“I have stood among trees and stars on many occasions…”

This excerpt from “I Have Stood Among Trees and Stars,” a poem by Jay Collier, director of
WSC College Relations, appearing a new poetry book published by WSC Press.

“The Flat Water Stirs” was created by Stephanie Marcellus and her students to commemorate Nebraska and its poets. Marcellus, assistant professor in the Language and Literature Dept., said it was also a way to celebrate Nebraska’s 150th year as a state.

The idea for the book was developed at the beginning of the last school year.

“This is a collection of poems from poets from Nebraska or have a connection to Nebraska, so there are 43 different poets represented in the book,” said Marcellus, who edited
the book alongside some of her students.

She said she and her students wanted to give poets who had not previously been published a
chance to make their work more visible.

The project was interesting and rewarding, Marcellus said, “and we’re really very pleased with how it turned out.”

The anthology is bringing excitement to many poets in the area.

“I have one poem published in “Flat Water Stirs,” so yeah, I’m pretty excited about it,” Collier said. “That’s my first published poem.”

The anthology was a great way to give credit to writers who are not used to getting their work published and shown to the world, Collier said. Each poem shows a little bit of who the writers are.

Liz Ziska, co-editor and contributing author, said, “I was very eager about it because there’s not a whole lot of anthologies with contemporary Nebraskan poets in them.”

Ziska said there has not been much interaction with the authors who are not from the local area. The editors and contributors hope to do a reading at which the poets can read their work, she said.

A final consensus among Marcellus, Collier and Ziska: they all hope that there will be similar anthologies in the future because they felt that it is a great way to commemorate
Nebraska and its poets.

“The Flat Water Stirs” is available through WSC Press.