On Thursday, Mar. 5 at 2 p.m. in the Humanities second floor lounge, Wayne State College’s Plains Writers Series will host poet Tyler Jacobs, who will read his poetry and share advice about the writing process.
Jacobs is the author of “The Weight of Drought” which was published by Stephen F. Austin State University Press in 2025 and “Building Brownville” also published by Stephen F. Austin State University Press in 2022.
“The Weight of Drought” is the main collection Jacobs will be reading from at the event. According to Francie & Finch Bookshop, this collection reaches the natural world using compassion. The collection also looks at the cruelty of the natural world using the relationship between a drought and a flood.
“There’s a lot of horses,” Jacobs said. “So, if you like horses this might be a good reading for you. It’s just, so many horses, a lot of fields and things here and there, but there’s a lot of horses.”
When picking readers for the Plains Writers Series, Chad Christensen, the WSC Press Managing Editor and English professor, goes through a list of things he wants out of the reader including when their last book was published, prioritizing newer books, while also looking at book awards.
“Our main goal is alongside the WSC Press, is really to highlight Great Plains writers, or writers of the area, regional writers and to give them a platform to share their work,” Christensen said. “We wanted to really highlight the area and what’s awesome here. It’s also kind of tied in with our students that are in the kind of creative variety and they’re like ‘look’ we have these people out here working and writing.”
The Plains Writers Series is also used to promote the School of Arts and Humanities, the language and literature department, the creative writing programs and the editing and publishing minor.
“This allows them [the students] to see people are out there doing what you want to do, and you should network and interact with them and learn from them, cause they can ask them publishing questions or how to get in the literary magazines,” Christensen said.
Jacobs also finds these events important because the students are able to see and hear about the other side of being a writer.
“Programs like these are very important for English programs, from community colleges to State colleges to four-year universities and all of that,” Jacobs said. “Because they expose their students to, another professional side of being a writer. Writing isn’t just, hunkering down in [an] office at a desk and writing, it’s also sharing and disseminating your writing with an audience.”
With this Plains Writers Series event it is slightly different because Jacobs will be the only author coming to read compared to most other series events where there are a few different authors.
“We only have Tyler, so we’re going to get the full Tyler show, I was corresponding with him and he was already getting ready for it,” Christensen said. “I think we’ll get a little bit more Q and A with him which would be kind of exciting for this one.”
Jacobs will also be a judge in the poetry slam later Thursday night after the Plains Writers Series event.
“I’m excited to be a part of the series and engage with the audience at the reading,” Jacobs said. “I’m judging a slam that night, so I’m really excited to hear all those poems as well and I think it’s going to be a challenge because like, I don’t know maybe I can like just score everyone ten but um, we’ll see.”
