NORFOLK, NE – Two Nebraska poets will be featured during the next Visiting Writers Series at Northeast Community College in Norfolk. Barbara Schmitz and Michael Catherwood will read their works on Wednesday, October 18, at 4 p.m., in Hawks Landing in the Northeast Student Center.
Schmitz is an emeritus instructor at Northeast Community College where she taught writing and literature for thirty years and founded the Visiting Writers Series. Her books include Always the Detail by Stephen F. Austin University Press, which won Honor Book in Poetry 2015 from the Nebraska Center for the Book; Path of Lightning: A Seeker’s Jagged Journey by Pinyon Publishing; and How Much Our Dancing Has Improved by The Backwaters Press, which won the 2005 Poetry Award from the Nebraska Center for the Book.
Wayne State Press will soon be reissuing What Bob Says (with new poems and drawings by Michael Lynch, who teaches art at Northeast). Schmitz’s work has appeared in six anthologies this past year including Nebraska Poetry: A Sesquicentennial Anthology and Nasty Woman. She is the grandmother of Makena, lives with husband Bob in Norfolk, and considers herself The Poet of Highway 81 on whose banks she has written for forty years.
Catherwood’s first book is Dare by The Backwaters Press, followed by If You Turned Around Quickly, from Main Street Rag. His third book, Projector, is forthcoming from Stephen F. Austin University Press. His poems, reviews and essays have recently appeared in Bluestem, Louisiana Literature, Kentucky Review, Measure, the Minnesota review, New Plains Review, The Common, Red River Review, Galway Review, and Westview. He’s been an associate editor at Plainsongs since 1995, where he writes essays. He is editor at The Backwaters Press.
Catherwood’s awards include an Intro Journals Award for Poetry from AWP, two Lily Peter Fellowships, a Pushcart Nomination, the Holt Prize for Poetry, and National Finalist for the Ruth Lily Prize. In 2003, he received an encouragement award from the Nebraska Arts Council.
Catherwood, of Omaha, has worked as a truck driver, “weed whacker,” garbage man, teacher, tutor, substitute teacher, and administrator. He has taught creative writing at the University of Arkansas, University of Nebraska at Omaha, and at Creighton University.
The Visiting Writers Series is sponsored by the Northeast Community College English Department. All events are free and open to the public. For further information, contact Bonnie Johnson-Bartee, coordinator, at (402) 844-7673.
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