A Visit with Nebraska State Poet Matt Mason

Matt Mason is a poet based in Omaha, Nebraska, and has published eight chapbooks and two full-length works of poetry as well as two anthologies. Mason has written about fatherhood, relationships, religion and the Bible, and themes of Midwest and Great Plains life. He earned his MA in Creative Writing from the University of California at Davis.

Mason will serve a five-year term as an advocate for poetry, literacy, and literature in Nebraska. The award winning poet and slam poetry champion, was installed as Nebraska State Poet 2019-2024 by Governor Pete Ricketts. The State Poet promotes and encourages appreciation of poetry and literary life in Nebraska while inspiring an emerging generation of new writers.

Matt Mason is the Nebraska State Poet and Executive Director of the Nebraska Writers Collective. He runs poetry programming for the State Department, working in Nepal, Romania, Botswana and Belarus. Mason is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize for his poem “Notes For My Daughter Against Chasing Storms," and his work can be found in numerous magazines including Ted Kooser’s American Life in Poetry. 

This presentation is made possible by Humanities Nebraska, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.