Cowboy Poetry- By Folks that Ride Horses

Our poets for this show all spend time in the saddle. A former champion bull rider, the recipient of the 2020 Working Cowboy Award, the Director of the Stockyard Museum in Ft. Worth – they all live the life they write and speak about.

Joel Nelson is highly respected in the world of cowboy poetry and recitation. He has appeared in many major cowboy poetry festivals, including the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering and the Texas Cowboy Poetry Gathering, which he co-founded. A Vietnam veteran and former custom saddle maker, and Joel is an excellent horse trainer. He lives and works with his wife on their 24,000-acre ranch outside Alpine, Texas, where they raise Angus cattle. Joel was awarded a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2009. The NEA National Heritage Fellowships is the nation's highest honor in folk and traditional arts. Each year since 1982, the program recognizes recipients' artistic excellence, lifetime achievement, and contributions to our nation's traditional arts heritage. In 2020 Joel Nelson received the Working Cowboy Award from The Ranching Heritage Association that sponsors the awards on an annual basis to honor a working cowboy who is skilled in all aspects of ranch work and is respected by the ranch crew and Ranching community.

Jay Snider is a poet and recording artist born and raised in a ranching and rodeo family in southwestern Oklahoma. He is currently Oklahoma’s poet laureate and will serve through 2024. Snider is a frequent contributor to programs presented by the Chisholm Trail Heritage Center & Garis Gallery of the American West in Duncan, Oklahoma, and other museums and cultural centers across the state. Among the national and regional events featuring Snider, he has appeared at the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Nevada, the Texas Cowboy Poetry Gathering, the Arizona Cowboy Poets Gathering, and the Cochise Cowboy Poetry and Music Gathering. In 2006, Snider earned Cowboy Poetry Recording of the Year from the Academy of Western Artists for his album Of Horses and Men. In 2008, he was recognized as Cowboy Poet of the Year by the Academy of Western Artists. His latest album, The Old Tried and True, is a compilation of his favorite poems written by cowboy poets of the past.

Teresa Burleson is an award-winning poet whose poems are inspired by her personal experiences, her heritage and the Western way of life. Teresa's zest for life is evident in her poetry as well as her ability to make people laugh and touch their lives. With a clear, soft Texas drawl and a voice that Waddie Mitchell once declared was "like silk”, her poetry is beautiful, soulful and aimed straight for the western heart or the funny bone, as she tells of drought, rain, faith, legacy, horses, calving, and all the joys and hazards in life. Her passion for her Western Heritage is also how she makes her living. Her position as Director of the Stockyards Museum, in the historic Fort Worth Stockyards, allows her the opportunity to promote and perpetuate the local history and that of the historic cattle drives that passed through Fort Worth. She is honored to be voted the Western Music Association, 2019 and 2017 Female Poet of the Year and her CD, The Calf Book, was named 2017 Poetry CD of the Year. In 2010 she was awarded the Cowgirl Poet of the Year by the Academy of Western Artists.