 Teachers’ Choice Award Winner by Learning Magazine and a Nebraska Golden Sower nominee for 2007-2008. Her newest picture book, The Flower Girl / The Ring Bear: A Flip-Over Book was just released in January, 2010.
Kevin Simonson, an Omaha-based writer, was friends with Hunter S. Thompson, and his interviews with the notorious gonzo journalist have appeared in the pages of Spin, the Aspen Daily Times, Hustler, and the Village Voice. Simonson has also written for Rolling Stone, Thrasher, and Boys' Life. He coeditied Conversations with Hunter S. Thompson (University of Mississippi Press, 2008) with Beef Torrey.
Beef Torrey lives on a small farm near Crete, Nebraska. He is the editor of Conversations with Thomas McGuane (University Press of Mississippi, 2006), senior editor of Conversations with Hunter S. Thompson (University Press of Missiissippi, 2008) and coauthor of Jim Harrison: A Comprehensive Bibliography, 1964-2008 (University of Nebraska Press). His articles, essays, and reviews have appeared in Firsts Magazine, Foreword, Independent Publisher and numerous scholarly and professional journals.
Rex Walton has been writing poetry for nearly twenty years, beginning in the mid 80s as a student of UNL English professors Greg Kuzma, Marcia Southwick, Mordecai Marcus and Warren Fine. He co-edited the English Department's LAURUS undergraduate annual magazine with Season Harper. His poems have been published in literary magazines such as Plainsong, and the Plains Song Review. A poem of his was used as the lyics for Color of Silence, a musical piece by Anthony Lanman (http://www.thenewstyle.org/catalogue.php?id=54). He has hosted The Crescent Moon Reading Series since 2005 and operates “Rex’s Writerly List,” a literary email list with hundreds of subscribers.