In 2023, Twyla M. Hansen’s newest poetry book Feeding the Fire won a Nebraska Book Award and was finalist for a WILLA Literary Award. Three previous books won Nebraska Book Awards, WILLA Literary Awards, and a Nebraska 150 Notable Book designation. She serves on the board for Larksong Writers Place and was the Nebraska State Poet 2013-2018. Recent honors include the Nebraska Literary Heritage Award, Nebraska Center for the Book President’s Award, and Lincoln High School Distinguished Alumni Award. Twyla’s writing is published recently in literary magazines: Briar Cliff Review, Prairie Schooner, South Dakota Review; in anthologies: More in Time: A Tribute to Ted Kooser, The Night’s Magician: Poems About the Moon, and Nebraska Poetry Sesquicentennial Anthology; and on websites: Academy of American Poets, Poetry Foundation, and Poetry Out Loud; plus many more. Twyla was raised in northeast Nebraska on land her grandparents farmed as immigrants from Denmark. She resides in Lincoln on a wooded and wildflowered acre maintained as an urban wildlife habitat.
