FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 11, 2016, 4:00 p.m. CDT
Contact Jason Hogue, Peru State College Marketing and Communications, 402.872.2429
Peru, Nebraska- Two of Nebraska’s notable poets will visit Peru State College on April 19. Matt Mason
and Sarah McKinstry-Brown will read their works at 11:00 am. in the Jindra Fine Arts
Recital Hall.
Dr. Bill Clemente, professor of English, writes, “Matt visited the Peru State campus
in 2009, and you can get a feel for the excitement his words generate by look at the
video linked on the page devoted to his visit on the Around Peru, Nebraska blog at http://aroundperu.blogspot.com/2009/03/matt-mason-at-peru-state-college.html."
Clemente adds, “The Peru State Community is very pleased to welcome this husband and
wife team, Matt and Sarah, to read as part of National Poetry Month.”
Mason and McKinstry-Brown’s visit is sponsored by the Alpha Chi Honor Society and
the Peru State College Creative Writing Series. The event is free and open to the
public. Questions may be directed to Bill Clemente at bclemente@peru.edu.
Sarah McKinstry-Brown won an Academy of American Poets Prize and a Nebraska Book Award
for her first full-length collection, Cradling Monsoons. She is an Editorial Board member for Spark Wheel Press and a co-editor of the award-winning,
The Untidy Season: An Anthology of Nebraska Women Poets; she has also been published in journals such as South Dakota Review, Ruminate, Cimarron Review and Chicago Quarterly. In addition, she’s worked on a large number of public art projects (most recently,
Conversations on a Bus) and partnered with a public non-profit cultural organization, KANEKO, to create
feedback, a one-of-a-kind reading series that invites established and emerging writers
to read from works in progress and get feedback on those new works.
Matt Mason has won a Pushcart Prize and two Nebraska Book Awards; was a Finalist for
the position of Nebraska State Poet; organized and ran poetry programming with the
U.S. Department of State in Nepal, Romania, Botswana and Belarus; and has been on
six teams at the National Poetry Slam. He has over 200 publications in magazines and
anthologies, including Ted Kooser’s American Life in Poetry and on Garrison Keillor’s Writer’ Almanac. He is executive director of the Nebraska Writers Collective and is consultant for
the Nebraska Arts Council with Nebraska’s Poetry Out Loud program. His most recent
book, The Baby That Ate Cincinnati, was released in 2013.
Mason and McKinstry-Brown live in Omaha with their daughters Sophia and Luci.
Sarah McKinstry
Matt Mason
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For more information, visit www.peru.edu or call 1-800-742-4412.
About Peru State College: Nestled in the historic hills of the Missouri River, the “Campus of a Thousand Oaks" is Nebraska’s oldest college and will celebrate its sesquicentennial anniversary in 2017. Peru State College’s constant commitment to academic excellence has resulted in a unique and innovative mix of online, traditional, undergraduate and graduate programs. Similarly, the college's ongoing student engagement promotes inquiry, discovery and innovation on-campus and across the region. Peru State College is committed to being a good steward of education, students, the region and Nebraska for another 150 years.