In Black Dirt Days: Poems as Memoir, poet and journalist Nan Lundeen gives voice to rural Iowa of the 1950s "where cornfields sang in summer/and winter howled at our throats" In a series of thirty-seven narrative poems, Nan describes her people: farmers of German, Swedish, and British ancestry who rotate crops and hand-milk cows. Everything depends on family, neighbors, the markets, the weather, and their own stamina to work from dawn until long after sundown. She shares the story of her parents' romance, which begins as forbidden love, and her own beginnings as a writer wedded to the land. Teaching artist and poet Glenis Redmond, says, "Nan Lundeen poetically works the past in her collection, Black Dirt Days: Poems As Memoir. With her ear to the ground, she tills the soil of her familial lineage. She wields her lyric voice like a useful farm tool and the reader benefits from her creative laboring. In these poems, she harvests the stories of the land and the people that she came from and both will forever live in her well-worked lines."
About the Author: Iowa native Nan Lundeen is a poet, blogger, grandmother, writing workshop facilitator, and award-winning journalist. Read her blog on the creative process at mooingaround.com where she is editor in chief. The site's goal is to build a community of artists and writers. Please query Nan about publishing your work at mooingaround.com through "contact us" on the site or through Nan's email below. A resident of Michigan, she facilitates Moo of Writing workshops. Her how-to-write handbook, Moo of Writing: how to milk your potential, is dedicated to her mentor, Sylvia Barclay, who when Nan asked how to repay her for sharing her writing wisdom, said, "Pass it on." Her article, "Find Your Moos," appeared in the December 2013 issue of the U.K.'s Writing Magazine. Her columns on writing have appeared in the South Carolina Writers' Workshop newsletter, The Quill, and the books/creative writing section of the U.K.'s femalefirst.com. Her poems have been published online by The Iowa Review's Iowa Writes, and the University of South Carolina Poetry Initiative; she was a finalist in the Yemassee Literary Journal's 2010 Pocataligo poetry contest. The Morris Museum of Art at Augusta, GA, awarded her poem "The Catawba" honorable mention in the 2012 Porter Fleming Literary Competition. Her poetry also has been published in the College of Charleston's Illuminations, the Petigru Review, Happiness Holding Tank, and the anthology Inner Lives, among others. Her book of goddess and strong woman poems, The Pantyhose Declarations, is available on Amazon and Kindle. Her journalism has been published in the Detroit News, the Grand Rapids Press, the Connecticut Post, The Greenville News and others. She took a Hoosier State Press Association first place community service award for a series of editorials on school reorganization and a UPI first place team spot news award for coverage of a construction disaster in Connecticut. She holds a master of arts in communication and a bachelor of arts in English from Western Michigan University at Kalamazoo. She is married to Ron DeKett, photographer and newspaper editor. Her favorite literary character is the Little Prince who said, "One sees clearly only with the heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eyes."