Poet and fiber artist Nancy Takacs of Utah will be the featured performer for the Telluride Institute’s first Tuesday Talking Gourds’ Bardic Trails virtual Stories & Poems series Tuesday April 7th at 7 pm MST.
“Nancy is a marvelous reader with long experience writing and sharing her poetry,” said Talking Gourds Director Art Goodtimes. “We are delighted to be able to feature her during National Poetry Month.”
With an MFA from the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, Takacs is an emerita professor at Utah State University Eastern and a former wilderness studies instructor. She is the inaugural Poet Laureate of Helper City, Utah and the originator of The Steamboat Mountain Reading Series in that city. She currently teaches poetry writing privately and has held a free poetry workshop for 11 years at the CC Senior Center. She has been an artist-in-the schools, as well as in prisons.
Her newest book Dearest Water is available from Mayapple Press (2022). Her other books include The Worrier: poems (Univ. of Mass. Press, 2017), Red Voice (Finishing Line Press, 2016), Blue Patina (Blue Begonia Press, 2015), Juniper (Limberlost Press,2012); Wild Animals (Outlaw Artists Press, 2008), Preserves (City Art Press, 2004), and Pale Blue Wings (Limberlost Press, 2001).
She is the recipient of The Juniper Prize, was a Finalist for the National Poetry Series, a runner-up for The Missouri Review Editor’s Prize, won a Pushcart Prize, The Sherwin Howard Poetry Prize, the 2018 15 Bytes Poetry Prize, the 2016 15 Bytes Poetry Prize, The Nation/Discovery Award, and the book-length Poetry Award from the Utah Arts Council.
Her poems appear in The Baltimore Review, Cider Press Review, About Place, On the Seawall, Exit 13, Sugar House Review, Nomad, Sundress Best Dressed, The Harvard Review, Missouri Review, The Carolina Quarterly, West Branch, Crab Creek Review, Terrain, 2River, Kestrel, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Nimrod, Weber, Verse Daily,and many other literary journals.
For those that like prompts, we are suggesting “Spring in a Time of War,” although poems on any subject are welcome. Virtual attendees are encouraged to bring a story or poem to share each month after the featured reader, their own work or someone else’s.
The Telluride Institute’s Talking Gourds Poetry Program hosts the free Bardic Trails virtual zoom series on the first Tuesday of each month. The Wilkinson Public Library continues as our collaboration partner, with town support from Commission for Community Assistance, Arts & Special Events.
No longer needing to register with the library, participants are encouraged to visit <https://www.tellurideinstitute.org/western-slope-calendar> to get the zoom link each month, if they aren’t already on our mailing list.
Thanks to the Cantor Family, the Guttman Family Foundation, CCAASE and our Fischer and Cantor contest participants for supporting our program and projects.
Telluride’s Wilkinson Public Library and Talking Gourds have started a live Stories & Poems series at the library’s Magazine Room on the third Tuesday of every month at 5:15 pm. The series began in December with Montrose metaphysical poet Tracy Lightsey; in January we had Montrose storyteller Tanya Ishikawa; and in February we had poet/writer Karen Bellerose and musician Bob Beer – both of Lawson Hill. On Mar. 17th we will have poet Mary Hearding of Rico and storyteller Vicki Phelps.
Talking Gourds continues its collaboration with the Naturita Community Library on the second Thursday of each month at 6 pm for the West End Stories & Poems series. Librarian Leslie Ament and Goodtimes will host Jami Allred discussing “Lights in the Sky” on Thursday, April 9th.
The national Fischer Prize contest and the Colorado Cantor Prize contest open for submission on April 1st. Deadline for the 2026 contests will be Aug. 31st.
