2022 Poetry on the Prairie
Poetry on the Prairie is sponsored by the Iowa Poetry Association and Poetry &–a new group of poetry loving community members, dedicated to advancing the awareness and appreciation of all types of poetry in central Iowa.
This weekend event is part of the annual Art on the Prairie event in Perry, IA.
Poetry has always been included in the annual Art on the Prairie celebration, but this year it will be offered in its own venue–Studio on Second, located at 1218 Second Street in Perry.
Planned events include a poetry slam at the Gamble Block Brewery, plus poetry readings by some of Iowa’s bestselling poets, open mic opportunities for poetry lovers, children’s workshops, and workshops for poets, including an Ekphrastic Workshop featuring selected artworks by Art on the Prairie artists.
This weekend event is part of the annual Art on the Prairie event in Perry, IA.
Poetry has always been included in the annual Art on the Prairie celebration, but this year it will be offered in its own venue–Studio on Second, located at 1218 Second Street in Perry.
Planned events include a poetry slam at the Gamble Block Brewery, plus poetry readings by some of Iowa’s bestselling poets, open mic opportunities for poetry lovers, children’s workshops, and workshops for poets, including an Ekphrastic Workshop featuring selected artworks by Art on the Prairie artists.
Poetry on the Prairie Schedule
2022 Poets
Featured Poets:
Deb Marquart, Iowa State Poet Laureate
www.debramarquart.com
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Debra Marquart is the Poet Laureate of Iowa and the author of seven books of prose and poetry including The Horizontal World: Growing Up Wild in the Middle of Nowhere. A Distinguished Professor at Iowa State University, Marquart has received over 50 grants and awards including an NEA Fellowship, a PEN USA Award, an Arcus Center for Social Justice Fellowship, and Elle Magazine’s Elle Lettres Award. Her work has been featured on NPR and the BBC. A singer and songwriter, Marquart is a collaborating member of The Bone People, a jazz-poetry, rhythm and blues project, which has released two CDs. Marquart’s most recent book, Gratitude with Dogs Under Stars: New & Collected Poems, is forthcoming in 2022.
For more information: www.debramarquart.com |
James A. Autry
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James A. Autry is the author of fifteen books, the most recent of which was 2021’s The White Man Who Stayed. A former Fortune 500 executive and magazine editor, until recently he wrote, lectured, and conducted workshops on Servant Leadership in this country and internationally. For one academic year, he held an endowed chair in leadership at Iowa State University and holds four honorary degrees.
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Marilyn Baszczynski
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Marilyn Baszczynski is a retired French teacher, originally from Ontario, Canada, who lives and writes in rural Iowa. Her book, Gyuri. A poem of wartime Hungary (Whistling Shade) was published in 2015; her poems appear in numerous journals and anthologies. Marilyn currently edits Iowa Poetry Association's Lyrical Iowa anthology. She loves reading and writing poetry as a way to slow down, crack things open, root around and backtrack, to uncover the gems that are buried inside. |
Kelsey Bigelow
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Kelsey Bigelow is a spoken word and page poet based in Des Moines. She aims to be the motivator and mentor people don't always get in life. In her work, she molds incredibly specific emotions into something human, digestible, and cathartic. She believes we grow in empathy by talking about our shared experiences, no matter how difficult. See Kelsey's laundry list of experiences at kelkaybpoetry.com. As a multi-slam champion, published poet, workshop leader, and more, Kelsey is on a mission to show others two things: 1. You can live the life you dream, and 2. It does get better.
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Paul Brooke
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Paul Brooke is the author of five books of poetry and one book of nonfiction. He combines book design, photography and poetry together in many of his collections. Once he was chased by a bear, once he was stalked by a mountain lion, and once he stepped on a caiman. |
Julia Franklin
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Julia Franklin, a 2018 Iowa Artist Fellow, is a creator, connector, and collaborator who uses found objects to tell the stories about what we leave behind. She designs interactive art installations and community engagement projects to spark curiosity, start conversations, and bring people together.
Franklin resides in West Des Moines, Iowa, and works as a Community Investment Specialist for Bravo Greater Des Moines, a regional arts and culture funder. Julia maintains a studio at Mainframe Studios where she works on new projects and commissions. Franklin has exhibited artworks in over 85 shows across the nation and created 11 site-specific installations in Iowa and Vermont. Julia also served as Professor of Art at Graceland University for 18 years, where she received awards in both Excellence in Teaching and Scholarship and founded Art Academy, a summer art camp for children in rural Iowa. |
Diane Glass
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Diane Glass combines a poet’s appreciation for detail with a spiritual director’s ability to probe for depth in her new book of poetry, The Heart Hungers for Wildness. Her diverse career spans teaching, politics, corporate marketing, radio talk show hosting, and writing. She served as Vice President of Marketing for the Des Moines Register from 1983 to 2000. She teaches classes on creativity and spirituality on the PrairieFire staff of the Des Moines Pastoral Counseling Center. In addition to her most recent book of poetry, Diane has published a memoir, This Need to Dance, and she co-edited four books of women’s writings themed to the seasons. She lives in Des Moines with her husband Jeff Means and her cat Penelope.
