2002 Nebraska Book Festival
September 13-14, 11th Annual
Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer, Grand Island
“A Sense of Time, A Sense of Place”
Article from The NCB News, Vol. 12, No. 2, Summer 2002
Grand Island’s Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer (and associated
facilities) will be the site of the next Nebraska Book Festival.
Scheduled for September 13-14, 10:00 A.M.—5:00 P.M. CDT, the Festival
emphasizes a public celebration of books and book enterprises. Sponsored
by the Nebraska Center for the Book (NCB) in cooperation with the
Nebraska Library Commission, with funding from the Nebraska Humanities
Council, programs for adults, children, and youth will focus on the
theme, A Sense of Time, A Sense of Place. Friday’s program, (see details
Page 4) focuses on middle and high school students. Friday evening’s
celebration, 6:30 P.M. CDT, includes a festive meal, a program featuring
Bob Greene, author of Once Upon a Town: The Miracle of the North Platte
Canteen, and the presentation of the NCB Mildred Bennet Award, the
NCB Nebraska Book Awards, the Festival Committee’s Community Spirit
Award, and Student Writing Competition Prizes.
Saturday will be devoted to book displays from publishers and
literary centers. (Vendor registration deadline is September 10. See
www.stuhrmuseum.org/book.htm.) Readings by various writers and a wide
variety of programs, many of them hands-on experiences, will take place
in the most appropriate museum venue. Some of these will be devoted to
adult interests, others to small children, and still others to students.
Weather permitting, many displays and events will be outside. However,
indoor alternatives will be ready.
Festival Includes Student Writing Competition
The 2002 Nebraska Book Festival Committee recently announced the
Festival’s Student Writing Competition. The competition is open to all
interested Nebraska middle school and high school students. The 2002
Nebraska Book Festival’s theme, A Sense of Time, A Sense of Place, is
the theme for the competition. Students are asked to write about a time
or place in history that is particularly inspiring to them in one of the
following formats:
- Develop an essay exploring a feeling or memory (250 words
maximum).
- Write a Poem in any format (20 lines maximum).
- Write a fiction short story (500 words maximum).
Guidelines and entry information are available on the 2002 Nebraska
Book Festival Web site at www.stuhrmuseum.org/book.htm. Entry deadline
is September 3.
Museum admission is $8 for students on Friday (includes lunch) and $5
for all participants on Saturday.
Schedule
Friday, September 13
8:00-8:30
- Registration for Student Day Activities: Railroad display
- Storyteller: Lyn DeNaeyer Messersmith. Students will rotate
through four concurrent presentations.
- Group A: Middle School; Author—J.W. Riley/Deborah Greenblatt;
Active—Musical Instruments/David Seay; Enrichment/History—Lincoln
Highway/Mary Anderson; Poetry Writing—Don Welch
- Group B: High School: Author—Pioneer Journalists/Susanne George
Bloomfield; Active—Virginia Reel/Tim Smith;
Enrichment/History—Abbott Sisters/Steve Fosselman, et al; Poetry
Writing—Charles Fort
- Group C: High School Author—Wright Morris/Martha McGahan;
Active—Drama/Carol Quandt; Enrichment/History—Bookbinding/Shaun
Padgett; Poetry Writing—Bill Kloefkorn
9:30
10:30
11:20-12:35
- Lunch in the arboretum
- Teachers: Laureen Riedesel “All About Authors”
12:45
1:45
6:30
- Evening celebration at the Riverside Country Club Banquet
Program: Master of Ceremonies: Chuck Peek Bob Greene, author of Once
Upon a Town: The Miracle of the North Platte Canteen
- Presentations: Nebraska Center for the Book Nebraska Book
Awards; Nebraska Center for the Book Mildred Bennet Award; Nebraska
Book Festival Committee’s Community Spirit Award; Nebraska Book
Festival Committee’s Student Writing Competition Prizes
Saturday, September 14
9:00-3:30
- Book Binding Demonstration/Shaun Padgett
- Open Mike Readings/Steve King, Moderator
- Vendor Fair/Displays and Exhibit
9:00-10:00
- Presenters: Loren Eiseley’s Place in our Time/Christy Rothermund;
Researching Local History/Gene Budde; John G. Neihardt of
Nebraska/Barbara Sommer; My Own Private Nebraska/Greg Kosmicki;
Fiction Writing/Brent Spencer
- Readings: Chaparral Poets/Harriet Delay with six readers in two
rooms; Twyla Hansen, Ron Block, Sarah McKinstry-Brown
10:15-11:15
- Presenters: An Uncommon Woman: Elia Peattie and the Omaha World
Herald/Susanne George Bloomfield; The Creative Process at Work/Bill
Kloefkorn; Willa Cather’s Lands/Ann Billesbach; Medical Care on the
Lewis and Clark Expedition/Dr. Richard Fruehling; Bess Streeter
Aldrich/Fran Reinehr
- Readings: Barbara Schmitz, Charles Fort, Monica Kershner Fulgei,
Lyn DeNaeyer Messersmith, Jonis Agee, Karen Shoemaker
11:30-12:30
- Keynote Session: The Children’s Champion/John Sorensen
12:30-1:45
- Picnic with Poets: Lunch will be available to purchase on
grounds
1:45-2:45
- Presenters: Nebraska’s African American Homesteaders/David
Bristow; Inhabited Spaces: Teaching the Work of Wright Morris/Martha
McGahan; The Christmas of the Phonograph Records, by Mari
Sandoz/Virginia Opocensky
- Readings: Nancy McCleery, Timothy Schaffert, Marge Saiser, Lowen
Kruse, Bev Merrick, Mark Sanders
1:45-3:30
- A Gathering of Groups: A Workshop for Book and Writing
Groups/Mel Krutz, Don Welch, and Laureen Riedesel
Related Links
> Back to top