Glenna Berry-Horton, known professionally as Glenna Luschei, died April 16 in Newport Beach, California, at age 91.
She was born in Sioux City, Iowa, on Feb. 11, 1934. The oldest of four children growing up in Onawa, Iowa, she was a renowned musician, writer and equestrian. She attended the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa. She later earned a doctorate in Hispanic languages and literatures from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She was also awarded an honorary doctorate from St. Andrews University in Laurinburg, North Carolina.
Berry-Horton supported the arts through her generous philanthropy, endowing in perpetuity the Glenna Luschei Editorship of the Prairie Schooner literary journal, published by the University of Nebraska Press. She also endowed the Glenna Luschei African Poetry Prize, the only award in the world to recognize a significant book published each year by an African poet.
Berry-Horton served as the Poet Laureate of San Luis Obispo City and County and was a world-renowned poet. She published more than 35 books of poetry, including "30 Songs of Dissolution," "Back Into My Body," "Cartas al Norte," "Matriarch," "Pianos Around the Cape," "Salt Lick," "Shot with Eros," "The Sky is Shooting Blue Arrows," "Victory Garden" and "Zen Duende." She received a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and a D.H. Lawrence Fellowship for her poetry. She also founded the Solo Press and, for more than 50 years, published the poetry journal Café Solo. Berry-Horton supported generations of writers, including the Spanish poet Vicente Aleixandre, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1977. She translated the work of Spanish-speaking writers including Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Luis de Góngora y Argote and Tomás González.
She is survived by her children, Erich, Gabriela and Tom Luschei; her daughters-in law, Laurie Luschei and Yasmín Uribe-Luschei; her grandchildren, Danny, Ashleigh, Savannah, Linda and Andrew Luschei, and Alec Matthews; her sister, Connie Schnoor; her brothers, Steve and Tom Berry; and her stepdaughters, Kathy and Susan Horton and Theresa Duer. She was preceded in death by her husband, William (Bill) Horton, and her daughter Linda Luschei.
The family will celebrate her life in Carpinteria, California, on July 5. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the University of Nebraska Foundation. The Department of English wrote a tribute, available here. Condolences may be shared online.
