NORFOLK, Neb. – An author who has published approximately 300 poems in the United States, Canada and Great Britain will speak during an upcoming Visiting Writers Series event at Northeast Community College. Mark Sanders will read from his works on Wed., March 1, at 4 p.m., in the Union 73 Coffee Shop on the Norfolk campus.
Sanders’ poems, stories, critical essays, and creative essays include First Hunt, Ghosts of a Christmas Past, Gone Fishing, The Suicide, Voice of the Plains, Before We Lost Our Ways, A Dissimilation of Birds, Here in the Big Empty, Conditions of Grace: New and Selected Poems, Landscapes, with Horses, and Why Guineas Fly.
Sanders edited works include Hurakan: A Journal of Contemporary Literature and Main-Travelled Roads Chapbook series, A Sandhills Reader: 30 Years of Great Writing from the Great Plains and The Weight of the Weather: Regarding the Poetry of Ted Kooser, both recipients of the Nebraska Book Award, in 2016 and 2018 respectively.
His book of poems, Landscapes, with Horses, was awarded the 2019 Western Heritage “Wrangler” Award from the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. His poem, “Three Kinds of Pleasure," from the book of poems, In a Good Time, was named a winner of the 2020 Western Writers of America Spur Award for Best Western Poem. The book also was named a winner in The Nebraska Center for the Book's Book Awards competition in 2020.
He has two new books in the works: a book of nonfiction as well as a book of poetry, Homecoming Parade: A Memoir.
Sanders taught English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Nebraska Wesleyan University, Southwestern Oklahoma University, Lewis-Clark State College (ID), and Stephen F. Austin State University (TX), as well as other institutions.
Sanders is a native of Nebraska where he was born in Creighton and raised in Ord. He received his undergraduate and master’s degrees in English from Kearney State College and earned his first Ph.D. in Modern Poetry from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He holds a second doctorate in Higher Education Administration from the University of Idaho.
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 or bonnie@northeast.edu.
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PHOTO CUTLINE
Mark Sanders reads from his works in Sept. 2019, during a Visiting Writer’s Series event at Northeast Community College. The Texas poet, who was born and raised in Nebraska, returns to Northeast on Wed., March 1, as part of the 2023 Spring Semester Visiting Writer’s Series.