Festival Fodder

A blog about the South Dakota Festival of Books, Sept. 24-27, 2015 in Deadwood and Rapid City, SD

State Poet & Creative Collaborator

Twyla Hansen Leads the Way in Nebraska

By Hannah Koeller
Twyla Hansen and her home state of Nebraska have made history in the world of poetry. In 2013, Hansen was
selected as the rst female Nebraska State Poet. Nebraska itself can also claim a rst. In 1921, it was the rst
state to create the position of State Poet, even before the United States named its rst Poet Laureate.
Hansens job description is fairly open-ended. The Nebraska State Poet promotes and encourages appreciation of poetry and literary life in Nebraska while inspiring an emerging generation of new writers, she said.

In this position, Hansens main task is to give presentations, creative writing workshops and poetry readings, as
requested by schools, libraries and community groups. But what she enjoys most is interacting with other Nebraskans.
I enjoy meeting people, and in the last year I have met so many! she said. I like talking about creativity and
the practice of writing and encouraging people to tell their storyof which I believe everybody has at least
one.
Land + People = Inspiration
What most inspires Hansen when writing poetry is the small farm where she grew up in northeast Nebraska.
You can take the girl o of the farm, but you cant take the farm out of the girl, is a saying she truly agrees
with. The land and the peoplestories of placepredominate my writing, poems about nature, love, death,
etc.
Hansen nds inspiration for poetry all around her. Poems can come from anywhere at any time; the trick is to
jot down at least the bones of it right away, until you have time to work on it, she said. Inspiration is dependent on regular work. The best thing about creative writing is discovery; I love losing myself to the process.
After meeting Linda Hasselstrom in the mid-1980s at Nebraska Wesleyan University and running into her at numerous writing festivals throughout Minnesota and Nebraska, Hansen had an idea. Ive always admired her
writing. Plus, we share many of the same sensibilities from our farm and ranch upbringings, so I proposed we
publish a book together.
Writing Together, 500 Miles Apart
Hasselstrom agreed. When the two got serious about writing a book of poetry together, the creative process
proved quite interesting. The pair live about 500 miles apart, so most of the communication and sharing of
work was done by email or regular mail. In deciding which poems to include in the book, Hansen and Hasselstrom split the project, quite literally, in half.
Linda and I each selected poems that were not yet published in books, but rather than reviewing each others
writing or going back and forth, we trusted each other to select poems that loosely t a farm and ranch theme.
Then we each narrowed down our selections to 50 poemsa 50-50 deal50 poems of Lindas put together
with 50 of mine.
From this collaboration came the appropriately titled Dirt Songs: A Plains Duet. After the book was published,
Hansen got a lovely surprise. It wasnt until after the book was published we discovered a number of poem
pairs of hers and mine in the duo collection. Hansen and Hasselstrom also designed the book together, and
the cover photo was taken by Hansens husband on Hasselstroms farm in western South Dakota.

First Joint Reading

Surprisingly, Hansen and Hasselstrom have never presented together. In 2013, they had a small reading tour
planned for Nebraska and parts of South Dakota, but weather became a factor; Hasselstrom was snowed in on
her ranch.
The 2015 South Dakota Festival of Books will be the pairs rst time sharing the stage to read from Dirt Songs.
Plan to join them at 12 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 26, at the Franklin Hotel Emerald Room. Its sure to be a worthwhile
and special occasion!

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This entry was posted in Author Announcements, Book Festival, Festival authors, Festival events, Festival Feature, Uncategorized on July 29, 2015 [http://sdbookfestival.com/blog/2015/07/29/state-poet-creative-collaborator/] by South Dakota Festival of Books.