
Our Board

Charlene Pierce
President
Charlene founded the Nebraska Poetry Society to make poetry accessible to all. It is an essential mission to her as one with a disability who overcame poverty. Her work has been published in Misbehaving Nebraskans, The Good Life Review, 805 Lit, Quarter(ly), The Gilded Weathervane, Orange Juice and others. She is a Copyeditor for Raleigh Review and published The Poet's Journal: A Beginner's Workbook for Writing Poetry. She received a scholarship to the Pacific University MFA program, graduating in Jan 2026. By day, she is a freelance writer appearing on websites and blogs across the country and local magazines.

Brandy Prettyman
Vice President
Brandy is the author of "Forbidden Fruit: Poems of Love, Loss, Hope, and Regret". A professional jack-of-all-trades, she earned a Bachelor in Business Administration and has spent the last decade (maybe it’s longer, but let’s not make this awkward) writing poetry that explores the dark emotions we face when confronted by our own morality and mortality. Brandy lives in Papillion, Nebraska, and like to spend her spare time traveling the world with her trusty four-legged sidekick Mary Puppins. Most days she can be found drinking a large latte at her desk, frantically writing her thoughts down in verse before they disappear.

Julie Haase
Treasurer
Julie is a freelance editor and writer and the Business and Publishing Manager for The Writer’s Ally, an editing and self-publishing services company. Julie has published in various Nebraska anthologies and The First Line as well as self-published a guide for narrative writers called Tips & Tricks for Great (Narrative) Writing. Julie is also the Publications Chair for the Nebraska Writers Guild. She lives in Omaha and is a proud cat mama.

Amy Haddad
Secretary
Amy Haddad is a poet, nurse and educator who taught in the health sciences at Creighton University where she is now a Professor Emerita. Her poetry and short stories have been published in Janus Head, Journal of Medical Humanities, Touch, Bellevue Literary Review, Pulse, Persimmon Tree, Annals of Internal Medicine, Aji Magazine, DASH, Oberon Poetry Magazine, and Rogue Agent. Her chapbook, The Geography of Kitchens, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2021. Her poetry collection, An Otherwise Healthy Woman, was published by Backwaters Press, in March, 2022. The collection won first place in the Creative Works category of the American Journal of Nursing 2022 Books of the Year Awards.

Nathan Lachner
Performance Poetry Chair
@TracesofaHeadspace
Nathan is a spoken word poet and storyteller with over a decade of writing experience. He's performed in several gallery shows at Ming Toy Gallery in Benson, is a regular competitor at the Omaha Poetry Slam, and most recently was one of the featured artists at Jewel Rodgers' poet showcase in Omaha. To his writing, Nathan brings an eclectic wealth of knowledge and experiences, drawing from his degree in physics, his passion for communication, and his love of community. In sharing his work, he hopes that he can give people something they're missing, even if in the tiniest of ways. It's those impacts, small though they may be, that sustain him as a creator.
Our Committees

Esman Rodas Calderon
Performance Poetry Committee
@thevarietyshow_
Esman Rodas Calderon received his Bachelor’s in Music Education from the University of Nebraska - Lincoln in August 2022 with an emphasis in Euphonium. In his third year, he teaches at both the high school and elementary school level teaching a variety of band classes in Lincoln Public Schools.
For poetry, he has been in the Nebraska community for about a year. He has competed at slams at the national level in 2023, and won slams both in Nebraska and Iowa.

Michael Meissner
Performance Poetry Committee
@Axiosyncracy
Michael, lesser known by the pen name Axiosyncracy, is a Nebraskan poet, a faithful participant in Omaha open mics, and a patron of local arts. In addition to poetry, he dabbles in creative fiction writing and promises his therapist to journal more. Though it be but little, Michael's corpus displays his focus on depth and intimacy of meaning over volume.

Jules Coral
Performance Poetry Committee
@JulesCoral
Jules Coral is a spoken word poet hoping to inspire positive change in the world around him. Jules’s pieces often challenge the theme of identity, giving his audience a chance to process the world through his various perspectives and experiences as a transgender man. His passion stems from discovering ways to express what initially seems undefinable. Jules is currently a Teaching Artist for the Nebraska Writers Collective, and a member of the Nebraska Poetry Society’s Performance Committee.

Angélica Perez
Performance Poetry Committee
@what_the_geli
Angélica Perez is a Mexican-American poet and teaching artist based out of Omaha. Perez helps run the monthly Omaha poetry slam for Nebraska Writers Collective and leads poetry workshops wherever they’ll have her. A fellow of the Naturalist School, Perez can often be found up a tree or in the mud. There she explores the creativity of ecology through tree planting workshops, biological surveys, and plenty of poetry breaks. She is an avid collector of books, bruises, and bug bites.

Sam Nichols
Performance Poetry Committee
@samuel_lynn17
Sam is a Nebraskan poet who believes in the community-building power of written and spoken word. Involved in the slam scene since high school, he hopes to continue celebrating performance art, expanding stage and workshop spaces, and uplifting queer and trans voices. In their off-time, Sam can be found curled up with their cats or hiking by the river.

Hannah Johnson
Performance Poetry Committee
@han.nah.j23
Hannah is a Lincoln native who found her love of poetry through the high school slam program in 2015 and represented her school through graduation in 2019.
She represented Nebraska at the BlackBerry Peach National Poetry Slam Competition in 2023, placing 18th in the country.
She is now a college senior at UNL, graduating in May with a degree in Psychology and a focus in Music. Looking forward, she will compete for Miss Nebraska in June 2024.
