Internationally acclaimed, award winning poet Kwame Dawes selects Stromsburg Public Library as one stop on his tour of 12 Nebraska libraries. Dawes, currently professor of English at the University of Nebraska and Glenna Luschei Editor-in-Chief of the Prairie Schooner, an international quarterly literary journal, will entertain the public with poetry reading Saturday, December 15, at 11 a.m.

Marianne Kunkel, managing editor of the Prairie Schooner and also a published poet, will accompany Dawes. A question and answer session will follow the readings.

Dawes literary accomplishments as poet, editor, author, and playwright have earned him numerous prestigious awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, an Emmy Award and the Barnes and Noble Writers for Writers Award. Besides poetry, Dawes has written fiction, non-fiction, plays, Caribbean literature, African literature, and African American literature.

Dawes and Kunkel will promote Prairie Schooner, giving an update on the push to attract more international submissions, creating a podcast for the publication, a blog, and a revamped website. A new project called “Fusion” is underway. This is a multimedia collaboration involving poets and artists from such far reaching places as Botswana, Australia and the Balkans.

Learning more about Nebraska and its residents is one of the reasons for the December tour. The tour gives him the opportunity to find out how Prairie Schooner can support Nebraska’s literary arts.

His fondness for the journal is expressed in his comment: “Prairie Schooner is one of Nebraska’s greatest and most enduring gifts to the world, and it has been giving America so much for 86 years. I want to find as many ways to remind the people of the state about what a treasure we have and to see if we can generate even more ownership and pride in the publication,”

Written by Diana Johnson

Technology is changing how we live our daily lives. Many use some form of technology every day. If you didn’t grow up with technology or have never had a need to use it, you may be feeling a little lost sometimes. In response to this, the Stromsburg Public Library has begun to offer computer classes to interested parties.

We are offering two sessions on three consecutive Monday nights at 5:30 pm and 7:00 pm. The classes started on November 26th and will end on December 10 with a new set of classes slated to begin after the first of the year.

The 5:30 session has been focusing on learning the computer from the ground up. This class has been geared to those that say, “I can’t even turn a computer on!”. They have learned the vocabulary of using the computer as well as the basic parts of a computer. They have also begun doing simple internet searches and learning how that works.

The 7:00 session has been tailored to meet people’s needs. We had many requests to learn how to use Facebook and Microsoft Excel. Some other suggestions have been uploading pictures and learning how to use eBay.

If you are interested in further computer classes please stop by the library and let the librarians know where your interest lies.

Did you know you can renew books, view your fines and reading history and request new materials all from our new library catalog? Watch the video to find out how.

http://youtu.be/UEoPoAtpSgs

The library will be closed November 22-November 26 for the staff to enjoy the Thanksgiving holidays. 

Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving!