The theme of this year's conference is "Willa Cather and Her Popular Culture," and, in addition to discussions about Cather's relationship with the mass culture of her day, we will have various performances and a film recalling the popular entertainment of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century. Special attention will be paid to Cather's journalism (as a student, she reigned as a "meat-ax" critic in the Lincoln newspaper) and to her book of short stories, Youth and the Bright Medusa, which features several stories about celebrities and artists.