Calling all poets! The Nebraska Arts Council is coordinating the state’s Poetry Out Loud program for the sixth year. This national program encourages high school students to learn about poetry through memorization, performance and competition. This year 31 schools throughout Nebraska are registered and each school was invited to send their recitation winner to a regional competition. Students who advance to the state finals will receive various prizes including books donated from the University of Nebraska Press! For more information on Nebraska’s Poetry Out Loud program, click here.  Continue reading Book donation for young poets

University of Nebraska – Lincoln History Professor James D. Le Sueur’s article “Postcolonial Time Disorder” was featured in Foreign Affairs this week. Le Sueur, who is also a UNP author and series editor, discusses the era of when Hosni Mubarak first took power. At that time, Le Sueur writes, leaders in the postcolonial world saw a strong, repressive state as a necessary way to secure national liberty. With that era over, Le Sueur asks the question: Will the region's other autocrats now meet similar fates? He dives into the situation in Egypt and the Middle East and describes the Postcolonial … Continue reading UNP author in Foreign Affairs

Ever wonder what an ex thinks about you after the break-up? Lisa Harper, author of A Double Life: Discovering Motherhood, got an unexpected look into just that.  She wrote about the experience for the Poetry Foundation, and the piece has since been picked up by the Huffington Post, the Rumpus and elsewhere. A few years ago, Harper noticed that her ex-boyfriend had published a book of poetry, 15 years after they had broken up. Harper writes, “I bought a copy, partly out of curiosity, partly out of loyalty to a fellow writer and former friend.” It took her months to … Continue reading Poems from an ex

My Ruby Slippers: The Road Back to Kansas, by Tracey Seeley, is a memoir in which the author chronicles a series of visits over several years to her childhood home of Kansas.  Though Seeley left Kansas shortly after high school and redefined herself as a city girl, she discovered that even after decades away, she still felt a strong connection to the landscape — and people — from her past. Check out the book trailer below:   Continue reading New book trailer