Matt Mason

Author's Bio

Matt Mason has won a Pushcart Prize and 2 Nebraska Book Awards (for Poetry in 2007 and Anthology in 2006); organized and run poetry programming with the U.S. Department of State in Kathmandu, Nepal and Minsk, Belarus; and been on 5 teams at the National Poetry Slam. He edits PoetryMenu.com, a listing of every Nebraska poetry event. He is Executive Director of the Nebraska Writers Collective, board president of the Nebraska Center for the Book, and has served as the Nebraska State Coordinator for Poetry Out Loud, a Poetry Foundation/NEA program. Through the Nebraska Writers Collective, Matt recently put on the area's first Louder Than a Bomb Youth Poetry Festival to great success, ensuring it will be back in 2013. His website is matt.midverse.com.

Publications and Prizes

Books:

Things We Don't Know We Don't Know (Backwaters Press, 2006)

Chapbooks:

When The Bough Breaks (Lone Willow Press, 2005), Mistranslating Neruda (New Michigan Press, 2002)

Anthologies:

Nebraska Presence (Backwaters Press, 2007), The Spoken Word Revolution Redux (Sourcebooks, 2007), Slamma Lamma Ding Dong: An Anthology of Nebraska's Slam Poets (iUniverse, 2005)

Performances:

Omaha Healing Arts Center Poetry Slam (2008), National Poetry Slam, Austin (2007), National Poetry Slam, Albuquerque (2005), National Poetry Slam, Chicago (2003), National Poetry Slam, Minneapolis (2002), The Green Mill, Chicago (2002)

Prizes:

2013 Pushcart Prize 2007 Nebraska Book Award for Poetry 2006 Nebraska Book Award for Anthology VerseDaily.org, Verse Daily Poem of the Day, March 14, 2003 Akron Art Museum, New Words 2002 Poetry Contest award poem, April, 2002 MobyLives.com, “Whale Sighting” poem, March 5, 2002 Bulkhead, Poetry Competition Honorable Mention Best Poem, May, 2001 Mad Poets Review, 2000 Poetry Competition Judges Choice Award, October, 2000 Literal Latté, 5th Annual Literal Latté Poetry Award Honorable Mention, Volume 5 #5, September-October, 1999 Plainsongs, Award Poem, September, 1999 Literal Latté, “Rosemary and Rhyme” Food Verse Contest 1st Place, Volume 5 #2, March-April 1999 1994 C.T. Wright Award for Poetry from the University of California-Davis and the Academy of American Poets The Lyric College Contest, Honorable Mention, Spring 1990 The Lyric College Contest, Honorable Mention, Spring 1989

Personal Favorites

Favorite Authors:

William Trowbridge, Denise Duhamel, Bill Kloefkorn, Don Welch, Ted Kooser, JV Brummels, John Keats, Neil Harrison, David Clewell, Sam T. Coleridge, Brenda Hillman, Bob Hicok, and on and on...

Please note: All information in the Directory is provided by the listed writers or their representatives.
Listing last updated: July 4, 2012

More Information

Listed as:

Poet, Spoken Word Artist

Gives readings?

Yes

Travels for readings?

Yes

Prefers to work with:

Any

Fluent in:

English

Born in:

Omaha, NE

Raised in:

Omaha, NE

Reviews, Recordings, and Interviews