CHARLES PEEK is the author of the chapbook Where We’ve Managed Somehow to Be (WSC Press, 2014); Breezes on Their Way to Being Winds (Finishing Line Press, 2015), which was selected for Talking Books and received the 2016 Nebraska Book Award for Poetry; and Nebraska—Conflicting Reports (Prairie Art Brothers, 2020). He is also the editor of “Until There Are No Words Left”: Nebraska Poets Writing Amidst the Storm (Prairie Art Brothers, 2025). One of his poems appeared in Ted Kooser’s “This American Life in Poetry” in 2017. He has been invited to read in Nebraska, Colorado, Illinois, Wisconsin, Maine, Vermont (Breadloaf), Mississippi, Missouri, China, Spain, Italy, and France. He led the Heartland Emmy Award-winning program “Prayers for the People: Carl Sandburg’s Poetry and Songs” and acted on several stages for local theater groups and performance centers.

Professor Emeritus at the University of Nebraska Kearney, Fulbright Scholar (China 2005, 2008), and recipient of the Nebraska Center for the Book’s Mildred Bennett Award for fostering the literary arts, Peek has been active in delivering presentations for the Willa Cather Foundation, on whose board he served as President. He also has interests in Faulkner, Hemingway, and the Harlem Renaissance.

Peek has enjoyed the honor of serving on the last three Nebraska State Poet selection committees, has frequently been invited to read at the Buffalo Commons Storytelling and Music Festival as well as at the Kearney Storytelling Festival, and continues to teach for Senior College of Central Nebraska. His monthly blog is found at CaPeek.WordPress.com.