Background
Kloefkorn was born in Attica, Kansas and obtained bachelor"s and master"s degrees from Emporia State University in Emporia, Kansas, and did additional graduate work at the University of Kansas and the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.
( The “tell-all” memoir takes on new meaning in the work ...)
The “tell-all” memoir takes on new meaning in the work of poet William Kloefkorn, whose accounts of the moments and movements of life touch on everything that matters, the prosaic and the profound, the extraordinary in the everyday, and the familiar in the new and strange. The fourth and final installment in Kloefkorn’s reflections, Breathing in the Fullness of Time departs from the elements ruling the other volumes—water, fire, and earth—and floats its insights and observations, its memories and anecdotes on the now wild, now whispering element of air. In this final volume, this consummate storyteller uses his characteristically droll sense of humor to recapture time that, once experienced, is never really lost. His remembrances include a foray into college football, a stint in the Marines, a drift in a twelve-foot johnboat on the Loup River, learning to get a hog’s attention, marriage at last to a childhood sweetheart, a sojourn in California, and a return to Nebraska to teach. The moments, large and small, sad and funny and fine, multiply to become a moving picture of life caught in the act of passing by.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0803245238/?tag=2022091-20
( The “tell-all” memoir takes on new meaning in the work ...)
The “tell-all” memoir takes on new meaning in the work of poet William Kloefkorn, whose accounts of the moments and movements of life touch on everything that matters, the prosaic and the profound, the extraordinary in the everyday, and the familiar in the new and strange. The fourth and final installment in Kloefkorn’s reflections, Breathing in the Fullness of Time, departs from the elements ruling the other volumes—water, fire, and earth—and floats its insights and observations, its memories and anecdotes on the now wild, now whispering element of air. “Kloefkorn is a consummate storyteller,” Publishers Weekly has said, noting his “keen eye and a gift for language that is beautiful in its simplicity.” In this final volume, the poet uses those skills and his characteristically droll sense of humor to recapture time that, once experienced, is never really lost. His remembrances include a foray into college football, a stint in the Marines, a drift in a twelve-foot johnboat on the Loup River, learning to get a hog’s attention, marriage at last to a childhood sweetheart, a sojourn in California, and a return to Nebraska to teach. The moments, large and small, sad and funny and fine, multiply to become a moving picture of life caught in the act of passing by.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0803219326/?tag=2022091-20
( Whether writing about a boyhood in the Great Depression...)
Whether writing about a boyhood in the Great Depression, the bond between a young man and his family, digging storm cellars and ducking tornadoes, or the dropping of the atomic bomb as experienced by a paperboy in small-town Kansas, Kloefkorn brings a congenial mixture of seriousness and humor to his subjects. Here and there the commonplace lends itself to the not-so-common question: What is the odd relationship between power, terror, and beauty? Why are human beings torn between staying put and moving—in intellectual and spiritual as well as physical terms? And how much of who we are is composed of who we were? Rife with insight, At Home on This Moveable Earth is as wonderfully readable as the first two volumes of Kloefkorn’s memoirs, a thoughtful tour of a curious character’s life so far and a model of retrospective introspection.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/080322768X/?tag=2022091-20
(Kloefkorn, state poet of Nebraska, transforms everyday ac...)
Kloefkorn, state poet of Nebraska, transforms everyday activities and thoughts into significant acts and clarifies the existence of the past within the present. "Kloefkorn has that most difficult thing of all for a poet to attain-a recognizable, strong, attractive voice. Essentially, it is that quality that makes a body of poetry distinctive. And distinctive is simply another word for irreplaceable."-Prairie Schooner
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1877727296/?tag=2022091-20
( This volume, the first to span the forty-year career of...)
This volume, the first to span the forty-year career of Nebraska state poet William Kloefkorn, brings together the best-known and most beloved poems by one of the most important Midwestern poets of the last half century. Collecting work from limited editions and hard-to-find books, along with Kloefkorn’s most anthologized poems, Swallowing the Soap is an indispensable one-volume compendium of the work of a major American poet. “These poems aim for nothing less than the impossible: to understand what it means to be alive and human on this moveable earth,” writes the editor, Ted Genoways. Swallowing the Soap is filled with the panoramic landscapes of Kansas and Nebraska, the stories of the rough and tender people who live there, and the moments of heartache, brutality, loss, and redeeming joy that shape their lives. It offers a vision, at once intimate and expansive, of the world of the Great Plains as seen by one of its most eloquent poets.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0803234058/?tag=2022091-20
Kloefkorn was born in Attica, Kansas and obtained bachelor"s and master"s degrees from Emporia State University in Emporia, Kansas, and did additional graduate work at the University of Kansas and the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.
He was the author of twelve collections of poetry, two short story collections, a collection of children"s Christmas stories, and four memoirs. Additionally Kloefkorn was professor emeritus of English at Nebraska Wesleyan University. Prior to teaching at Nebraska Wesleyan, Kloefkorn taught at Wichita State University and at Ellinwood High School in Ellinwood, Kansas.
In 1982, Kloefkorn was appointed State Poet of Nebraska, a position roughly equivalent to Poet Laureate.
(In 1921, the Nebraska Legislature permanently bestowed the title of Poet Laureate of Nebraska on John Neihardt, who died in 1973 A successor to this title has not been named) Kloefkorn died in Lincoln, Nebraska. He was succeeded as State Poet by his student Twyla Hansen in 2013.
An elementary school in Lincoln is named after Kloefkorn. Where the Visible Sun Is (Spoon River Press, 1989) Welcome to Carlos (Spoon River Press, 2000) Loup River Psalter (Spoon River Press, 2001) Sergeant Patrick Gass, Chief Carpenter (Spoon River Press, 2002) Verse written by Kloefkorn in the voice of Sergeant Patrick Gass, chief carpenter on the Lewis and Clark Expedition based on research into the expedition and the journal kept by Sergeant Gass himself.
( Whether writing about a boyhood in the Great Depression...)
( The “tell-all” memoir takes on new meaning in the work ...)
( The “tell-all” memoir takes on new meaning in the work ...)
( This volume, the first to span the forty-year career of...)
(Kloefkorn, state poet of Nebraska, transforms everyday ac...)
(Paperback Book Poetry by William Kloefkorn)
(Book by Kloefkorn, William)