Kearney’s Literary Artistry

Kearney, Nebraska has always been a center for emerging and established writers. We find not only the impressionistic young novices looking forward but also those experienced writers examining the wealth of their past experiences.

"Masterpieces are not single and solitary births; they are the outcome of many years of thinking in common, of thinking by a body of people, so that the experience of the mass is behind a single voice." ~ Virginia Woolf

Who knows what the first words written in or around Kearney, Nebraska, might have been? A Pawnee ceremonial? Overland traveler’s diary? Pioneer gravestone? Teacher’s lesson plans?

Pretty early on the creative spirit visited our Kearney area to write poems and novels, our stories and history, our newspapers and journals. Of course, writing has a prominent place in Nebraska: Willa Cather; Mari Sandoz; Wright Morris; Nebraska State Poets Bill Kloefkorn, Twyla Hansen, Matt Mason; Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate. As well the Kearney area boasts its own writers: Poets – Don Welch, Charles Fort, Brad Modlin, Barbara Emrys; Fiction writers – Gary Doppelgänger’s and Cassandre Montag; Historians – Susanne Bloomfield, Helen Stauffer; Script writers – Jon Bokenkamp, Sam Umland.

On Kearney Creates website you’ll discover a full portrait of Kearney’s writing life from early times to today, including writing organizations and reading venues. You’ll see and hear Kearney’s Community Voice.

Written by Chuck Peek
* Painting by Josephine Homan Catlin - Untitled 1908. The Museum of Nebraska Art (MONA) celebrates the history of Nebraska’s visual art for diverse audiences
* MONA collects, preserves, researches, exhibits, and interprets the work of artists who were born, lived, trained, or worked in Nebraska or who created artworks that reflect the culture of Nebraska

Categories: Art, Literature