Alison Hedge Coke
Reynolds Endowed Chair, 308.865.8672
The University of Nebraska at Kearney Reynolds Series Presents:
Honoring the Sandhill Crane Migration Literary Retreat and Festival II
March 15-April 5, 2009
This year residents will add a new contemplation in Whooping Crane focus with the continuing Sandhill Crane focus.
Literary Crane Writers Sherwin Bitsui, Fredy Romeiro Campo Chicangana, Cristina Eisenberg, LeAnne Howe (UNK Literary Crane Fellow), Linda Hogan, Laura Tohe, and Wang Ping (Literary Crane Fellow) will retreat with the Sandhill Cranes, Whooping Cranes, & other species, during the migration at the Platte River Whooping Crane Maintenance Trust and Rowe Sanctuary for Sandhill Cranes.
These distinguished literary residents will perform group presentations for UNK & the General Public as follows:
Thomas Hall of the English Department from 10 – 11 a.m. on March 23rd. Crane Retreat Writers.
Copeland Hall Room 131 of the Biology Department from 12:15-1:15 pm on March 23rd. A very special presentation on wolf reclamation and biodiversity by Cristina Eisenberg.
Robert M. Merryman Performing Arts Center from 2:00-3:00 pm on March 23rd. Special presentations for the Kearney Area Schools and General Public with educational and literary presentations by Crane Retreat Writers, Rowe Sanctuary, and the Platte River Whooping Crane Maintenance Trust.
The University of Nebraska at Kearney’s Museum of Nebraska Art – MONA – Yanney Skylight Theater from 7:00-9:00 pm March 23rd. Special presentations for the Kearney Area Schools and General Public with educational and literary presentations by Crane Retreat Writers, Rowe Sanctuary, and the Platte River Whooping Crane Maintenance Trust.
The University of Nebraska at Omaha Native American Studies Department will host a UNK collaborative event with LeAnne Howe and Laura Tohe on March 24th at UNO.
Wang Ping will present the closing for the Festival 7:00-8:00 pm Choral Room on April 3rd.
The Festival is Sponsored by: The Reynolds Chair, Nebraska Arts Council, Nebraska Humanities Council, Platte River Whooping Crane Maintenance Trust, The Rowe Sanctuary, Alley Rose, the University of Nebraska at Kearney Department of English, Department of Biology and International Studies Department, UNK Artists & Lecturer Series and Office of Multicultural Affairs, the University of Nebraska at Omaha Department of Native American Studies, Country Inn & Suites, the Robert M. Merryman Performing Arts Center, MONA, Alley Rose, elements, Baristas, Terri Lee Schiffrens and the Dancing Crane A-Frame, & Anonymous Donors.
(Carla, Place logos here)
Sherwin Bitsui, Dine’ of the Todich’ii’nii (Bitter Water Clan), born for the Tl’izilani (Many Goats Clan), author ofShapeshift, Witter Bynner Foundation for Poetry Individual Poet Grant, Lannan Foundation Marfa Writers’ Residency, Whiting Writers Award, MOCA Tucson Local Genius Award, Medellin International Festival of Poetry Featured Poet, Truman Capote Creative Writing Fellowship, Naropa Poetry Prize, Ford Foundation Fellow Sundance Film Institute, Pushcart Prize nominee, is a rotating visiting faculty member of the Naropa University Summer Intensive and a UNK Reynolds Series Reader.
Fredy Romeiro Campo Chicangana, Quechua-Yanakuna (Colombia), author of Taquinam Cuyaypa manchachipak huañuyman, (Songs of Love to Drive Away Death) and two other collections, whose Quechua name Wiñay Mallki means “root that remains permanently”, a poet and an oralitor, a word he created to express his self-appointed role in uniting the oral tradition of indigenous cultures with what is written, who, since childhood, has taken part in helping Indigenous peoples in the struggle to defend Mother Earth and is a founding member of a movement to strengthen “the places of knowledge and words” of his ethnic group. Chicangana is a UNK delegate of the World Affairs Conference.
