Welcome To One Book, One State My Ántonia

---

INTRODUCTION TO ONE BOOK/ONE STATE: READING MY ÁNTONIA

The Cather Foundation is pleased to help initiate the first One Book/One State project in Nebraska. My Ántonia by Willa Cather is an excellent choice for the first state reading project. It is an exceptionally successful novel, so successful, in fact, that the book was chosen by the city of Chicago in 2002 for their One Book/One City project. In addition, it is a Nebraska book by a Nebraska author. It details the history of homesteading and the making of community in Nebraska; however, it transcends Nebraska to become a story of the making of communities all across America. Thus it is a book that citizens throughout the nation have come to cherish. It truly is a book that all Nebraskans should read, discuss in community settings, and enjoy. This novel employs the art of storytelling and the stories are about us; these stories provide a glimpse into our past and are guideposts to our future.

In My Ántonia, Willa Cather affirms that memory (in the form of stories) is one of the “materials out of which countries are made.” Cather suggests through her emphasis on stories that these memories are, in fact, central building blocks to forming a civilization and that the store of memories must be common to the body of people who inhabit a country. Further she proposes that these stories need to be passed on from generation to generation as building blocks for the future. Memories in the form of literature, indeed, do not come in the form of time-lines, dates, and facts; they come instead in the form of human experiences told in the context of storytelling.

These ideas are central to the activities of the One Book/One State: My Ántonia project and to the 50th Anniversary of the Cather Foundation to be celebrated at the Spring Festival on April 29-30, 2005, to be held at the Cather Center in Red Cloud, Nebraska. This conference may, in fact, play an additional role in providing a venue for those reading My Ántonia to gather additional information about the book and participate in the celebration of Willa Cather, the Foundation, and the novel.

AN INVITATION
Back to top

The Cather Foundation extends an open invitation to those reading My Ántonia and participating in the One Book One State Nebraska Reads My Ántonia project to come to Red Cloud, Nebraska, for the Annual Spring Festival on April 29-30, 2005, to take part in discussions and learn more about My Ántonia from interested readers and Cather scholars throughout the country.

Those wishing to participate in the 2005 Spring Festival in Red Cloud should contact the Cather Foundation at 1-866-731-7304.

Check this website often for more details about the One Book One State project and the upcoming 2005 Spring Festival.

Betty Kort
Cather Foundation
Executive Director

Governor's Proclamation
Back to top

Governor Johanns urges all citizens of Nebraska to read My Ántonia. View the proclamation.

Press Release
Back to top

Read the September 22 press release here.

Promotional Materials
Back to top

Please download this logo and place on all materials you send and/or hand out for One Book One State events.
Logo 2" x 3" in pdf format

Please download this 8 1/2 x 11 image and use to advertise the One Book One State Read My Ántonia event.
Poster 8 1/2" x 11" in pdf format (1.6 Mb)

Right click the link and select "save as".

For other promotional items, visit the One Book One State Gift Shop.