TWYLA HANSEN served as Nebraska’s State Poet for the term 2013-2018. Her newest book of poetry, Rock • Tree • Bird (Backwaters Press 2017), won the 2018 WILLA Literary Award and the 2018 Nebraska Book Award for Poetry. She has six previous books, including Nebraska Book Award winners Dirt Songs: A Plains Duet and Potato Soup. She has been a creative writing presenter through Humanities Nebraska for over 25 years. Hansen earned her BS and MA from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Her writing has been published in numerous anthologies, newspapers, a textbook, Encyclopedia of the Great Plains, The Writers Almanac, film-illustrated by NET Nebraska, transcribed for women’s chorus, commissioned by National Arbor Day

Foundation, on the Poetry Out Loud national list, and in periodicals such as Prairie Schooner, Midwest Quarterly, Nebraska Life, North Dakota Quarterly, Organization & Environment, Palo Alto Review, Platte Valley Review, South Dakota Review, and many more.