Two minutes

Iowa's Poet Laureate

Mary Swander loves Iowa. The fourth-generation Iowan has written poems and non-fiction books about Iowa's culture, landscape and natural history; co-authored the musical "Dear Iowa;" and led her students in creating a play about Iowa's rural, agricultural issues. Her knowledge of the state, and experiences writing about it, led Gov. Chet Culver to appoint her as Iowa's Poet Laureate in February.

An award-winning author: A Distinguished Professor of English, Swander is an internationally known author of non-fiction, poetry, drama and journalism. Her work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, USA Today and on National Public Radio. She has received a Whiting Award, a National Endowment for the Arts grant, and two Ingram Merrill awards.

Creating a rural Iowa Farmscape: In addition to work as Poet Laureate, Swander is touring the country with the Reader's Theatre production of Farmscape -- a nonfiction play written by some of her ISU students. Townspeople perform the docudrama, which explores the state's changing farmscapes through the eyes of real-life Iowans, who were interviewed for the play. Iowa State's Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture provided grant money for Farmscape performances outside of campus.

New literacy initiatives: The co-founder of Agarts -- a national group that explores the intersection of the arts and agriculture -- Swander is developing a Web site, The Iowa Literary Community, where anyone with an Iowa connection can post poetry and other pieces of writing. She has also created "Patient Voices Project," a free, online creative writing course for disabled persons. The six-week summer course, funded by Johnson & Johnson, is led by one of Swander's graduate students.

-- Laura Engelson and Mike Ferlazzo

Mary Swander reads from "Crazy Eddy on the Judgement Day" in her new book "The Girls on the Roof." The book is set along the Mississippi River during the floods of 1993.