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| 2013 Spring Conference |
 "We come and go, but the land is always here. And the people who love it and understand it are the people who own it - for a little while." These words ring as true today as they did the day Cather penned them, 100 years ago. Our spring conference will celebrate the centennial of Cather's breakthrough novel O Pioneers! in which she "hit the home pasture." The novel celebrates the transformation of the American prairies by European settlers and marks Cather's emergence as a major novelist. Two contemporary American creative artists, Dan O'Brien, rancher and author of Buffalo for the Broken Heart, and filmmaker Charles Fairbanks will talk about how Cather's novel and the Great Plains have inspired their own work. Cather scholars will explore O Pioneers!, Cather's relationship with her mentor Sarah Orne Jewett (to whom Cather dedicated the the novel), and Cather's letters, a selected volume of which is being published this year. Rowdy string-band MAW will entertain in the Opera House, and award-winning cowboy poet, storyteller, and celebrity chuckwagon cook Kent Rollins will serve dinner on the Cather Prairie. 58th annual Willa Cather Spring Conference "Fortunate Country": O Pioneers! and the Prairie Homestead's Legacy May 30-June 1, 2013 Red Cloud, Nebraska CLICK HERE TO REGISTER!CATHER CONFERENCE ANNOUNCES CONFERENCE LINE-UP
Author, Filmmaker, and TV Chuckwagon Cook to Appear Award-winning Great Plains author Dan O'Brien (Buffalo for the Broken Heart), Nebraska filmmaker Charles Fairbanks, and cowboy entertainer and chuckwagon cook Kent Rollins will headline the 58th annual Spring Conference at the Willa Cather Foundation in Red Cloud, Nebraska. The Spring Conference features arts and humanities programs related to the life and writings of Willa Cather. "2013 marks the 100th publication anniversary of O Pioneers!," says Tracy Tucker, Education Director of the Willa Cather Foundation. "The novel documents the way homesteading transformed the prairies, and the conference has evolved out of looking at ways we continue to grapple with the cultural legacy of the Great Plains." This year's conference, directed by Dr. Melissa Homestead of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, also features a Museum of Nebraska Art exhibit of Solomon Butcher's pioneer photographs, original bluegrass by MAW, of Lawrence, Kansas, and a gallery exhibit, Inspired by O Pioneers! A chuck wagon dinner will be served on the prairie, which will also be the location for the inaugural Willa Cather Wildflower Walk. Bluegrass group MAW will perform in the Red Cloud Opera House, and Cather scholars will also be on hand to discuss the publication of O Pioneers!, a new volume of Cather letters, and the new virtual cather website, www.virtualcather.org. Dan O'Brien is the author of the nonfiction Buffalo for the Broken Heart, as well as the novels Stolen Horses, The Contract Surgeon, and The Indian Agent. Dan is a two-time winner of the National Endowment for the Arts individual artist's grant, and a two time winner of the Western Heritage Award. He is owner of Cheyenne River Ranch and Wild Idea Buffalo Company. Charles Fairbanks grew up in rural Nebraska and studied at Stanford and the University of Michigan. In 2010 Fairbanks was chosen by Werner Herzog for the first Rogue Film School. Fairbanks is currently a Guggenheim Fellow and assistant professor of media arts at Antioch College. His short film "Pioneers" will be featured at the conference. Kent Rollins, cowboy entertainer and chuckwagon cook, and his wife Shannon travel the country with a restored 1876 Studebaker wagon. Kent is the Official Chuck Wagon Cook of Oklahoma and winner of the Will Rogers Award for Chuck Wagon of the Year. Recent television appearances include Food Network's Throwdown with Bobby Flay and Chopped: Grill Masters. MAW is a Lawrence, Kansas, all-woman string band formed in 2006. They perform traditional and original songs have released two CDs, Advice for the Young and Foolish and Pit of Desire. Conference ScheduleMay 30, 2013 6:30 pm: Taste of the Prairie-Local wine and buffalo pairings with Dominic Burke, Superior Estates Winery, and Dan and Jill O'Brien of Wild Idea Buffalo Company (separate ticket required). Event to be held at Superior Estates Winery, 200 W 15th St, Superior, Nebraska. May 31, 2013 8 am-5 pm: Registration and Coffee Alternate tours (9:00 & 1:00 Town, 10:30 & 2:30 Country) Inspired by O Pioneers! Exhibit-Gallery 9:30 am: Welcome-Auditorium 9:45 am: Antonette Turner and Norma Ross Walter Scholarships, presentation of scholarship essays and O Pioneers! essay contest winners 12:00 pm: Lunch on your own 1:30 pm: O Pioneers! Hallmark Hall of Fame movie-Auditorium 4:00 pm: Keynote Address: Dan O'Brien-Auditorium 5:30 pm: Inspired by O Pioneers! artists reception-Gallery 6:30 pm: Dinner on your own 7:30 pm: Original bluegrass music with MAW-Auditorium Note: Friday lunch and dinner available at the Starke Round Barn Historic Site. Reservations: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it (by May 24) or 402-746-4165 June 1, 2013 7:30-10 am: Kolache and coffee 8am-5pm: Registration Alternate tours (9:00 & 1:00 Town, 10:30 & 2:30 Country) Inspired by O Pioneers! Exhibit-Gallery 8:30 am: Church service-Grace Episcopal, Reverend Charles Peek 10:00 am: "The Passing Show" with Melissa Homestead, Ann Romines, Elizabeth McLeod Walls, Susanne George Bloomfield, and Janis Stout 12:00 pm: Authentic Scandinavian luncheon-Gallery 1:15 pm: "Pioneers" with Charles Fairbanks-Auditorium 2:45 pm: Readings from The Selected Letters of Willa Cather with Steve Shively, Ann Romines, Melissa Homestead, Andrew Jewell, and Nancy Sherwood-Cather sites 5:30 pm: Book signing & reception with Andrew Jewell and Janis Stout, co-editors of The Selected Letters of Willa Cather-Gallery 6:30 pm: Chuck wagon dinner with Kent Rollins-Cather Prairie
THE SPRING CONFERNCE IS MADE POSSIBLE THROUGH THE SUPPORT OF:
Humanities Nebraska Nebraska Arts Council Nebraska Cultural Endowment A SPECIAL THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING 2013 CONFERENCE SPONSORS! NOVELLA WRITERS' ESSAYISTS CONFERENCE DONORS  |
