Shadd Piehl
Academic Dean - Rasmussen College
Cowboy Poet and Prairie Musician
Contact information:
shadd.piehl@rasmussen.edu
(701)202-0281

A fourth-generation North Dakotan and third-generation rodeo cowboy, Shadd Piehl grew up near the Mouse River south of Minot, North Dakota. He has been a ranch hand, stockyard bird, hog hide shaver, warehouse lumper, teacher, and rodeo cowboy. As a saddle bronc rider, he competed mostly through the Dakotas, Montana, Minnesota, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan in various amateur rodeo associations and the PRCA.
A graduate of Magic City High School, Minot; North Dakota State University, Fargo; and Minnesota State University—Moorhead, Minnesota; Shadd has taught English at Belcourt, North Dakota; Casselton, North Dakota; and is currently employed by Rasmussen College, Bismarck, ND.
He has attended Elko's National Cowboy Poetry Gathering as a featured poet three times and has also appeared at the annual Dakota Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Medora, North Dakota. In 2004 he was named an associate poet laureate by North Dakota State Poet Laureate Larry Woiwode. His poems have appeared in the anthologies Between Earth and Sky; Poets of the Cowboy West, Maverick Western Verse, and the magazines Aluminum Canoe, Pemmican, Red Weather, and Dry Crik Review. In 1999 he published a chapbook of poetry, Towards Horses, with Aluminum Canoe.
Shadd lives in Bismarck with his wife Marnie and sons Owen, Wyatt, and Ryder. He divides his free time among his family, his horse Blue, and rehearsals with his cowboy-poetry-folk band Frog Point Landing. He is the son of cowboy artist Walter Piehl. He also wishes to acknowledge the support of his mother Becky, brother Levi, and sisters Crystal and Cota.
A graduate of Magic City High School, Minot; North Dakota State University, Fargo; and Minnesota State University—Moorhead, Minnesota; Shadd has taught English at Belcourt, North Dakota; Casselton, North Dakota; and is currently employed by Rasmussen College, Bismarck, ND.
He has attended Elko's National Cowboy Poetry Gathering as a featured poet three times and has also appeared at the annual Dakota Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Medora, North Dakota. In 2004 he was named an associate poet laureate by North Dakota State Poet Laureate Larry Woiwode. His poems have appeared in the anthologies Between Earth and Sky; Poets of the Cowboy West, Maverick Western Verse, and the magazines Aluminum Canoe, Pemmican, Red Weather, and Dry Crik Review. In 1999 he published a chapbook of poetry, Towards Horses, with Aluminum Canoe.
Shadd lives in Bismarck with his wife Marnie and sons Owen, Wyatt, and Ryder. He divides his free time among his family, his horse Blue, and rehearsals with his cowboy-poetry-folk band Frog Point Landing. He is the son of cowboy artist Walter Piehl. He also wishes to acknowledge the support of his mother Becky, brother Levi, and sisters Crystal and Cota.