Still Life Moving by William Kloefkorn & Carlos Frey (Illustrator)

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION

This book attempts to illustrate, with words and paintings, some of the connections that can be made between cultures even as they strive to keep their identities intact. Standing Bear said it best; "My hand is not the color of yours, but if I pierce it, I shall feel pain." But there can be joy also, if the connections promote friendship, respect and understanding. Poetry by Nebraska State Poet, William Kloefkorn. Pastel Paintings by Carlos Frey.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

William Kloefkorn has published more than twenty collections of poetry, among them Alvin Turner As Farmer, Drinking the Tin Cup Dry and Sergeant Patrick Grass, Chief Carpenter: On the Trail with Lewis and Clark. His work has appeared in many periodicals, including Prarie Schooner, Harper's, North American Review and Georgia Review. Three memoirs were published by the University of Nebraska Press: This Death by Drowning, Restoring the Burnt Child and At Home on this Moveable Earth. he is an Emeritus Professor of English at the Nebraska Wesleyan in Lincoln and serves as the first and continuing Nebraska State Poet. Carlos Frey, born in Oklahoma and raised in Kansas, lives now and does his painting in Wayne, Nebraska. Though his academic training was in sculpture, his passion for the past forty years has been in painting, his favorite medium being pastel. He has studied with a number of prominent artists, including Harley Brown and Frank Webb, and his work has earned him a variety of awards. The paintings in this book derive from a series of photographs he took while attending ceremonies and celebrations conducted by Native Americans in Nebraska.

Words Like Rain by Multiple (Author), Scott McIntosh (Editor), Greta Smith (Editor)

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION

When a group of creative people comes together - bursting with ideas and exuberance - they feed off one another, challenging each other to defy gravity and reach for the sky. Maybe it's nothing more spectacular than some great instructors and some gifted students feeding off each other like sharks with blood in the water. Whatever the source, WSC has plenty of poetry worth celebrating. And that's what Words Like Rain is all about.

Wacky Paradise by Sayaka Igoshi

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION

Drawn and written in a gorgeous shoujo manga style, Sayaka Igoshi weaves a story that will both thoroughly entertain and warm the heart. Igoshi,who has had fiction, poetry and artwork published by the WSC Press, gives unshakeable proof of her competence as both artist and writer. The WSC Press is proud to present its first graphic novel, Wacky Paradise.

Teachers College: Essays on the Art of Education Edited by Bonnie Johnson-Bartee (Haddix)

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION

The essays in Teachers College: Essays on the Art of Education are the work of great educators. Each of the essays illustrates anecdotes, techniques, and insights on teaching from Wayne State College's professors. Drawn from well over a century of combined experience, the essays clarify an amazing profession that requires much more than knowledge of a given field. The reader is drawn into their lives. Their writing is colored with personal and professional issues, learning experiences, quandaries, clarity, confidence, determination, and intelligence. Each professor gives pieces of him- or herself, and together the essays form a colorful mosaic--a work of art that is an education in itself. --Bonnie Johnson-Bartee (Haddix)

Approaches to Literature: A Practical Handbook for Beginners by Gilbert Vaughan

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION

“This book attempts to summarize and explain some basic approaches to literature, some traditional and some modern. It is designed for beginning students of literature and introduces them to different ways of reading and interpreting literature.” – Gilbert Vaughan

EXCERPT

“When did literary criticism begin? Our earliest critics are the Greeks, Plato and Aristotle. Aristotle wrote the first formal literary criticism, giving us terms like plot and character. But Aristotle probably did not form his critical principles from scratch. His criticism must go back to earlier critics. If we try to imagine the first critics of literature, we have to remember that literature was at first oral; the first creators of literature were people who told stories to audiences—audiences who must have asked questions and discussed the storytelling process among themselves and passed down their stories and traditions of storytelling to younger storytellers. Thus, analyzing and discussing literature has probably always accompanied the enjoyment of literature. Perhaps analysis is even part of the pleasure of literature.” – Gilbert Vaughan

Connecticut Shade by Timothy Black (#1 in Kloefkorn Series)

