By Tee Iseminger
Formal definitions of the word literary range from the straightforward (the study of literature) to the obscure (humane learning). Somewhere within the variations of each definition, its uses and examples, caveats, and synonyms, we find the subtext that matters:
Read MoreBy staff of Nevada Humanities
Did you know that Nevada Humanities has an incredible reference tool that delves into Nevada culture, history, and heritage? Active since 2006, the Online Nevada Encyclopedia (ONE), is free, online resource that is available to anyone who is interested in learning more about the Silver State.
Read MoreBy Jo Russ
Gathered around a small table in the Nevada Humanities Program Gallery, children and adults alike are fascinated with a set of hand-carved mahjong tiles, featuring reclaimed Filipino cultural symbols.
Read MoreBy Caitlin McCarty
I’ve always been curious about the way words can construct and deconstruct our lives. I love you – construct. I think we should go our separate ways – deconstruct. Words have the ability to build us up or tear us down and sometimes, they do something in between.
Read MoreBy Christina Barr
As summer kicks into high gear, I am reminded of how important it is to connect with friends and family. The humanities are the perfect catalyst for this. Festivals, cultural events, family celebrations, barbecues, music, art, literature, and all of the social elements that make us human are the glue that binds us together as families and communities.
Read MoreBy Gailmarie Pahmeier
Gailmarie Pahmeier, Reno Poet Laureate, Emerita, teaches in the MFA Programs at UNR and Sierra Nevada College. She is a recent inductee into the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame and last year’s recipient of the Outstanding Teacher in the Humanities Award from Nevada Humanities.
Read MoreBy staff of Nevada Humanities
What do these three historical figures — Samuel Clemens, Madeleine L’Engle, and Evel Knievel — all have in common? They will all converge at the same time and in the same place in Sparks, Nevada. The Nevada Humanities Great Basin Young Chautauqua Showcase presents the stories of these and other historical characters through live theatrical performances on Thursday, June 28 and Friday, June 29 from 6:00-9:00 pm at the Restless Artists’ Theatre in Sparks.
Read MoreBy Ann Keniston
A different version was published (under the title “Dreamed Beloved”)
in the Missouri Review Online.
By Maxwell Johnson
As a young child, I was oblivious to the amazing qualities and history of the place that I lived in. In the dusty hills and mountain towns, I saw them at face value, not understanding the people who had helped build them and the communities that have flourished within them. I was being left out of the stories that were hidden among the sagebrush and streets of my community.
Read MoreBy Katherine Fusco
There’s a tradition in American literature of the minor character, the survivor, narrating the life of the charismatic tragic protagonist, be it Moby Dick’s Ishmael, The Great Gatsby’s Nick Carraway, or even Lolita’s Humbert Humbert. The trick of such tales is in giving readers enough to sink their teeth into, while also indicating the limited nature of the narrator’s vision.
Read MoreBy Paige dePolo
Our state has adopted many symbols to honor and give a sense of the character of its high deserts, mountains, and valleys and of the pioneering spirits of the folks who live here. Of the state symbols, our state fossil, Shonisaurus popularis, the ichthyosaur, stands out at almost mythical proportions.
Read MoreBy Gus Pappas
This letter is the 2018 “Letters About Literature” Level 3 winner for the state of Nevada.
Dear Connor Franta,
I am sitting here writing a letter to a simplistic, beautiful, aesthetic human being on a Wednesday morning, 8:06 AM, on the spot, how thrilling.
Read MoreBy Anne Hoff
Community. Through ink, blood, sweat, and tears. The tactile quality, the magical appearance of transferred image, the heartbreak of visual “bust,” long hours of toil, rewarding surprises… this is printmaking.
Read MoreBy Heidi Kyser
In early 2012, I had coffee with an acquaintance who wanted to talk to me about a looming public health crisis. A nurse practitioner and the mother of a boy who’d recently started using heroin after abusing the opioid painkillers that he’d been prescribed for a lacrosse injury, she stood at the intersection of institutional medicine and drug addiction.
Read MoreBy Jared Stanley
This poem originally appeared in EARS (Nightboat Books, 2017)
Noctilucent clouds
purple light on the hills at night—
something halfwit grand about
mistaking the air over mourning
doves' wings for the teakettle,
warm in here, inside the war
By Shaun T. Griffin
for Cody and Suzette
Trying to paint in the dust
of sirens, a burnished Mexican
man sprays bougainvillea
flowers from the patio.
How does the union occur—
this mayhem of art and exhaust?
in the backyard of my son’s
beloved, who sits in her room
By Lindsay Cook
A little over six years ago I was a college freshman at the University of Nevada, studying elementary education and working at Starbucks. I had a coworker at the time that worked part-time at Starbucks and also worked for Nevada Humanities. We talked a lot about education and history, and one day he asked me if I would be interested in being an intern for the Nevada Humanities’ Great Basin Young Chautauqua (GBYC) program.
By Christianna Shortridge
Why should the federal government fund the humanities? This is a question I’ve been hearing for the past 25 years through my work in and around Congress. As administrations and Congresses come and go, the humanities remain. The humanities have been around much longer than our federal government; they are what holds us together as a civil society, they connect us, and they will never disappear.
By Todd Felts, Ed.D.
As a professor who teaches strategic communications, I was recently asked to moderate a discussion on pain and healing. I wasn’t sure what contribution I might make to the dialogue. At the Reynolds School, I teach students to identify audiences, develop a hook for a story, and share messages to resonate across communities and on social media during times of crisis. What could I offer to a discussion about current practices and pitfalls in treating pain or exploring non-traditional routes to pain management?
By Nevada Humanities Staff
Want to be part of something really big? Nevada’s Big Give is coming on March 22, and Nevada Humanities invites you to participate and help us meet our goal of $5,000. You will have the chance to unite our community around causes you believe in and to help a nonprofit organization, like Nevada Humanities, connect with the greater good that comes out of Nevada. Join other Nevadans in 24-hours of giving as part of Nevada’s Big Give and support the work of Nevada Humanities.
