Surrender Dorothy’s earliest poems were born out of a desire to understand the author's place within the larger context of the Midwest and Kansas, and—thinking beyond borders—the Plains ecoregion.
From the author:
What does it mean to be a child of this particular area, filled as it is with ancient prairie land, its cultural associations, folks espousing “Midwestern Nice,” so much overlooked native wildlife, and acres upon acres of Big Agriculture? I found myself drawn to Wizard of Oz characters as a case study, they being so recognizable to people both inside and outside the region. There were layers of privilege to peel back, along with all of the backyards and pastures I’d come to know since my youth, and moments of thinking deeply about my ancestors (animal, plant, and otherwise) and their relationship with the same land. I needed to know more about that past so I could better understand my present, if we can ever locate such a thing.
My goal as a writer is to faithfully represent the voices and characters and narratives of a particular area. That representation can manifest in any number of ways, and so much of Surrender Dorothy arose within a surrealist vein since its messages related to climate change and apathy have nowhere else to turn. The poems are often dark and stark, but I think I achieved what I set out to do over the course of the poems being written.
About the Poetry of the Plains & Prairies Award:
Every January 17 through March 17, NDSU Press accepts chapbook-length poetry collections about life on the plains and prairies or North America. Surrender Dorothy is the seventh winner of our annual award. The winning collection is copyedited and letterpress printed by the Introduction to Publishing class at North Dakota State University. Each chapbook is hand-assembled and individually numbered. Each POPP Award chapbook is a unique, limited-edition publication.
POPP Award winners to date are:
- 2022 Surrender Dorothy, by Brett Salsbury (Nevada)
- 2021 Prairie Madness, by Katherine Hoerth (Nebraska)
- 2020 A Muddy Kind of Love, by Carolyn A. Dahl (Texas)
- 2019 Harvest Widows, by Nick Bertelson (Iowa)
- 2018 Destiny Manifested, by Bonnie Larson Staiger (North Dakota)
- 2017 Thunderbird, by Denise Lajimodiere (North Dakota)
- 2016 Land of Sunlit Ice, by Larry Woiwode (North Dakota)
