Nebraska Writers Guild

Abigail Linnerson, Kristopher Miller, and Carol Carpenter

On Friday, April 24, and Saturday, April 25, the Nebraska Writers Guild held its Spring Conference for 2009. If you have an interest in just about any kind of writing endeavors, check out the guild's web page previously linked.

The Peru State College Creative Writing Series made possible the trip I made to the conference with three English majors--Carol Carpenter, Abigal Linnerson, and Kristopher Miller--who also worked to publish the Sifting Sands, the creative writing journal the English Club published this spring.


This year's event took place at beautiful Mahoney State Park on a pretty darn dismal day.

As the short slide show indicates, the meeting drew a pretty good crowd to listen to the three featured speakers and to take part in afternoon workshops.

Each of the three speakers looked at publication from a different perspective.

Tom Swanson had served as Bison Books manager for the University of Nebraska Press since September of 2005. Among other things, he oversees the publication of approximately sixty paperback titles each year.

His workshop focused on "The Importance of a Good Pitch."

He shared with the audience insights about the publication process.

Eric Butteman, a journalist, discussed his publication strategies.

He has authored articles in over fifty journals, from health magazines to The Sporting News.

His workshop concentrated on "Self-assessments, Goal Setting, and Business Schedules."


I enjoyed in particular Alan Boyle's presentation, author of numerous books, including A Guide to the Ghosts of Lincoln.

Boye teaches at Lyndon College in Vermont, which accounts for my focus on his work, for he has whiten about Vermont and areas there with which I am familiar.

So I purchased his collection of short essays, Just Walking the Hills of Vermont, which feature nonfiction he previously published in Vermont, Yankee, Exposure, and read on Vermont Public Radio.

I look forward to reading about familiar places.

For his workshop, Alan Boye discussed "A Creativity Toolbox for Generating Ideas and Avoiding Writer's Block.

We four enjoyed our time at the conference and in the beautiful hotel at Mahoney State Park.