Larksong welcomes two artists whose writing draws inspiration from care-giving.
Trained as a visual artist, the textile art of Michael James is included in numerous public and private collections, including those of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Baltimore Museum of Art. He served twenty years on the faculty of the Department of Textiles at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, and later as Professor Emeritus and Chair Emeritus. He is the recipient of two Visual Artist Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, and an NEA-sponsored USA–France Exchange Fellowship. He continues studio and writing practices in Lincoln, Nebraska, and helps to sustain connections among a close-knit group of husband caregivers of dementia sufferers.
Brad Anderson lives in Lincoln, Nebraska, and married his high school sweetheart, LuAnne Rose (Shaw) Anderson, when they were both 19. LuAnne died from Alzheimer’s on January 20, 2017, at the age of 61. Brad started writing poetry during LuAnne’s illness. He had never written poetry but found it was cathartic and helped him survive a difficult time. He continues to write poetry today. As Irish poet David Whyte said, “It is a language against which we have no defenses.”