Cristina Eisenberg, Mexico/US, nonfiction writer and internationally lauded leader in wolf reclamation whose current project is on trophic cascades involving wolves, elk, and aspen in Glacier National Park in Montana and in Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada. Continuing research involves Aldo Leopold’s work in the realm of wildlife ecology. Her groundbreaking book Landscapes of Hope: Trophic Cascades and Biodiversity is forthcoming. Awarded the 2008-2009 Mason Prize for Integrity and Moral Courage, a NSF Graduate Fellowship Semi-Finalist, and Richardson Fellow. Her work as a naturalist, environmentalist and biologist, heavily focused in wolves and eco-systems, includes ornithology. She is a Scholar Advisor for Black Earth Institute and a Boone and Crockett Club Fellow at Oregon State University.
Linda Hogan, Chickasaw, author of People of the Whale, Sightings – the Mysterious Journey of the Gray Whale, Rounding the Human Corners, Mean Spirit, Dwellings, Book of Medicines, Power, Solar Storms, and other books, editor of several nature and spirituality anthologies, scriptwriter for Everything Has a Spirit, a PBS documentary on American Indian Religious Freedom, Lannan, Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Arts Fellow, Oklahoma and Colorado Book Awards, member of the Native Science Dialogues, the new Native American Academy and with the Graduate SEED Institute, an invited writer-speaker at the United Nations Forum (Allison Hedge Coke, facilitator), was awarded Lifetime Achievement Awards from Mountains and Plains, Wordcraft Circle and Native Writers Circle and inducted into the Chickasaw Hall of Fame, Professor Emerita of the University of Colorado, is the inaugural Writer in Residence for The Chickasaw Nation and a UNK Reynolds Reader.
Leanne Howe, UNK Literary Crane Fellow, Choctaw, author of Miko Kings, Evidence of Red, Shell Shaker, A Standup Reader, Coyote Stories, screenwriter, 90-minute PBS documentary Indian Country Diaries: Spiral of Fire, Playing Pastime: American Indian Fast-Pitch Softball, and Survival, founder and director of Wagonburner Theater Troop, American Book Award, Oklahoma Book Award, awarded Wordcraft Circle Writer of the Year, Équinoxes Rouge finalist forPrix Medici Estranger, Louis D. Rubin Jr. Writer-in-Residence at Hollins University, Roanoke, VA, John and Renee Grisham Writer in Residence Fellow, Oxford, MS, Smithsonian Institution – Native American intern, MacDowell Colony, Virginia Center for the Arts, and Newberry Library Fellow, Iowa Arts Council Grant, Ragdale & Soul Mountain Resident, is an Associate Professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in the American Indian Studies program, and the MFA program in Creative Writing in English.
Laura Tohe, Dine’, author of Tseyi, Deep in the Rock, No Parole Today, and Making Friends With Water, and five children’s plays, commissioned librettist for Enemy Slayer: A Navajo Oratorio the Phoenix Symphony, co-editor of Sister Nations: Native Women Writing on Community, and two other collections, Glyph Award for Best Poetry and Best Book – Arizona Book Association, Southwest Book of the Year – Tucson Pima Library, Who’s Who in America, Pushcart Award nomination, Faculty of the Year Award, Wordcraft Writer of the Year Award, Lila Wallace Reader’s Digest Fund Award, Certificate of Recognition, Nebraska Humanities Council, Distinguished Service Award, Goodrich Program, University of Nebraska-Omaha, Dan Schilling Public Scholar for the Arizona Humanities Council, has taught Creative Writing for American Indian Communities and is an Associate Professor of American Indian Literatures and Film in the English Department of Arizona State University.
Wang Ping, UNK Literary Crane Fellow, China, The Last Communist Virgin & Foreign Devil (novels), The Magic Whipand Of Flesh & Spirit (poetry), American Visa (short stories), New Generation: Poems from China Today (anthology), Aching for Beauty: Footbinding in China (Cultural Study), The Dragon Emperor (Chinese Folklore, Children’s Literature), Flames by Xue Di (translations by Wang Ping & Keith Waldrop), awarded Bush Artist, National Endowment for the Arts, Minnesota State Arts Board, and two New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowships, The Loft Career Initiative Grant, Lannan Residency Program, Minnesota Book Awards, Associate for Asian American Studies Book Award, Eugene M. Kayden Book Award, New York Public Libraries, Best Book for Young Adults, University of St. Thomas, Department of Education City Ballet, and Teachers & Writers Collaborative Residencies, writer/photographer covering China’s megaprojects, the Three Gorges Dam, developing the Qinghai-Tibet plateau, and water