REVIEW

Timothy Black s Connecticut Shade is part narrative fiction, part autobiography, part series of prose poems, part script waiting to be staged, Connecticut Shade attempts, says William Kloefkorn in his Foreword, to depict a version of psychological Hell that defies depiction. Kloefkorn adds, maybe Tim Black is suggesting that, yes, Hell is, or can be, other people, but we are other people too. Connecticut Shade, described by Jim Peterson as a 21st Century meta-Howl, is the first book in the WSC Press Kloefkorn Series, the Press new imprint in honor of Nebraska State Poet William Kloefkorn. The Kloefkorn Series cuts across every literary genre, snatching books that embody creativity, originality, and a new way of looking at something. Traits we look for in every book we read, and find less often than we wish. Tim Black s Connecticut Shade is the perfect inaugural book for this series. Timothy Black is attending UNO/UNK's Low Residency program where he will graduate with a Masters of Fine Arts in Poetry Writing in 2010 and is teaching at Wayne State College, Norfolk Community College and Western Iowa Tech Community College. He is author of the chapbooks Angels, Devils, Lullabies and 30pieces. --Alicia Karli

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION

Tim Black's Connecticut Shade is a 21st Century meta-Howl. Written as an antidote for writer's block, it unleashes an interior satirical rampage through the drug-afflicted, sex-crazed American Dream gone sour. An assault on hollow materialism, it is also an attempted re-unification of the schizoid American psyche. Like William Carlos Williams' Paterson, this book is about the microcosm of the disillusioned, disassociated individual as well as the macrocosm of our fragmenting culture of vanity and greed. It is a funny and deadly serious quest for a path of unflinching honesty that can lead to deeper values. Black holds nothing back. If you're a fan of political correctness, then stop and back away from the text. otherwise, fasten your seat belts, buckle your chin straps, and get ready for a ride you'll not easily forget. --Jim Peterson, Author of Paper Crown.

Roadside Prophet by Grizz McIntosh (#2 in Kloefkorn Series)

REVIEW

Grizz McIntosh is a joy to read. He writes from an America that I salute, a place at once beyond some far meridian and close as the next barstool. These poems are filled with insistent moons, monuments to Crazy Horse and the 'desperate steps' of the Cheyenne, 'rural routes' and 'raging slabs,' fake cowboys and real Indians, 'road scholars' and 'roadside prophets.' He's a poet who catches the mystery of frontiers in this present between 'highpowered eisenhower sex drive' and a 'future that has room/for the unexplained/and inexplicable.' And he does this in series of almighty riffs that come to my ear with both energy and grace. McIntosh rolls up on a poem like a styling man his Saturday night. --JV Brummels, Author of City at War

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION

Roadside Prophet is a chronicle of road trips, mind trips and cross-country mayhem. The great thing about roads is potential. The street right outside your house can ultimately take you to the Arctic Circle or the southernmost tip of Tierra del Fuego. It's all connected by roads. As different as we all are, we're all connected even if it's only by the streets and highways that bind us together. -- Grizz McIntosh

Jeweled Fragments by Ron Vick, Sr (#3 in Kloefkorn Series)

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION

There are various reasons why people attempt to escape reality, whether it is pain and suffering or feeling trapped in their lives. This collection of short stories, written by a new author and presented here for your reading pleasure, will transport you to other realms and let you escape, however briefly, to another place. What can you expect on your journey through this book? Dreams of Reality is a semi-modern sword and sorcery story with elements of an alternate universe theme. For Love of Humanity Not has the flavor of Battlestar Galactica and cyborgs with attitude. The interdimensional Library story is, well, interdimensional... read it and you will understand. The Iridium Incident offers you a look into a first contact scenario and an underappreciated hero with morals. Terran Insurrection gives us a look at humanity s recovery from a nearly apocalyptic future with another first contact scenario, but with less than friendly aliens. Strange New Beginnings was the first story the author wrote when he decided to see what kind of writer he could be. Somewhere in the back of his mind, with apologies to Captain Pike and the crew from Star Trek TOS, it has similarities to the episode Menagerie.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ron Vick Sr., originally an automotive mechanic from Wyoming and various other states, changed careers in the early 90s and became a counselor. After earning a B.A. in Psychology and an M.A.E. in Mental Health Counseling from Chadron State College, he moved with his wife Janet and two children to northeast Nebraska. He currently resides in Wayne, Nebraska where he has worked at Wayne State College for the last thirteen years as a counselor, academic advisor, and international student advisor. In his spare time, he develops web sites (ronvick.com) and writes science fiction and fantasy and the occasional academic article for publication. To date he has had three articles published in the peer-reviewed journals of the Nebraska Counselor, the Journal of Counseling and Values, and the Journal of College Counseling. During his tenure at WSC he has taken a couple of writing classes and serves as the advisor for the WSC Science Fiction and Fantasy Club, which hosts an annual convention in the spring called WillyCon (willycon.com). He has several short stories written and the start of a book (or two). Vick has won a couple of local writing contests associated with WillyCon, and sold one story titled For Love of Humanity Not that is online at AfterburnSF. Much of his writing is centered on locations in Nebraska and the names of his characters often are associated with one or more of his five grandchildren. This collection of short stories is his first published book.

