By Naseem Jamnia
When I decided to move to Reno to join my husband, who had just started his master’s program at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR), I wondered at the kind of literary community I would find here.
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By Scott Dickensheets
It’s a quiet September Saturday, and I’m thinking hard about how fragile life, civilization, and everything really are. Not because something’s wrong, at least not in my immediate world, but rather because nothing seems wrong: the grandkids are squealing, the dogs are sleeping, several of the bills are paid.
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By Elise Choi
This letter is one of the 2018 “Letters About Literature” winners for the state of Nevada.
Dear Victor Hugo,
My two sisters, I, and my parents are members who constitute our family. Although my parents are fully devoted to their daughters, maybe due to the principle of mathematics, only two children can receive full attention from two adults at same moment.
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By Lindsay Wilson
The poet read this poem at Reno’s 150th birthday kick off in the City Center to a celebratory crowd that included the Mayor of Reno and City Council members.
By Cassandra D. Little, PhD, MSW
Growing up in the inner city of East Palo Alto, California and being surrounded by drugs, violence, and poverty, reading and writing offered me the opportunity to escape my reality and dream of a world that I wanted to live in.
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By Pat Ferraro Klos
Pershing County: 100 Years was born out of a neighborhood in Lovelock, Nevada, where four friends lived — where four generations of their families met, gathered, talked, and told stories based on the history of that part of northern Nevada.
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By June Sylvester Saraceno
Previously published in Tiferet
The window fills with gardenia bloom in evening.
The humid air, my sister’s voice, this window
that I raise and lower across elastic time.
By Vogue Robinson
Sleeping Beauty had three fairy godmothers
Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather
They gave her the gifts of beauty, song, and slumber
When I was born, God gave me three roses instead
Great Aunties - Dorothy, Lily, and Juanita
By Katelyn J. Lee
This letter is the 2018 “Letters About Literature” winner for Nevada.
I thought I would never excel at anything. Not math, not violin, not piano, not anything. My goals were always out of reach because I couldn’t soar, couldn’t even fly. Even though I have worked extremely hard to achieve my goals, it just never seemed to happen.
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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:
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By 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.
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By 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.
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By 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.
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By 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.
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By 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.
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By 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.
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By 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.
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By 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.
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By 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.
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