LuAnn Keener-Mikenas

LuAnn Keener-Mikenas, 72, of Madison Heights, Virginia, passed away on Monday, June 15, 2026. She was born on May 22, 1954, to the late Thomas Clayton Keener and Mary Helen Parker Keener. She lived in Virginia with her husband, Ed Mikenas, a professional musician.

LuAnn was a writer and poet born in 1954, a native of Texas. She earned an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville. She won the 2014 Library of Virginia Award for her poetry collection, Homeland, and a 1990 Virginia Prize for the manuscript of her first collection, Color Documentary. Her work has also appeared in numerous journals such as Poetry, Shenandoah, Quarterly West, Chelsea, New Orleans Review, and Louisiana Literature, along with several anthologies and even a textbook. Her other honors include the Writers at Work Prize for Poetry from Quarterly West, Chelsea’s 1st Place Award for Poetry, the Mary Roberts Rinehart Award for Poetry, and the Americas Review Prize for Poetry, as well as fellowships at MacDowell and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Keener’s poetry has been increasingly concerned with the environmental crisis and the relationship between human beings and the natural world. She taught English at Virginia Tech, worked intensively with children, adolescents, adults and families as an in-patient therapist at Lewis-Gale Center for Behavioral Health and at Bridges Child and Adolescent Treatment Center. She was a member of the counseling staff at Randolph College since 2005 and served as a member of the Centra Hospice social work team since 2010.

Her first collection of poems, Color Documentary, was published by Calyx Books last November; it received a 1990 Virginia Prize, and a chapbook selection under the same title was published by Troika Press in spring 1992. Poems from Homeland, a second manuscript which is currently under consideration, won the Mary Roberts Rinehart Award in Poetry, the 1992 Writers at Work Award, and the 1992 Chelsea Award. Her work has appeared in Nimrod, Chelsea, and numerous others.

Her early career as a college instructor fueled her desire to work with young adults on emotional and psychological issues. She completed a master’s in social work at Virginia Commonwealth University in 1996. A creative artist and published poet, she had a life-long interest in optimizing individual potential and interpersonal relationships. She encouraged creative and spiritual self-exploration as foundational to growth in all areas.

In addition to her loving husband, Edward E. Mikenas; those left to cherish her memory are her son, Luke Thomas Stewart; granddaughter, Amelia Stewart; brother, James Parker McComas; stepson, Russell Edward Mikenas; stepdaughter, Lydia Halley Mikenas Katz (Jordan); nieces and nephews, Sally Anna McComas Horton and Zoey, Chad Baker and Samantha McComas-Baker with their children, Andy and Jupiter, Vikki and Mike Millhollon and their son Kevin Millhollon; Chance Woodard and Lauren Woodard with their children, Chesney Land and Mayson, Caycee, Layla, and Lucy Woodard; cousins, Betsy Parker Sterkel and Terry Sterkel Bonham; Dana Parker Nix and Charlie Nix Bonham, along with life-long friends, writers, and support group collectively known as “The Four Winds” which are Simone Poirier-Bures, Gyorgyi Voros, Lisa Norris, and our beloved LuAnn Keener Mikenas.

Please enjoy the awesomeness of Luann by visiting the below links.

http://www.luannkeener-mikenas.org/

https://authormark.com/artman2/publish/Innisfree_12_27LUANN_KEENER-MIKENAS.shtml

https://www.macdowell.org/artists/lu-ann-keener

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Service details are forthcoming.

Tharp Funeral Home & Crematory, Madison Heights is assisting the family.