Susanne George Bloomfield

AKA: Susanne K. George

Born 1947 Minden, NE (USA)

Image of Susanne George Bloomfield

Dr. Bloomfield is a long time Professor of English at University of Nebraska - Kearney, with special interest in western literature, women's literature, and biography. She has written about Gilded Age journalist and reformer Elia Peattie. She introduced and edited Impertinences: Selected Editorials of Elia W. Peattie, A Journalist in the Gilded Age. 2005, which won the 2006 Nebraska Book Award. She is also the author of an on-line digital resource on Elia Peattie: Elia W. Peattie: An Uncommon Writer, an Uncommon Woman (1862-1935).

Heritage Room: John H. Ames Reading Series, Featured Reader, 18 February 1993, John H. Ames Reading Series, Featured Reader, 16 March 2006. Recordings available from Lincoln City Libraries or in the Heritage Room.

Places Lived

Minden, NE
Kearney, NE
Hildreth, NE
Holdrege, NE
Walsenburg, CO

Author Of

Nonfiction
Poetry
Biography

Keywords

Willa Cather Scholar; Poetry-Editing and Criticism; Local History; Western Women Writers; Writing Biography; Biography--As Literary and Historical Practice

Education

BA, 1968, Kearney State College, Kearney, NE
MA, 1979, Kearney State College, Kearney, NE
PhD, 1988, University of Nebraska - Lincoln, Lincoln, NE

Occupation

Adjunct, Professor Emerita, University of Nebraska - Kearney, Kearney, NE: 2015 - 2018
Professor of English, University of Nebraska - Kearney, Kearney, NE: 1997-2015

Places Worked

University of Nebraska - Kearney, Martin Distinguished Professor

Honors

John H. Ames Reading Series, Featured Reader, 18 February 1993 and 16 March 2006
University of Nebraska - Kearney Deans' Award for Scholarship, 1993.
Mortar Board: Certificate for Outstanding Teaching, 1994.
Pratt Heins Award for Excellence in Teaching, 1995.
Crawford Award for Curriculum Development, 1995.
University of Nebraska - Kearney Outstanding Teaching and Instructional Creativity Award, 1996.
Phi Eta Sigma (National Honorary Society) Honorary Member 1998
University of Nebraska - Kearney Profiles in Excellence, 1998.
Mari Sandoz Award. Nebraska Library Association, 1998.
University of Nebraska - Kearney Exceptional Performance Award, 2001
Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society Charter Member, 2002
Leland Holdt/Security Mutual Distinguished Faculty Award for Superior Teaching, Research, and Service, 2002
Martin Distinguished Professorship, 2005-2008
WILLA Literary Award for Best Nonfiction for Impertinences., 2006
NebrasKa Book Award for Nonfiction for Impertinences. 2006
Pratt-Heins Award for Scholarship and Research, 2008
The Delbert and Edith Wylder Award for Exceptional Service to the Western Literature Association, 2012
Distinguished Alumni Award, 2013 (University of Nebraska-Kearney)
Susan Koppleman Award for Kate M. Cleary
ALA Notable Books for A Prairie Mosaic
University of Nebraska Graduate Fellow
Center for Great Plains Studies Fellow

Associations

Chair, Nebraska Literature Festival, 1992
Western Literature Association Executive Council, 1994-1997
Co-Chair, Nebraska Literature Festival, 1995
Western Literature Association: National President, 1996
Search Committee: Editor for Western American Literature, 1997
Nebraska Task Force for the National Endowment for the Humanities Plains Humanities Center, 2000-2001
Director, Nebraska Book Festival, 2003-2004
Board of Governors: Center for Great Plains Studies, 2 terms
Board of Directors: Willa Cather Pioneer Memorial and Educational Foundation, 2 terms
Editor of The Platte Valley Review

Bibliography

The Adventures of the Woman Homesteader: The Life and Letters of Elinore Pruitt Stewart. 1992.
The Platte River: An Atlas of the Big Bend Region. 1993. (Editor with Allan Jenkins)
Wellsprings: Poems by Six Nebraska Poets. 1995.
Kate M. Cleary: A Literary Biography with Selected Works. 1997.
A Prairie Mosaic: An Atlas of Central Nebraska's Land, Nature, and Culture. 2000. (Editor with Steve Rothenberger)
A Presidential Visit. 2002. (Editor with Steve Rothenberger)
Absolutely No Manners: On Having the Audacity to Write Biography. 2003.
Impertinences: Selected Editorials of Elia W. Peattie, A Journalist in the Gilded Age. 2005. (Editor)
From the Beginning: A Century of Excellence at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. 2005. (with Eric Melvin Reed)
Adventures in the West: Stories for Young People. 2007. (Editor with Eric Melvin Reed)

Bloomfield has been the author of several highly regarded digital publications:

"Elia W. Peattie: An Uncommon Writer, an Uncommon Woman (1862-1935)" on-line at http://plainshumanities.unl.edu/peattie/ (accessed 2018)

"Letters of a Woman Homesteader and Letters on an Elk Hunt," texts by Elinore Pruitt Stewart, providing texts, related lesson plans, biography and critical materials. Although the hosting site http://scribblingwomen.org/index.html was selected by the National Endowment for the Humanities for inclusion in its own web site, EDSITEment, as one of the best online resources for education in the humanities, it is now inaccessible, except for front pages which can be seen at archive.org (November 22, 2010 version viewed)

Bloomfield has maintained a blog at http://drbloomfield.edublogs.org/

Bloomfield's 1993 Ames Reading Series program:

March 2006 Ames Reading Series:

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