Kansas Poet Laureate 2007-2009 Denise Low's most complete collection of lyrical verse. Low's concerns with cultural sustainability in the Great Plains region encompasses geological history, the West, gardens, indigenous plants and animals, and more. Fellow Kansas poet William Stafford praised Low for her use of "so many good words in diligent pursuit of accuracy." Iowa poet laureate Robert Dana wrote: No one understands better than Densie Low the efect of Midwestern vistas of time and space." Diane Glancy writes, "Denise Low has a voice informed and shaped by the land."
Denise (Dotson) Low grew up in the Flint Hlls of Kansas, descended from British Isles, German, and Native (Delaware/Cherokee) peoples. She is 2007-2009 Kansas Poet Laureate, with published books of poetry, personal essays, and scholarship. Her poetic works explore the interactions of historic and natural time with individual imagination. She is 2011-2012 president of the national board of the Associated Writers & Writing Programs. For 25 years she has taught at Haskell Indian Nations University, and she has been visiting professor at the University of Kansas and University of Richmond. She has awards from the NEH, Lannan Foundation, The Newberry Library, Academy of American Poets, and Ks. Arts Commission. Her academic books include prose about Native and settler literatures of the middle plains region. Her web site is www.deniselow.com, and she maintains a writing-related blog, http://deniselow@blogspot.com. She also is on Twitter. The Feb. 12, 2011 Kansas City Star had this to say about her most recent book: "Let Denise Low, a former Kansas poet laureate (2007-2009), tell you tales of the Great Plains with her recent book "Ghost Stories of the New West."Her poems take readers through the natural tapestries and landscapes that we Midwesterners are lucky to have. With the poem "Trailhead," we observe the plight of travelers on the Oregon Trail: "Watch for travelers/ who risk what they have/ for what might happen." Read "On Thompson River" or "Flint Hills Twilight" to the one you love and let their vision of this land and the hopes that endure within it resonate."
