Okay, world: with 1 year left as State Poet I’m looking for some help.
Not just for the counties in white (which are the ones I haven’t presented in yet), I’m always looking for opportunities to talk to any schools, run a corporate training/team building with poetry, write a commissioned poem and more (and in all counties, not just the ones I haven’t reached yet, even in other states and countries).
So if you can connect me, I’d be grateful. Grants from the Nebraska Arts Council and Humanities Nebraska make it particularly easy to have me brought in.
As for my project to reach every county in Nebraska with at least 1 poetry event, I’m close! 2 scheduled, 2 close to being scheduled, and 10 that I’ve contacted and not yet found a way to do a reading or workshop or something else with poetry there.
What helps most is if you’re able to reach out to someone you know. Me cold-calling doesn’t work well as poets are scary. (Not really, we tend to be quite nice, but many people are unsure of poetry)
In any case, here is the updated map as we near the end of 2023!