Songs from Our Summer by Max McElwain (#4 in Kloefkorn Series)

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION

Ron Vick Sr., originally an automotive mechanic from Wyoming and various other states, changed careers in the early 90s and became a counselor. After earning a B.A. in Psychology and an M.A.E. in Mental Health Counseling from Chadron State College, he moved with his wife Janet and two children to northeast Nebraska. He currently resides in Wayne, Nebraska where he has worked at Wayne State College for the last thirteen years as a counselor, academic advisor, and international student advisor. In his spare time, he develops web sites (ronvick.com) and writes science fiction and fantasy and the occasional academic article for publication. To date he has had three articles published in the peer-reviewed journals of the Nebraska Counselor, the Journal of Counseling and Values, and the Journal of College Counseling. During his tenure at WSC he has taken a couple of writing classes and serves as the advisor for the WSC Science Fiction and Fantasy Club, which hosts an annual convention in the spring called WillyCon (willycon.com). He has several short stories written and the start of a book (or two). Vick has won a couple of local writing contests associated with WillyCon, and sold one story titled For Love of Humanity Not that is online at AfterburnSF. Much of his writing is centered on locations in Nebraska and the names of his characters often are associated with one or more of his five grandchildren. This collection of short stories is his first published book.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Max McElwain teaches in the Communication Arts Department at Wayne State College. He holds a Ph.D in American studies from the University of Kansas. His books include Semi-Pro and Other Stories, Profiles in Communication, and The Only Dance in Iowa: A History of Six-Player Girls Basketball.

Requiem for the Kid on Grand Piano by Johnny D. Iles (#5 in Kloefkorn Series)

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION

Here, for the first time together, are the incarnations of the “Black Heaven Jazz” band. In this collection of works by Johnny D. Iles, we see the transformations of the “Black Heaven Jazz” characters from their earlier versions in the poem “D Minor” and the short story “Requiem for the Kid on Grand Piano,”to their final resting place on the stage in the play version of Requiem for the Kid on Grand Piano.

Iles offers a torrid account of love and passion in his Darwinian tale of adapting and surviving – or dying – because of the inability to do such. But more than all of that, as the author suggests, “Requiem for the Kid on Grand Piano is the epitome of what love can be. This is my ode to the music that gets me through the restless nights. It is my thank-you note to jazz in all of its blue-collared wonder.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Johnny D. Iles is a WSC alumni who now currently resides in Scottsbluff, Nebraska— not far from those beautiful Rocky Mountains. He has traded his Eastern Nebraska life of strippers, women with issues, and other debauchery for a quiet life of watching bison and elk graze and collecting fossils and artifacts. When not off in some far flung rock formation with his cowgirl, he is at home with his other seductress: jazz. He still cannot get enough of jazz.

Undoing Orion’s Belt by Amy Plettner (#7 in Kloefkorn Series)

REVIEW

Amy Plettner, like Whitman, is a poet of the body as well as the soul. Her poems smell of loam and sage, of trees and rivers. Her lines are organic and muscular, moving with the rhythms of the breath and the seasons. Her poems about family are not out of Rockwell or Hallmark. Hers deal with a genetic cord that s a jump rope hissing like Grandmother s geese. Her family values include fast feet, a mind of one s own, and a good left hook. In a poem entitled Kissing Cousins, in which cousins do some serious kissing, she notes her family Bible was lost by her great-great uncle on Deal Beach, where the scripture was scattered like spilled semen/among the dead. Of her beloved home turf, a Nebraska nature sanctuary, she notes, Grass drapes entrance of badger hole/ hoarfrost gathers elegant lace. Hot inhalation,/ so much breathing between my toes.
-William Trowbridge, author of Ship of Fool

Deep-rooted in the visceral and spiritual, Amy Plettner s poems possess an understanding of our hunger for physical contact with the natural world and with each other. Along with the corporeal is a tension between emotional fulfillment and insatiableness that reminds us how primal we are at heart.
-Teri Youmans Grimm, author of Dirt Eaters