Laureate Writers Series Presents Orval Lund
Tuesday | December 6 | 7 pm
Blue Heron Coffeehouse | 162 W 2nd St.
Local writer Orval Lund will be the featured writer at the Laureate Writers Series First Tuesday program on December 6 at 7:00pm at the Blue Heron Coffeehouse. Lund will present work from his new collection of poetry Heading Home, and the evening will conclude with an open mic session at which members of the community can present an example of their own writing.
Orval Lund is from Lancaster, population 300, in the far northwest corner of Minnesota, and his work reflects the landscape of life formed while he was riding a tractor as a kid over land dominated by horizon. The main character in his work is named “Swede” and his mate is Signe, wittier and wiser versions of Ole and Lena. Swede came of age in the 50’s. He delivered newspapers, experienced A-bomb drills, suffered through penmanship exercises, swam naked in the swimming hole, loved his baseball and trout fishing, and endured a Lutheran taciturnity.
Beneath these experiences lie the deeper concerns lurking in the poems—current events, science, marriage, parenting, and the mysteries of the natural world. Lund strives to provide clear and understandable poems that are at once well-crafted, often humorous, and serious.
An Army veteran and former member of the Minnesota Humanities Commission, Lund also has a long history of literary engagement. He was a professor of English at WSU for 33 years, and while there also worked as an organizer of the Great River Writers’ Conferences and as an editor of the nationally recognized literary journal Great River Review. His work has appeared widely in many publications. His previous published books of poetry are Take Paradise (1989), Ordinary Days (1996), and Casting Lines (1999).
This First Tuesday Laureate Writers Series event is sponsored by the Maria W. Faust Sonnet Contest, in partnership with the Blue Heron Coffeehouse. To learn more about the Maria W. Faust Sonnet Contest, please visit sonnetcontest.org or email entries@sonnetcontest.org.
Photo: Orval Lund.
River Arts Alliance serves as fiscal sponsor of the Maria W. Faust Sonnet Contest.