National Willa Cather Center News

October is American Archives Month, a time when archivists across the country focus on educating patrons and the general public about the value of archives. It’s easy to connect the archives to local history and, in our case, literary history, but the very idea of a centralized, publicly accessible archives is foundational to American ideas—after being ushered in by our revolutionary partners, the French. As we start to think about America250 next year, it's time to celebrate archives!

Willa Cather may not have been Richard Harris’s first choice for a 20th-century American novel seminar paper in 1971, but he’s been choosing her ever since. Harris recently joined the Cather Legacy Society. As he applauds the Foundation’s growing archival collection and preservation work, he shares his hopes that his future gift will support the continuation of events like the annual spring conference for the next generation.

The collections and archives at the National Willa Cather Center have always, since our founding, played a critical role in helping our visitors gain a deeper understanding of Willa Cather. Our museum's collections rotate through our historic sites, providing context and helping readers, teachers, and students to imagine the settings of Cather’s many works set in Red Cloud.

As students of all ages return to the classroom, we look back at some of Cather's best known essays.

The Humanities Internship at the National Willa Cather Center offers an experiential learning opportunity for an advanced undergraduate (completed at least forty credit hours) or a graduate student in the humanities at the University of Nebraska (UNL, UNK, or UNO). It is funded through a collaboration between the University of Nebraska and the National Willa Cather Center.

The National Willa Cather Center is pleased to announce members of the third cohort of writers of the Willa Cather Writers Residency in Red Cloud, Nebraska. The cohort of five women writers will gather October 5-19, 2025. The Willa Cather Residency aims to inspire new work by emergent writers. 

About the Residency

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Ask Loren Johnson’s former students what he was like as a teacher and they won’t mince words—he was tough. But they also describe in the same breath Johnson’s kindness and compassion. In fact, Johnson cared so deeply about others that he rarely shared much about his own life and passions. It wasn’t until Johnson’s death in September 2023 at the age of 79 that former students Bryan Harman and Gred Pedroza learned that their best friend had quietly bequeathed his entire estate to three separate non-profit organizations, one of them being the Willa Cather Foundation.

RED CLOUD, NE—The National Willa Cather Center celebrated the long-awaited soft opening of Hotel Garber on Friday, April 4. More than one hundred people gathered for celebratory remarks, a ribbon-cutting, open house, and self-guided tours. The occasion bookended more than eight years of planning, fundraising, and construction that helped rehabilitate an empty historic commercial building into a boutique hotel and event center.

Visual Antithesis: An Exhibition by Daniel Garringer is featured in our Red Cloud Opera House Gallery through May 10. We recently spoke with Garringer, an artist from Kearney, Nebraska, about his artistic process and inspirations.