Hilda Raz, editor of the “Prairie Schooner”
By Henry Battistoni
Staff Reporter
Sitting in her office overlooking
Morrill Hall, Hilda Raz, editor of the
"Prairie Schooner,” said she has
been a writer all her life, but just
recently a published writer.
Raz said she mainly had been
concerned with publishing others’
work.
"We write to be read,” she said.
"You can’t write to publish."
Raz didn’t consider publishing
her work until students at a writer’s
conference asked to see her work.
They gave her assurance that the
quality of her work was publish
aole, she said.
Raz was influenced by a record
that was given to her when she was
12 years old. It had selections of
poetry read by the authors. The
poems of Elizabeth Brown and
Dylan Thomas especially capti
vated her, she said. She said she
was moved by the writers’ voices.
Raz said that the best way to im
prove one’s writing is to read.
“Reading, reading, reading is
the single most important thing a
writer can do,” she said.
Raz has two poetry collections
in print. “What is Good” was re
leased last year and "The Bone
Dish” was just printed. Raz said
that "The Bone Dish” is about
questions teachers ask. The collec
tion shows sensitivity to the people
and land of Nebraska.
Raz’s writing is in the critical
realm as well as the poetic. She has
published critical essays in
“Hollin’s Critic,” “Denver Quar
terly" and soon the "Literary Re
view” and "American Book Re
view.”
Raz said she is interested in
Third World writers and transla
tions. She said she is especially
interested in Chinese writers.
On June 2, she was scheduled to
visit China with a group of editors
and publishers. The Chinese gov
ernment’s massacre of its citizens
ended the trip. A special "Prairie
Schooner” edition on Chinese writ
ers is tentativ< 'y planned for 1990.
Besides pursuing her writing,
Raz is in her second year of editing
the University of Nebraska-Lin
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