On the evening of Tuesday, April 8, students, faculty, and interested members of the community congregated in Winona State University’s Somsen Auditorium to listen to award winning author and poet Naomi Shihab Nye.
Nye has over twenty books in print in a variety of genres, including poetry, creative non-fiction and essays. She has also written novels for teens, children’s books, and is editor of seven anthologies.
She was born to a Palestinian father and an American mother, and grew up in St. Louis, Jerusalem, and San Antonio. She has spent thirty-three years traveling the world.
Nye read several of her poems and two of her creative non-fiction pieces.
Her poems range in subject from hospitality to the war in Iraq, and they often address her experiences growing up in Palestine and feature people she knows from the area.
The opening creative non-fiction piece that Nye read was about an adventure she had with one of her childhood friends. When the two girls were young they decided to go to a museum in San Antonio.
They entered the building and right away people stared at them as they looked around at all of the paintings and furniture.
A moment later a woman approached the girls and informed them that they were not in a museum, they were in her home. The girls were embarrassed as they quickly left.
Thirty years later a man approached Nye and told her that he was one of the people that was in the house on that day.
He thanked her for giving him a change in perspective, and for giving him the realization that their home was unique.
Nye described to the audience the significance that poetry has for her.
“I fell in love with poetry before I could read it myself,” said Nye. “Poetry can give you a quick anchor into places you were moods you were in.”
Also, poetry has therapeutic value for her.
“Poetry has a certain power to restore ourselves after hard things have happen in life,” said Nye. “It can make things better.”
When asked about her editing style, Nye said that she edits heavily.
“I edit what I write quite a bit to try to make it sound flowing in a colloquial vernacular. Revision is a wonderful part of the creative process,” said Nye.
In addition to giving her presentation, Nye also agreed to visit classrooms with some of the Winona State professors. In one section of Professor Jim Armstrong’s creative writing class, she told students about some of her writing tips.
“First, read voraciously and read many kinds of things. You don’t have to finish every book you start. Second, get into regular habit of writing for the rest of your life, no matter what your major is. Just try to form a regular relationship with writing, your thoughts, your words and your page. Writing seven minutes a day is better than nothing, nobody really has an extra hour to do it in.”
“Third, find some way to share something you’ve written. Find something that feels worth it to you, something you would like to make better. You’re not trying to prove anything, writing sometimes takes on a life of its own when you share it with someone,” said Nye.

Contact Greg at GJEichte1670@winona.edu