Twyla Hansen Visits Peru State Again

Twyla Hansen

Today at 11:00 in the CATS Conference Room, the Creative Writing Series and the English Club sponsored a visit by one of Nebraska premier poets, Twyla Hansen. I last saw Twyla read in Brownville, three years ago, when I initially began posting on this blog.

The previous link will take you to images from her reading in Brownville and to pictures from Twyla's last visit to Peru, in 2005.

Dr. Dan Holtz's Nebraska Literature class attended the reading and enjoyed a conversation with Twyla about her craft. I recorded two sets of poems from Twyla's reading. The first group contains two poems linked by disaster, "We Are On Nine-Mile Prairie When" and "Corn."

You can read the first poem on the Nebraska NIT page, which contains contrasting photographs, for Twyla wrote the poem at the time of the 9/11 horror; on that day, Twyla walked Nine-Mile Prairie with a group of fourth graders.


"Corn's" introduction sets that poem's context well.

The other group contains "Eddie" and "Hail Storm," two poems about youth and a certain innocence and experience.

I posted a few photographs from the reading and hope that you enjoy the excellent poetry.