2012 Nebraska Book Festival Set for March 31

 Join the Nebraska Center for the Book (NCB) for the 2012 Nebraska Book Festival, Saturday, March 31, at nuVibe Juice and Java at 126 North 14th Street and the Nebraska State Historical Society’s Nebraska History Museum, 131 Centennial Mall North, in downtown Lincoln. This event is free and open to the public and will focus on Nebraska authors who published new works © 2011. Participating authors will answer questions from the audience, be available for book signings, and attend the concluding reception. The Nebraska Center for the Book will present the Mildred Bennett Award to an individual for significant contribution to fostering literary tradition in Nebraska. Joe Starita will discuss the 2012 One Book One Nebraska, “I Am a Man:” Chief Standing Bear’s Journey for Justice.  The keynote presentation will be offered by novelist Ron Hansen, author of A Wild Surge of Guilty Passion. Born in Omaha, Hansen earned his B.A. in English from Creighton University, M.F.A. in creative writing from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and M.A. in Spirituality from Santa Clara University in California. He is the Gerard Manley Hopkins Professor of Arts and Humanities at Santa Clara, where he teaches writing and literature. Readings, question and answer sessions, and book signings will highlight the following Nebraska writers: •Twyla Hansen, poet, Dirt Songs: A Plains Duet •Neil Harrison, poet, Back in the Animal Kingdom •Allison Hedge Coke, poet and editor, Sing: Poetry from the Indigenous Americas •David Philip Mullins, fiction, Greetings From Below •Frank O’Neal, poet, Fireside Chats: A Surrealist’s View of the World •Ferial Pearson and Omaha South High students, anthology of personal essays, In My Shoes: Teen Reflections on Hope and the Future •Amy Plettner, poet, Undoing Orion’s Belt •Rainbow Rowell, novelist and columnist, Attachments •Mark Sanders, poet, Conditions of Grace •Timothy Schaffert, novelist, The Coffins of Little Hope •Brent Spencer, creative non-fiction, Rattlesnake Daddy: A Son’s Search for His Father •Joe Starita, non-fiction, “I Am a Man:” Chief Standing Bear’s Journey for Justice •William G. Thomas, non-fiction, The Iron Way: Railroads, the Civil War, and the Making of Modern America •William Trowbridge, poet, Ship of Fool William Trowbridge and Lisa Knopp will lead free poetry and creative non-fiction writing workshops, with opportunities to discuss writing techniques, share experiences, and receive expert feedback. Trowbridge’s poetry explores the contemporary “Fool” with humor and reflection. Knopp’s What the River Carries includes essays about the Mississippi, Missouri and Platte rivers and contemplates how people experience landscape. The festival will conclude with a reception at the Museum of Nebraska History and an evening of readings at nuVibe Juice and Java. Mark Sanders, co-editor for a Nebraska issue of “The Midwest Quarterly” in 2011, will arrange readings by some of the 66 Nebraska poets who were included in the issue. We invite you to join us March 31, 2012. The Nebraska Book Festival is supported by Nebraska Center for the Book, Nebraska Humanities Council, Nebraska Library Commission, Nebraska State Historical Society, and nuVibe Juice and Java. For more information contact Matt Mason, 402-453-5711, mtmason@gmail.com, http://bookfestival.nebraska.gov or www.facebook.com/NebraskaBookFestival.