The collection evoked a sense of toughness often associated with West Texas and Detroit. Yet the poems drew me in despite their consistently dark subject matter. What kept me reading was not only Brooks’ skillful writing, but the way she conveys a poignant truth about how we adapt to life by forging our unique response to its difficulty.

Rattle is published in a semi-annual print edition and is online year-round.

Denise Low, Kansas Poet Laureate (2007-2009) and author of The Backwaters Press collection, Natural Theologies: Essays about Literature of the New Middle West will be reading at Omaha’s Metro Community College Monday, April 30 at 7:00 p.m. The reading will be at  MCC South Omaha Campus in the Writing Center, located in the Connector Building, Room 222

Sponsored by
MCC Writers’ Club
The Backwaters Press
The Metropolitan Literary Magazine
MCC Writing Center

For information, contact Brett Mertins at bmertins@mccneb.edu or 402-289-1367.

Rattlesnake Daddy, a book by Professor Brent Spencer (Department of English), has been named a finalist for the 2011 Book of the Year Award in the category of Autobiography/Memoir. The yearly book prize, sponsored by ForeWord Reviews, is judged by booksellers, librarians, editors and reviewers of ForeWord Reviews, and other industry professionals. Winners in each category and overall fiction and nonfiction prize winners will be announced at the American Library Association annual conference in June of 2012.

“It’s as if, if we are not reading the Times Literary Supplement, we are not a literate people,” she said. “I have great respect for British literature. However, I also celebrate and am more engaged on a daily basis with the culture and people around me.”

[B]oth women are keen observers of life on the Great Plains. They write about things that matter to me; the seasons, family, friends, fellow human beings, animals, insects, plants, and weather.   Some poems made me smile.  In ”Swiss Cheese,” Hansen pokes fun at unnecessary federal regulations while Hasselstrom unceremoniously tells ”The Relatives Who Live in My Head” to “buzz off”as she prepares Thanksgiving dinner . . . All of their poems are honest, gritty reflections which combine ordinary days and extraordinary moments. This book is indeed a duet, nurtured by a deep understanding of the written word and common ground shared by all.

You can RSVP for this event on our Facebook page.

Allison Adelle Hedge Coke, currently holds the Reynolds Endowed Chair of Creative Writing at the University of Nebraska and formerly held a National Endowment for the Humanities Chair at Hartwick College. Her five authored books include: Dog Road Woman (American Book Award), Wordcraft Writer of the Year for two Poetry volumes Off-Season City Pipe and Blood Run (verse-play); and Rock Ghost, Willow, Deer, an AIROS Book-of-the-Month memoir. Fiction publications include: American Fiction, Black Renaissance Noire, Florida Review, and Bombay Gin. Her play, Icicles, was a National Repertory Theater National Play Award First Finalist. Hedge Coke has edited eight additional collections. She is Oendat, French Canadian, Portuguese, Tsalagi, Irish, Scot, English, Metis and Creek descent and came of age cropping tobacco and working fields, waters, and working in factories. A 2011 Lannan Foundation Marfa Writing Resident, annual Weymouth Center Fellow, and UNL Great Plains Center Fellow, Hedge Coke directs the Literary Sandhill Cranefest and Reynolds Series, and is senior editor of Platte Valley Review.