South Dakota poets featured in new ebook

May 23rd, 2012

Rapid City writer and editor Eric Lochridge has published “After Long Busyness: Interviews with Eight Heartland Poets,” an ebook that compiles a series of interviews originally conducted for his blog, “After Long Busyness.”

Taken as a unified whole, the interviews reveal a surprising diversity in the poetry community in South Dakota. The poets featured in the book are South Dakota poet laureate David Allan Evans, Sioux Falls; Augustana College professor and writer-in-residence Patrick Hicks, Sioux Falls; Mount Marty College associate professor of English and director of the Great Plains Writers’ Tour Jim Reese, Yankton; South Dakota State University associate professor of English and women’s studies coordinator Christine Stewart-Nunez, Brookings; “Pleiades” editor Wayne Miller, of the University of Central Missouri; Andy Thorstenson, formerly of Hot Springs; Chad Lee Robinson, Pierre; and Adrian M. Forrette, Rapid City. Through their poetry, these accomplished writers confirm that South Dakota is indeed the “Land of Infinite Variety.”

Lochridge is the author of a collection of poetry, “Father’s Curse” (FootHills Publishing, 2007), and the founding editor of “After Long Busyness: A Poetry Blog.” His poems have appeared in journals such as “Paddlefish,” “Free Lunch,” “Slipstream,” “Diagram,” “Origami Condom” and “Main Channel Voices” and in anthologies such as “Beloved on the Earth: 150 Poems of Grief and Gratitude” (Holy Cow! Press, 2009) and “The XY Files: Poems on the Male Experience” (Sherman Asher Publishing, 1997).

He has received grants and awards from the South Dakota Arts Council, the Dahl Arts Center and the High Plains Writers of Rapid City. He holds a degree in mass communications from South Dakota State University. His career in journalism began at the Rapid City Journal, and he now writes and edits professionally in the Black Hills. “After Long Busyness: Interviews with Eight Heartland Poets” is now available online at Smashwords.com and the iTunes bookstore and will soon appear in other major online outlets. Go to Smashwords.com to order today.