Local Writers showcased at SMSU Thursday

By Larry P. Magrath
Independent Staff Writer

An evening with local writers is planned Thursday a Southwest Minnesota State University. The event will feature local authors David Pichaske and Bill Holm, and local poet Leo Dangel has also been invited. All three are active local writers currently teaching at or recently retired from SMSU.

The evening with writers is part of a new class, Introducing Southwest Minnesota, which has also played host to a history conference and guest lecturers. The class is intended to provide historical background for its students, many of whom are being sponsored by their employers to attend the class.

The Thursday reading is open to the public and will be from 6:30-9 pm in Charter Hall 225.

The evening of writers will highlight the "unique, fresh and original" work by all three veteran authors, said Joe Amato, professor of of the class and founder of the Center for Rural and Regional Studies.

Pichaske, an English professor at SMSU, will be the event's host. Pichaske teachers rural/regional literature and he is publisher-editor of Spoon River Poetry Press, Ellis Press and Plains Press.

"We're counting on them, that we will heard their original insightful work which offers unique and fresh insights," Amato said.

"While Bill Holm has written on China and Dave Pichaske has written on Poland, the heart of their writing has been on the Midwest, if not particularly on southwest Minnesota," Amato said.

Pichaske has published more than eight Midwestern writers and has been host of several writing conferences. His most recent book, "A Place Called Home," is due out from the Minnesota Historical Press early next year. The book lists editors and Pichaske and University of Nevada Reno professor Richard Davies. Amato wrote the introduction.

Pichaske said he will highlight the writings of regional writers in the informal classroom setting.

Holm remains a popular speaker throughout the state, Amato said.

"Bill Holm is known as much as anything by his telling portraits of Minneota as an older Icelandic community with characters of note," Amato said.

He is author of numerous books, including "Boxelder Bug Variations" and "Coming Home Crazy."

Dangel, who recently retired from SSU, continues to write poetry. He has written three books of poetry including the recent "Home From The Field."

In trumpeting the book Home From The Field," fellow author Jim Heynen wrote: "Dangel's poems open our hearts and eyes to ordinary people and places. Without being tricky or trendy, the poems are alive with surprising twists and casual discoveries of the mysteries, fears and subdued yearnings of little people."