Marilyn June
Coffey
Marilyn June Coffey, a Nebraska native, lived for 30 years in New York City. While there, her controversial novel Marcella broke a world record for frankness and her wry poem “Pricksong” won a national prize.
Now an internationally published author, Coffey lives in Omaha with a feisty orange cat and an undisciplined garden. She writes history books. Atlantic featured her Great Plains Patchwork on its cover and again on-line. Amazon and Kindle named Coffey’s Mail-Order Kid best sellers. Amazon called her Thieves, Rascals & Sore Losers a best history book. Coffey’s latest—That Punk Jimmy Hoffa!—details her trucker father’s clash with the Teamsters.
The Battle of Orleans
An Illustrated Documentary of the Marcella Marathon
Marilyn Coffey and Renae Taylor, co-directors of the controversial Marcella Marathon and Art Walk in Orleans, Nebraska, have pooled efforts again to publish this documentary of the event. Coffey, editor of The Battle of Orleans and author of Marcella, is also an essayist and a national award-winning poet. The author is considered “the most serious and authentic” of today’s Nebraska women writers because of her risk-taking fiction which probes “deep deep into human sexual psychology.” Coffey’s papers are currently being collected by the University of Nebraska–Lincoln Library Archives.
Taylor, whose painting, “State of the Arts” graces the cover of The Battle of Orleans, is a national award-winning artist whose works have been exhibited in more than twenty-five galleries in nine states, including Utah, Colorado, Texas, Alabama, and Washington D.C. Known for her fluid, intuitive paintings, Taylor turns to satire to express her feelings about the Marathon.
praise for
the Battle of Orleans
"The UNL Love Library, which has collected Marilyn Coffey's works since 1987, is unveiling a display that focuses on that happened in Orleans. Two copies of Marcella will be under glass.
"We are displaying Coffey’s Marcella Marathon materials not only because it is timely, but also because Coffey is a very important Nebraska scholar and researcher who right now, is on the cutting edge of literature.
"She is an artist who carefully documents her metamorphosis, so we are able to demonstrate her continuing artistry in the face of her community’s close-mindedness. We hope this exhibit induces truth, not suppression."
Lynn Beideck-Porn
UNL Archives