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December 2012

Schoonering Through Nebraska

A Blog of Sorts

Kwame Dawes and Marianne Kunkel are embarking on a goodwill tour across Nebraska, from public library to public library to connect people with the journal and to celebrate the value of the literary arts in the states. Along the way, they are blogging about their journey. This is Kwame’s fourth blog entry after his visit to Alliance, Nebraska.

Alliance, NE
Pop. 8,431

Schoonering Through Nebraska

Alliance by Any Other Name...

Kwame Dawes and Marianne Kunkel are embarking on a goodwill tour across Nebraska, from public library to public library to connect people with the journal and to celebrate the value of the literary arts in the states. Along the way, they are blogging about their journey. This is Marianne’s fourth blog entry after her visit to Alliance, Nebraska.

From driving distance the Nebraska Sandhills appear fuzzy, like the furry side of Velcro. The dunes ripple alongside us, yellow mounds of short, fine grasses that look like the crewcut on a blond boy's head. Imagine this landscape as a backdrop for Carhenge, a replica of England's Stonehenge formed by vintage cars and trucks, and you have Alliance, Nebraska, where grass and metal meet.

Schoonering Through Nebraska

A Blog of Sorts

Kwame Dawes and Marianne Kunkel are embarking on a goodwill tour across Nebraska, from public library to public library to connect people with the journal and to celebrate the value of the literary arts in the states. Along the way, they are blogging about their journey. This is Kwame’s third blog entry after a visit to Broken Bow, Nebraska.

Broken Bow, NE
Pop. 3500

Schoonering Through Nebraska

A Blog of Sorts

Kwame Dawes and Marianne Kunkel are embarking on a goodwill tour across Nebraska, from public library to public library to connect people with the journal and to celebrate the value of the literary arts in the states. Along the way, they are blogging about their journey. This is Kwame’s second blog entry after a visit to Potter, Nebraska.

Potter, NE
Pop. 337

Prairie Schooner Library Tour 2012 Travel Blog

Paradise in Broken Bow

by Marianne Kunkel

"I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library," wrote Jorge Luis Borges and, wow, do I see his point. In the last five days, I've visited four Nebraska public libraries--in Fremont, Potter, Lexington, and Broken Bow--and like a big chocolate cake I keep snacking on for days, these modest spaces are consistently pleasant, sweet, and my idea of heaven.

Forget IKEA megastores. Better models of architecture and design are public libraries, where visitors can roam from one cozy corner to another. Oak banisters, full-length-mirror-size windows, soft track lights above bookshelves, a cappuccino machine--these are features that have tempted me to stay in Nebraska libraries long after Kwame and I finish our poetry readings. Add to the list crackling fires, found in the Lexington and Broken Bow libraries, and I never want to go home.

Brian Turner Recap!

PS Intern Nisha Patel on the poet's visit

The final poet of Prairie Schooner’s Visiting Writer Series, Brian Turner, read selections from his books Here, Bullet and Phantom Noise in the Great Plains Museum last Wednesday. He began by encouraging the audience to add his phone number to their cell phones (so they could text him feedback) before diving into the first poem. The namesake of his first book, “Here, Bullet,” portrayed what PS Editor-in-Chief Kwame Dawes called a “disturbing urgency” in his introduction of the ex-Army poet.

Prairie Schooner Library Tour 2012 Travel Blog

Second Stop: Puzzling Potter

by Marianne Kunkel 

 

Sometimes it's uncomfortable to ask questions, but what I'm finding more uncomfortable is not knowing what questions to ask. It's the difference between admitting, "I hardly know western Nebraska; what town did we just stop at for gas?" and looking out the car window at the rolling hills near Potter, Nebraska, and being so curious about the area I don't know where to start.

 

Schoonering Across the Prairie

A Blog of Sorts

Kwame Dawes and Marianne Kunkel are embarking on a goodwill tour across Nebraska, from public library to public library to connect people with the journal and to celebrate the value of the literary arts in the states. Along the way, they are blogging about their journey. This is Kwame’s first blog entry after a visit to Fremont, Nebraska.

Fremont, NE
Pop. 27,000

Prairie Schooner Library Tour 2012 Travel Blog

First Stop: Familiar/Unfamiliar Fremont

by Marianne Kunkel 

 

I have an annoying habit of comparing new music to music I already know. For example, a few months ago when my husband introduced me to the band Tame Impala’s new album, my first response was, “They sound a lot like The Doves!” So I laughed at myself when during my drive into Fremont, Nebraska, the first stop in the journal’s library tour, I remarked to Kwame Dawes, “This looks a lot like Lincoln!”

 

"Everybody here will burn in hell when they die"

Evangelical Comics and the Mystery of Thanksgiving

This is the tenth installment of an ongoing series written for the blog by Richard Graham. Richard is an associate professor and media services librarian at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where he studies the educational use of comics and serves as the film and art history liaison. His posts examine UNL’s, Nebraska’s, and the larger literary world’s connections with the comics medium.

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