Customer Reviews

Road Trip

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Shelly Clark and Marjorie Saiser had a brainstorm on the way home from a poets' conference at the University of Minnesota at Duluth. Nebraska has many fine, award winning, multi-published writers and poets. Why not travel around the state and interview them, see what makes them tick as wordsmiths? Road Trip is the results of that collaborative brainstorm, and a fine idea it was. As stated on the back cover, there are more fascinating writer - subjects in Nebraska than can fit in one book, but this is a start. Through personal interviews and examples of each author's writing, we come to know these people up close and personal.

Their sojourn begins with William Kloefkorn, Reynolds Professor Emeritus at Nebraska Wesleyan University. He has also been the designated Nebraska State Poet since 1982. For Koefkorn, the language of the King James Version of the Bible is a touchstone.

Don Welch is Reynolds Professor of Poetry, retired, from the University of Nebraska at Kearney. He believes that poetry is the closest thing that anybody can get to a prayer.

Brent Spencer is Professor of Creative Writing at Creighton University, a writer of poetry, novels, and short stories. He contends that words saved him at one point in his life and "...I keep thinking I can find words that will save other people if I work hard enough...."

Jonis Agee is Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. She is the author of novels, poetry, and short stories. Ms. Agee believes, "The attention writers have is a giant sieve, and we put all experience through it. The things that catch in that screen are the things for your writing because the rest of it just leaves."

Barbara Schmitz taught Writing and Literature at Northwest College in Norfolk. She apprenticed with Allen Ginsberg, who advised her to take herself seriously as a writer, and to do readings.

Charles Fort holds the Reynolds Chair in Poetry at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. He states, "To me, words are magical. They do things beyond the page." That statement has been proven many times over as his publishing history is lengthy and stellar.

Hilda Raz is Professor of English and the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. Ms. Raz is a writer of poems, essays, articles, and reviews. She states, "I love the apt phrase so when I read for example the New York Times Book Review on Sunday my pen underlines phrases that catch my ear;"

Ron Block teaches Creative Writing at Mid-Plains Community College in North Platte. Mr. Block writes poems and short stories. He believes that as writer "You have to have a sense of integrity; things have to be written with a good heart, with a desire to tell the truth."

Eamonn Wall taught at Creighton University and now is Professor of Irish Studies at the University of Missouri at St. Louis. He has published several collections of poetry and essays. Mr. Wall states, "Nothing really can stand up to twentieth century American poetry. It's a kind of marvel..."

Twyla Hansen is a Creative Writing presenter through the Nebraska Humanities Council and a horticulturalist. She has several books of published poetry and anthologies. Ms. Hansen states, "I think it's good to have a writer as a writing teacher. There's theory and then there's writing. They don't always jive."

J. V. Brummels teaches at Wayne State College and directs the Plains Writers Circuit. He has several published books of poetry and anthologies. Mr. Brummels believes that "Literature can make some sense out of things that nothing else can. Literature addresses those matters of the human spirit. Some of those are enigmas that never can be solved or explained or articulated in any way except with a poem."

Ted Kooser is a multi-publiched poet and retired Vice President of Lincoln Benefit Life Insurance. He currently teaches writing students one on one and lives in Garland Nebraska. Mr. Kooser states, "I've learned over the years that it's very useful to trust the metaphors that come to your mind even though they seem off-the-wall at first. They are coming from some place that makes sense...."

Saiser and Clark are accomplished writers in their own right and this collaboration is warm and engaging from page one. It has the feel of swapping stories and experiences with well worn friends.