''The Backwaters Press'' was a

small press A small press is a publisher with annual sales below a certain level or below a certain number of titles published. The terms "indie publisher" and "independent press" and others are sometimes used interchangeably. Independent press is general ...

based in

Omaha, Nebraska Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest cit ...

. It was a 501(c)(3) non-profit devoted to publishing

poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...

and literary fiction, with a special emphasis on the literature of Nebraska. The press was acquired in 2018 by

The University of Nebraska Press The University of Nebraska Press, also known as UNP, was founded in 1941 and is an academic publisher of scholarly and general-interest books. The press is under the auspices of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, the main campus of the Univer ...

and continues as a general interest imprint of UNP. The Backwaters Prize continues under UNP's auspices.

History

The press published numerous award-winning titles, including the anthologies Times of Sorrow, Times of Grace (2003) and Nebraska Presence: An Anthology of Poetry (2007), which won Nebraska Book Awards. In all, the press has been awarded seventeen Nebraska Book Awards since 2000 for anthologies, design and individual author's collections of poetry. According to

Project MUSE Project MUSE, a non-profit collaboration between libraries and publishers, is an online database of peer-reviewed academic journals and electronic books. Project MUSE contains digital humanities and social science content from over 250 university ...

, "Each year, the small Omaha press publishes two or three titles by Heartland writers, bringing the often stunning but sometimes forgotten voices of the Midwest to the literary world." In 2011, Greg Kosmicki, the editor, and the press were awarded the Jane Geske Award for "exceptional, long-term contribution" to books in Nebraska. Backwaters Press has published approximately 90 authors in independent volumes of poetry. Authors published by Backwaters Press include: long-time Nebraska State Poet

William Kloefkorn William Charles "Bill" Kloefkorn (August 12, 1932 – May 19, 2011), was a Nebraska poet and educator based in Lincoln, Nebraska. He was the author of twelve collections of poetry, two short story collections, a collection of children's Christmas ...

(1982-2011), current Nebraska State Poet Twyla Hansen (2013-), Kansas State Poet

Denise Low Denise Low (born 1949) is an American poet, honored as the second Kansas poet laureate (2007–2009). A professor at Haskell Indian Nations University, Low taught literature, creative writing and American Indian studies courses at the university. ...

(2007-2009), and the multiple award-winning authors: Charles Fort, Marge Saiser,

Lola Haskins Lola Haskins is an American poet. Life She was born in New York, and raised in northern California. Haskins has lived in San Francisco, Greece, and Mexico. She now divides her time between Northern England and North-Central Florida. She has pub ...

, Greg Kuzma, David Ray, and Brent Spencer. The editor of the Backwaters Press in 2015 was James Cihlar, the managing editor was Cat Dixon and the Associate Editor was Rich Wyatt. In past years, Backwaters offered the Backwaters Prize, the Weldon Kees Award, and the Omaha Prize, but discontinued the prizes in 2005. In 2012, The Backwaters Press awards the Backwaters Prize for an original book length manuscript.

The Backwaters Prize winners

The Press awards an annual prize to a book of poetry. * –

John Sibley Williams John Sibley Williams (born December 7, 1978, in Melrose, Massachusetts) is an American poet, educator, and literary agent. He is the author of "As One Fire Consumes Another" (winner of the 2018 Orison Poetry Prize), "Skin Memory" (winner of the 20 ...

for ''Skin Memory'' (University of Nebraska Press, 2019) *2015 – Kim Garcia for ''DRONE'' *2014 – Katharine Whitcomb for ''The Daughter’s Almanac'' *2013 – Zeina Hashem Beck for ''To Live in Autumn'' *2012 – Susan Elbe for ''The Map of What Happened'' *2005-2011 Prize Suspended *2004 - Aaron Anstett for ''No Accident'' *2003 - Michelle Gillett for ''Blinding the Goldfinches'' *2002 - Ginny MacKenzie for ''Skipstone'' *2001 -

Susan Firer Susan Firer (born October 14, 1948) is an American poet who grew up along the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan in Milwaukee, WI. She was poet laureate of the city from 2008 to 2010, and from 2008 to 2014, she edited the Shepherd Express online p ...

for ''The Laugh We Make When We Fall'' *2000 - David Staudt for ''The Gifts and the Thefts'' *1999 - Sally Allen McNall for ''Rescue'' *1998 - Kevin R. Griffith for ''Paradise Refunded'' The winner receives a cash prize of $1,000 and publication of the winning manuscript.

has been awarded a 2015 NEA Creative Writing Fellowship in Poetry.

References

External links

Backwaters Press
online
Backwaters Press Poetry Reading Video
online {{Authority control Companies based in Omaha, Nebraska Small press publishing companies Book publishing companies of the United States

History

The Backwaters Prize winners

See also

References

External links