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Staci Harper Bennett
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Staci Harper Bennett is a poet from Des Moines, Iowa who combines the theatricality of performance with her love of the written word. She has performed for a variety of events and causes, including Words Save Lives at the Midwest Suicide Prevention Conference and One Billion Rising, a global movement to end rape and violence against women. Staci earned a B.A. in English from Iowa State University, an M.B.A. from Drake University, and is currently a doctoral candidate in Creighton University’s EdD program in Interdisciplinary Leadership. She appreciates that poetry provides an opportunity to balance her creativity with her love of data and compulsive need to cite her sources.
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Prince Harrison
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Prince Harrison Jr. is a 19 year old author from Des Moines, Iowa. He is the author of three poetry books; (Asocial, The Coronation, Bubsy) and the co-author of a fourth book, (What Won’t Break). When he’s not writing, Prince spends his time studying Marketing Management & playing basketball.
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Leah Huizar
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Leah Huizar is a Mexican-American writer and poet originally from Southern California. Her creative writing and research centers on the cultural and historic landscape of the West Coast and the ways in which gender, religion, and colonization have shaped it. Her work has been published in the Crab Orchard Review, Nimrod International Journal, Acentos Review and elsewhere. Her debut collection of poems, Inland Empire, was published by Noemi Press. She holds an MFA from Penn State and is an assistant professor of English at Drake University. She and her book can be found online at leahhuizar.com.
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Laura Johnson
laurajohnsonwriter.com
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Laura Johnson is a poet and writer in Eastern Iowa who is a founding co-editor of the literary journal Backchannels. Laura is an MFA candidate at the University of New Orleans and is a graduate (Ba, MA) of the University of Iowa. Laura's poetry and short fiction has appeared in Goat's Milk Magazine, The Dewdrop, Thimble Literary Magazine, and Wild Roof Journal, among others. Laura has spent more than twenty years teaching and facilitating creative writing courses and groups for teen and adult writers. She is a literacy and writing specialist who believes everyone's story should be heard. Laura's debut chapbook, Memento Vivere (Cabin Bear Books), is available at http://laurajohnsonwriter.com.
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Daniel Khalastchi
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Dennis Kain, singer/songwriter based in central Iowa, a 2012 Mountain stage new song contestant with 40 years professional music experience.
Release of CD professionally produced by Jerry Yester (Lovin' Spoonful) who has produced Tom Waits, Tim Buckley, Association etc. coming out this fall. Recently finished Rocky Mountain Song school in Lyons Colorado. All original material is very diverse and covers a wide spectrum and very provocative. |
Rustin Larson
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Rustin Larson's poetry appears in the anthology Wild Gods (New Rivers Press, 2021). Recent poems have appeared in London Grip, Poetry East, The Lake, Poetryspace, Pirene's Fountain, and Lothlorien Poetry Journal. His chapbook The Cottage on the Hill was published by Cyberwit.net in April of 2022. He is on faculty of Maharishi International University’s MFA in Creative Writing program.
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Dennis Maulsby
www.dennismaulsby.com
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Dennis Maulsby’s poems and short stories have appeared in The North American Review, Star*Line, The Hawai’i Pacific Review, The Briarcliff Review (Pushcart nomination), and on National Public Radio’s Themes & Variations. His traditionally published books include: Near Death/Near Life (Military Writers Society of America (MWSA) gold medal winner), Free Fire Zone (MWSA silver medal winner), Winterset (Eric Hoffer Award and Global eBook gold medal winner), Heart Songs (American Fiction Awards first place for poetry), and House de Gracie (Reader Views and Global eBook silver medals). Maulsby holds memberships in the SFWA, the SFPA, the MWSA, and is a past president of the Iowa Poetry Association.
Website: www.dennismaulsby.com. |
Kyle McCord
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Kyle McCord is the author of seven books including National Poetry Series Finalist Magpies in the Valley of Oleanders (Trio House Press 2016) and X-Rays and Other Landscapes (Trio House Press 2019). He has work featured in AGNI, Blackbird, Boston Review, The Gettysburg Review, The Harvard Review, The Kenyon Review, Ploughshares, TriQuarterly and elsewhere.Kyle has received grants or awards from The Academy of American Poets, The Vermont Studio Center, and the Baltic Writing Residency. He received his PhD in Creative Writing from the University of North Texas. He serves as Executive Editor of Gold Wake Press, and teaches at Drake University in Des Moines.
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Blueberry Elizabeth Morningsnow
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Blueberry Morningsnow is many things, including a poet and musician. She teaches writing, humanities, and movement classes at Scattergood Friends School in West Branch, Iowa, and she also lives there with her son in community. She attended the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and has a book of poems called Whale in the Woods. Her recent work includes several art exhibits and image + text collaborations (Proto-visions) with the artist Aleta Lanier, as well as the continuing work on a solo manuscript of spell-poems, lyric essays, a musical play, and notes.
