Lincoln (Neb.) - Nov. 3, 1997 - The Center for Great Plains Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln will bring 24 Nebraska writers to campus to read from their contibutions to the anthology "Leaning into the Wind: Women Write from the Heart of the West."
The readings will begin at 3 p.m. Nov. 9 in the Great Plains Art Collection on the second floor of Love Library. The readings are free and open to the public and copies of "Leaning into the Wind" will be available for sale and for autographing by the authors.
"Leaning into the Wind," published by Houghton-Mifflin in June 1997, is a collection of 206 nonfiction stories and poems written by women who live in the High Plains states. The book presents Western women as a group far more diverse than the "tight-jeaned cowgirl" of narrow Western mythology, writes editor Linda Hasselstrom in her introduction. Driving cattle, pulling lambs, surviving blizzards and tornadoes - this is the hard work of the land, shared in the voices of the women who have lived to tell their stories. They also write of the joys of life on the Great Plains, from the endless starry sky of midnight visits to calving barns to the beauty of prairie roses and the bonds of people who need each other as fiercely as they need their independence.
Nebraska women who will read Nov. 9 come from communities all over the state and include farmers, innkeepers, horticulturalists, schoolteachers, professors and ranchers. Some have lived in other states and countries, some have never left the family farm or ranch, but, in the words of Shannon Dyer from Hyannis, "Now I'd never live anywhere else - life out here is real."
Dee Brown, author of "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee," called the anthology "a truly rich contribution to the natural literature of America."
The reading's other co-sponsors are the Nebraska Humanities Council, the UNL English department, UNL Women's Studies program, the Nebraska Wesleyan English department, Nebraska Bookstore and Prairier Schooner.
The Nov. 9 readers (including two former Nebraskans), listed alphabetically by hometown:
Axtell: Anita Lorentzen-Wells.
Boelus: Grace Kyhn.
Clearwater: Joan Hoffman.
Crawford: Beth Gibbons.
Elgin: C.L. Prater.
Hyannis: Shannon Dyer.
Independence, Mo.: Nellie O'Brien.
Kearney: Susanne George.
Kenesaw: Terry Lee Schifferns.
Las Cruces, N.M.: Kathleene West.
Lincoln: Kara DeJonge (reading the writing of the late Patti DeJonge of Hildreth), Twyla Hansen, Carolyn Johnsen, Marjorie Saiser.
Long Pine: Jeanne Bartak.
McCook: Linda Crandall.
Newcastle: Sharon Boehmer.
Ogallala: Dixie DeTuerk.
Omaha: Robyn Eden, Barbara Jessing, Kathryn Kelley, Mary Kathryn Stillwell, Janice Vierk.
Wahoo: Maeann B. Jasa.
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