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Nebraska Authors

Greg Kosmicki

Born 1949 Alliance, NE (USA)

An Omaha poet and social worker who lives in Omaha, Kosmicki is the founder, editor and publisher of Omaha's Backwater Press (since 1997), an important publisher of Nebraska poets.

Places Lived

Omaha, NE
Alliance, NE
Chadron, NE
Lincoln, NE
Crete, NE
Gordon, NE
Alliance, NE
Omaha, NE
California
Florida
Illinois
Montana

Author Of

  • Poetry

Education

BA and MA with a creative thesis in English, University of Nebraska - Lincoln

Occupation

Social work

Places Worked

U.S. Navy Hospital Corpsman
Oil field worker
farm hand
ranch hand
teacher
UPS driver
social services work

Honors

John H. Ames Reading Series, Featured Reader, 16 November 1989, 15 March 2001 and 15 November 2007
Jane Geske Award for the Backwaters Press, Nebraska Center for the Book, 2011
Nebraska 150 Books honor for Nebraska Presence, 2017
Nebraska Arts Council Merit Award for poetry, 2000 and 2006

Bibliography

Nobody Lives Who Saw This Sky. 1998.
Voices of the Plains. 1989. (audio cassette series)
How Things Happen. 1997.
For My Son in a Hotel Room: Poems. 1999.
Times of Sorrow, Times of Grace. 2002. (co-editor)
What You Say Last.
Tables, Chairs, Wall, Window. 2000.
Greg Kosmicki: Greatest Hits: Poems 1975-2000. 2001.
The Patron Saint of Lost and Found. 2003.
We Have Always Been Coming to This Morning. 2005.
Some Hero of the Past. 2006.
Nebraska Presence: An Anthology of Poetry. 2007. (Compiler, editor with Mary K. Stillwell and publisher)
Marigolds. 2009.
New Route in the Dream. 2010.
Nebraska Poetry: A Sesquicentennial Anthology, 1867-2017. 2017. (Contributor)

Work published in literary magazines including:
Paris Review
Kansas Quarterly
Cimmaron Review

Greg Kosmicki has been an Ames Reading Series featured author several times.

March 2001:

November 2007:

In April 2017, Kosmicki read a poem by Weldon Kees at the Ames Reading Series program. His segment can be viewed here at 41:40:

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Greg Kosmicki
greg-kosmicki

Do you have corrections for the above information or other information to add?:

(e.g. Author is buried in Fremont, not in David City / Also wrote for the Daily Nebraskan during her time as a student)