ADA, Okla. – East Central University professor, Dr. Ken Hada, has released his twelfth book, titled “Visions for the Night,” published by Turning Plow Press.

“Many of these poems were born in darkness,” said Hada. “My publisher keeps insisting that I’m a Neo-Romantic, and maybe he’s right.  I’m not sure, but Keats and those old Romantics did understand darkness. They saw light through the darkness, and unfortunately, at times, knew all too well the darkness poaching the light.”

“Visions for the Night” was released in April 2025 with a special preview presented by Hada at the 20th Anniversary of the Scissortail Creative Writing Festival on the ECU campus.

Turning Plow Press publisher, Paul Bowers, wrote in the book’s Foreword, “Ken Hada is a poet who comfortably rejects clear boundaries, although his work would seem filled with them: light and dark, the four seasons, beginnings and endings, youth and old age. But these are mostly offered as moments of transition, signaled by unexpected sights, sounds, whispers, songs—human or bird produced—that speak out of the coming light or coming darkness.”

Hada is in his 25th year as a professor for the Department of English and Literature at ECU.

He lives and writes in rural Pottawatomie County, Okla. His work has been recognized and awarded by the Western Writers of America, South Central Modern Language Association, The National Western Heritage Museum & Cowboy Hall of Fame, The Writer's Almanac and The Oklahoma Center for the Book.

In addition to his more than two decades of service to ECU, Hada has directed the Annual Scissortail Creative Writing Festival for 20 years.

For more information or to purchase “Visions for the Night” and Hada’s other publications, visit www.kenhada.org.

-ECU-