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Michaela Mullin
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Michaela Mullin is a poet, arts writer, and editor living in Des Moines, IA. She earned her BA in English from Drake University, her MFA in Creative Writing from University of Nebraska, and her PhD in Philosophy, Art, and Critical Thought from the European Graduate School. She is a recipient of the Helen W. Kenefick Poetry Prize from the Academy of American Poets and the Thomas Dunn Scholarship in English. Her full-length poetry collection, must, was published in 2016. She is the Associate Editor at Nomadic Press, Oakland, CA.
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Hai-Dang Phan
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Hai-Dang Phan is poet, translator, and essayist. He is the author of the poetry collection Reenactments (Sarabande, 2019) and the translator of Phan Nhiên Hạo’s selected volume of poems, Paper Bells (The Song Cave, 2020). His poems and translations have appeared in Best American Poetry 2016, New England Review, The New Yorker, Poetry, Asymptote, Mekong Review, and his essays have been featured in The Baffler, Poetry Foundation’s Harriet Blog, and The Fabulist. Phan is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Bread Loaf, and the American Literary Translators Association. His work has been honored with the Frederick Bock Prize from Poetry and the Emerging Writer Award from New England Review. He holds a Ph.D. in literary studies from the University of Wisconsin and an M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of Florida. He currently teaches at Grinnell College and lives in Iowa City.
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Marc Rahe
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Marc Rahe is the author of The Smaller Half (Rescue Press, 2010), On Hours (Rescue Press, 2015), and Gravity Well (Rescue Press, 2020). His poems have appeared in Couplet Poetry, The Iowa Review, jubilat, MAKE Literary Magazine, Pangyrus, PEN Poetry Series, and other literary journals. He lives in Iowa City.
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Dawn Terpstra
www.dawnterpstra.com
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Dawn Terpstra is a Pushcart nominated poet, writer, and hobbyist beekeeper, who lives in rural Iowa. Her poetry appears in Verse Daily, Briar Cliff Review, Mom Egg Review, Quartet, North Dakota Quarterly, Midwest Review, Ekprhastic Review and others. She is the author of a chapbook, Songs from the Summer Kitchen from Finishing Line Press and a collection, Jello in Hard Times, now looking for a publisher. She is a student at Rainer Writing Workshop at Pacific Lutheran University working on an MFA in Creative Writing. www.dawnterpstra.com. She currently serves as president of the Iowa Poetry Association.
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Robert Tremmel
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Robert Tremmel lives and writes in Ankeny, Iowa. He’s published poems and academic articles in a wide range of journals, and has published five collections of poetry, including The Records of Kosho the Toad (Bottom Dog Press, 2018). His most recent collection is The Return of the Naked Man (Brick Road Poetry Press, 2021), which won the Brick Road Poetry Prize.
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Shannon Vesely
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A Nebraska native, Shannon Vesely is a retired English teacher who resides in rural southeast Iowa. Since retirement, she writes essays for her website, Sanctuaries (www.shannonsvesely.com), collaborates with local composers, writes creative nonfiction and poetry. She has been awarded three writing residencies, and her poetry has appeared in Nebraska Life, Platte Valley Review, Alicorn, Evensong, Sad Girls Club, The Poet’s Choice, and Wingless Dreamer. Her book, The Way of Things (Rogue Faculty Press, 2021) was recently awarded the 2022 Nebraska Book Award for Poetry.
Her father, a Nebraska poet, claimed that we all have at least “one good poem in our hidden heads.” She writes with the continued desire to uncover her one “good poem.” |
Lyrical Iowa Winning Poets
Marilyn Baszczynski (emcee)
Allison Bartholmey
Alyse Beyer
Rose Gottlieb
Bill Graeser
Virginia Mortenson
Charlie R North
Dawn Terpstra
Pat Underwood
Poetry on the Prairie is Sponsored by:
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Poetry & — a group of poetry loving community members, dedicated to advancing the awareness and appreciation of all types of poetry in central Iowa. Watch for details about upcoming events, including Poetry Palooza! in Des Moines on April 6, 7, & 8.
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The Iowa Poetry Association is a non-profit organization whose sole objective is to promote interest in and appreciation for better poetry by Iowans. Each year, IPA offers two workshops in the Des Moines area, where poems are critiqued by eminent teachers, editors or publishers. In addition, the IPA LIVE! online program of monthly mini-workshops and readings brings poetry learning and reading opportunities to IPA members across the state. The quarterly newsletter connects members to important updates and events, as does our Iowa Poetry Association Facebook group. Membership is open to any individual or group with an Iowa address. An affiliate society of The Academy of American Poets and The National Federation of State Poetry Societies, Inc.
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Art on the Prairie is a unique festival celebrating art, music, literature, and the joys of small town living, all wrapped up in a two-day event in historic downtown Perry during the second weekend in November.
Since 2006, Beaverdale Books has been selling new books in all genres, literary-themed sidelines, greeting cards, and merchandise from the Beaverdale Neighborhood Association. We support and represent over 500 local authors in our “Iowa Author” section and we proud to be part of this exciting celebration of poetry. |