Heading Back to Iowa

Posted byKendall DunkelbergPosted inPublicityTags:, , , , , , , , , , ,

I’ve always looked forward to our summer pilgrimage to Osage, Iowa, which we usually take this time of year, arriving in time to go to the annual Fourth of July Parade and stop down to the fairgrounds later that day for some locally made ice cream from the Dairy Association. This is the time of year to make rhubarb jam and rhubarb pie, and if we’re lucky we’ll be around for an ice cream social or two.

But this year will be a little different, since my Mom passed away in January at the age of 97 and half. The house will be empty of her presence when we arrive, though we also have a lot of cleaning out to do: sorting, reminiscing, and deciding who will take what and how much we will leave for the estate sale. My brother will be in town, and our son is joining us. My neighbors, Martha and Joel Dorow, will both be there for part of the time, and my brother-in-law will also be there for a while before we all go to a family reunion. It will likely be the last time we are all together, at least in the little brown house on Poplar Street. So it will be bitter-sweet in many ways.

Since Tree Fall with Birdsong is just out, I have also set up some readings, first with the Alpha Writers and the Fine Arts Council of Osage on July 10 at Our Savior’s Lutheran at 6:30 p.m. in the Fireside Room, and then July 11 at Prologue Books and Wine in Charles City and July 12 at Three Bells Books in Mason City, both at 5pm. It will be great to be able to see people from Osage and get to know these fairly new independent bookstores, which I’m always happy to support.

By the end of the month, I’ll be back in Mississippi for The W’s commencement and a reading at Lemuria Books in Jackson, July 24 at 5pm.

So far, the reception for Tree Fall with Birdsong has been great. I’m very happy to have five bookstore readings scheduled already, as well as the poetry book club at Friendly City Books on Discord tomorrow night, July 1, at 7p, and hopefully more news on the way. I’m busy lining up more events for the fall starting in August with any luck. Watch here for more news soon!

Published by Kendall Dunkelberg

I am a poet, translator, and professor of literature and creative writing at Mississippi University for Women, where I direct the Low-Residency MFA in Creative Writing, the undergraduate concentration in creative writing, and the Eudora Welty Writers' Symposium. I am Chair of the Department of Languages, Literature, and Philosophy, and I have published four collections of poetry, Tree Fall with Birdsong, Barrier Island Suite, Time Capsules, and Landscapes and Architectures, as well as a collection of translations of the Belgian poet Paul Snoek, Hercules, Richelieu, and Nostradamus, and the textbook A Writer's Craft: Multi-Genre Creative Writing. I was born and raised in Osage, Iowa, and have lived for over thirty years in Columbus, Mississippi, where my wife Kim and I let wildflowers grow in our yard to the delight of spring polinators and only some of our neighbors.

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