Author Jarret Keene is the 38th Annual Nevada Writers Hall of Fame inductee
Keene, along with poet Arian Katsimbras, were recognized by the University Libraries on Nov. 7.
When asked to reflect on his career after learning of his induction into the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame, Keene said that early on, from a very young age, he viewed writers as architects of imagination. He was fascinated by old TV show and comic book story credits.
“I’d watch the names that flashed by at the end of old TV shows and comic books, studying who created the stories I loved. I knew, for example, that Rod Serling was both a screenwriter and the visionary behind The Twilight Zone,” Keene said. “I recognized that Jack Kirby wasn’t just an artist but a world-builder—a storyteller with a pencil. That awareness—of writers as architects of imagination—never left me.”
Keene describes his books and stories as imaginative, excessive, and fun. He draws inspiration from the great American storytellers who combined intellect with wild imagination: Edgar Allan Poe, Ray Bradbury, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Shirley Jackson, Stan Lee, Leigh Brackett, Robert E. Howard, Flannery O’Connor, H.P. Lovecraft, Zane Grey, Louis L’Amour, and Mickey Spillane.
He is especially inspired by the pre-Internet era of science fiction and fantasy—those pulpy magazines, drive-in movies, and paperback adventures that sparked entire generations of dreamers.
Poet Arian Katsimbras received the 2025 Silver Pen Award.
Katsimbras said his journey as an author has always been shaped by place. He started writing in Nevada, and said no matter how far he travels, the state has remained the moral and emotional center of his work.
Drawing inspiration from lived experience, the unspoken codes of family, and the specter of the Nevada desert, Katsimbras uses music, film, and the rhythms of conversation to shape his lines. He finds inspiration in the small gestures of daily life and in the tension between landscape and interiority.
“The desert, the backlots, the long stretches of highway all taught me how silence works, how light can reveal and erase at the same time,” he said. “I began writing because I needed to understand the language of inheritance: how men in my family carried love wrongly and harm rightly, and how I might carry something different forward.”
Katsimbras’ work dwells in the fault lines between silence and survival, something he thinks is indelible about the mythology of the American West.
The Nevada Writers Hall of Fame was established in 1988 through the vision of Marilyn Melton, former President of the Friends of the University Libraries. Melton was interested in creating this distinguished Hall of Fame guided by two principal objectives. The first, to create an annual event that honors Nevada’s most distinguished literary figures. And, the second, to foster a culture of excellence among emerging writers throughout the Silver State.
Induction into the Hall of Fame is a prestigious recognition, awarded to individuals who have garnered commercial success and critical acclaim and demonstrate a meaningful connection to Nevada—either through writing themes or resident and community engagement. Their literary contributions consist of a substantial and high-quality body of work.
In 1996, Larry Struve founded the Silver Pen Award as an extension of the Hall of Fame’s mission. This award recognizes mid-career writers who reside in or write about Nevada and who have already achieved notable success for their work. It serves not only to honor the recipients’ talent but also to inspire continued excellence among both emerging and mid-career writers.
A redesign of the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame gallery
With a goal to draw more attention to the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame over the next five years, the Libraries Marketing Department along with Maggie Ressel, Assistant Dean of Special Projects, partnered to redesign the Marilyn R. Melton Nevada Writers Hall of Fame and Leslie Harvey and Robert George Whittemore Reception and Art Gallery spaces located on the first floor of the Mathewson-IGT Knowledge Center (MIKC). The team also worked to bring the exhibit to other floors of the MIKC, the second-floor atrium and breezeway for example.
The redesign included updating the large feature wall on the south end of the gallery, updating and replacing custom-designed vinyl clings on all of the glass cases in the gallery, creating a series of informational bubbles to educate passersby on the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame -- its members and their accomplishments, designing a micro exhibit on the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame silver medal award presented to inductees at the annual event that takes place in the Fall, laying out and installing large-format prints of past inductee’s broadsides, designing and installing custom posters for the 2025 honorees, assisting with the installation of the Sarah Winnemucca maquette, coordinating a short throw projector showcase tying the first floor Nevada Writers Hall of Fame exhibit to the second floor atrium short throw projector video presentation space, and designing and sharing a series of video board slides to bring the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame information to users traveling through the MIKC Breezeway on the second floor.
For the feature wall in the gallery, the team worked with a professional vendor to bring the Libraries’ design work to life. Over several months the team partnered to fabricate custom, white acrylic lettering, a large-scale high desert landscape image with spot gloss treatment, a two-layered blue and white acrylic state of Nevada-shaped informational panel, and larger-than-life replica of the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame silver medal. This feature wall serves as the anchor and inspiration for the look and feel of the entire gallery space.
To help educate guests visiting the space, the team designed a series of custom vinyl clings that are featured on the glass cases in the gallery. Each cling has a right and a left side. On the right side, the inductee’s bio can be read. On the left side, viewers are presented with a portrait of the inductee; they can see what a Nevada Writers Hall of Fame inductee looks like! Individuals featured on these cases in the gallery space represent a sampling of the depth and talent of those inducted into the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame.
In addition to the feature wall and the glass cases, the team designed a set of informational bubbles used to connect the periods of time between inductees featured on the glass cases in vinyl cling format. These informational bubbles vary in size and feature the names and years of other Nevada Writers Hall of Fame inductees as well as highlight Silver Pen winners. The bubbles also contain informational facts about the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame.
Sarah Winnemucca Maquette
In February 2025, the Libraries received a beautiful maquette, a sculptor's small preliminary model or sketch, entitled Sarah Winnemucca, which has been installed on the first floor of the Mathewson-IGT Knowledge Center (MIKC). The maquette can be seen in the Tower Entrance/ Whittemore Gallery, home of the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame.
Winnemucca was the 1993 Nevada Writers Hall of Fame Inductee. Her autobiography, “Life Among the Paiutes,” is thought to be the first book published by a Native American woman.
The maquette was a generous gift from Carole K. Anderson, in honor of Nora and Bruce James. The Jameses are supporters of the Libraries and founders of Special Collections and University Archives’ Bruce and Nora James Visiting Scholar Award for the Study of Nevada Politics and Public Service.
The maquette was the concept piece for the “Sarah Winnemucca” statue representing Nevada in the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center in Washington, D.C., with a replica in the Nevada State Capitol Building in Carson City.
In preparation for the statue's new home in the MIKC, the original artist Benjamin Victor, assisted by patineur Keith Silvas, restored the piece at Benjamin Victor Studios in Boise, Idaho. A custom pedestal was added by the Libraries.
Associate Dean Linda Kopecky coordinated the restoration and installation of the maquette alongside John Malinowski, manager of Library Operations, who oversaw the installation.
"This was my favorite project of 2025," Kopecky said. "Ben Victor was amazing to work with, and the already beautiful maquette is breathtaking after the restoration. The piece is a wonderful addition to the Libraries and showcases Sarah Winnemucca as a writer."