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A vast, barren landscape or a place of subtle natural beauty; the middle of nowhere or the gateway to the cultural and historical riches of the West; many things to many people and a cipher to many more--the great state of Nebraska is by force of circumstances a place of possibilities. What these possibilities are and what they promise are precisely what the writers of The Big Empty tell us.

Exploring the state from its rural reaches to its urban engines, from its marvelous ecosystems to its myriad historical and cultural offerings, these narratives evoke Nebraska in all its facets. Writers as diverse as Ron Hansen, Ted Kooser, Michael Anania, Bob Kerrey, Mary Pipher, Delphine Red Shirt, and William Kloefkorn, among many others, bring a wealth of perspectives and styles to topics such as the Oregon Trail and the Cheyenne Exodus, farming and Internet caf¿¿¿s, politics, weather, and family secrets. The result is a portrait whose broad strokes and rich detail capture the mysterious character of Nebraska.

Ladette Randolph is the editor-in-chief of Ploughshares magazine and is Distinguished Publisher-in-Residence at Emerson College. She is the award-winning author of A Sandhills Ballad (Nebraska, 2011), This Is Not the Tropics, and Leaving the Pink House, and editor of two anthologies, including A Different Plain: Contemporary Nebraska Fiction Writers. She is the recipient of the Pushcart Prize, a Rona Jaffe Foundation grant, four Nebraska Book Awards, and the Virginia Faulkner Award.

Nina Shevchuk-Murray, a former editorial assistant at the University of Nebraska Press, is a Ukrainian-born poet and translator whose work can be found in a number of literary magazines.

Contributors: Michael Anania, Ron Block, Alan Boye, Bob Gibson, Merrill Gilfillan, Ron Hansen, John Janovy Jr., Paul Johnsgard, Bryan Jones, Bob Kerrey, William Kloefkorn, Lisa Knopp, Ted Kooser, Kenneth Lincoln, Kem Luther, Mark Monroe, Mary Pipher, John Price, Delphine Red Shirt, Michael Rips, Bob Ross, Joe Starita, Ruth Thone, Jack Todd, Robert Vivian, Eamonn Wall, and Roger Welsch.