Agee receives award for contributions to literature

Jonis Agee, Adele Hall Chair of English at UNL, has been awarded the Mountain Plains Library Association (MPLA)’s Literary Contribution Award. The award recognizes authors whose published writings have successfully furthered an understanding and appreciation of the Mountain Plains region. Agee will be presented with the award during the 2022 MPLA Tri-Conference in Missoula, Montana, August 3-6.

Jonis Agee is the award-winning author of twelve books, including the New York Times Notable Books of the Year Sweet Eyes and Strange Angels. Her most recent novel, The Bones of Paradise, is the 2022 One Book One Nebraska selection and has received multiple literary awards, including the High Plains Book Award and the Nebraska Center for the Book’s Fiction Book of the Year Award. Born and raised in Nebraska and Missouri—where many of her novels and stories are set—Agee has been praised by the New York Times Book Review as “a gifted poet of that dark lushness in the heart of the American landscape.”