For Missouri State University English professor Dr. Jane Hoogestraat, home is not just where the heart is. It’s also the motivation behind her award-winning book of poetry.

In December, Hoogestraat released “Border States,” a 72-page poetry collection that was inspired by her experiences growing up in rural South Dakota. The book was published as a winner of the John Ciardi Prize for Poetry by BkMk Press, a University of Missouri-Kansas City press. Hoogestraat also received a $1,000 award.

“I’ve been writing poetry for a number of years, and I discovered more and more that I was writing about cultural geography,” Hoogestraat said. “That’s how the landscape and culture of a place influences people in ways that they’re not even always aware of.

“I discovered a few years ago that I had enough poems that were place-based, so I started working to put them together in a collection.”

Specifically, Hoogestraat wrote about places that many people never get to experience, she said.

“I grew up in South Dakota, and while I didn’t grow up on a farm, both of my parents grew up on farms,” she said. “I’m interested in writing about that landscape, and I think particularly that it’s a landscape that not a lot of people get to see.”

The compilation won the Ciardi Prize after being selected by Luis J. Rodriguez, the official poet laureate of Los Angeles. Hoogestraat painted a picture with her words, he said.

“The people, the soil, the tumultuous skies are unforgettable, as are these poems, and that’s the most important aspect of language in verse – the way it makes you feel and think,” Rodriguez said.

“Border States” can be purchased at BkMk Press or Amazon.

Hoogestraat specializes in 20th and 21st Century poetry and literary theory and has had work appear in publications such as The Southern Review, Crab Orchard Review and Mars Hill Review. She has published two chapbooks and coedited “Time, Memory and the Verbal Arts: Essays on the Thought of Walter Ong.”

For more information, contact Hoogestraat at (417) 836-6613.

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