Event Archives

Tracy Tucker, director of collections and curation at the National Willa Cather Center, will present this program about the fascinating person on whom Willa Cather based her character of Blind d'Arnault in My Ántonia.

Free and open to the public.

The Kilbanes (Kate Kilbane and Dan Moses) are a married composing and performing team and recipients of the 2024 Jonathan Larson Grant. Their rock musical Weightless (WP Theater, A.C.T., Public Theater’s Under the Radar) was nominated for Lucille Lortel (Best Musical), Drama Desk (Best Music), and Off-Broadway Alliance (Best New Musical) awards in 2023.

Join us for an engaging panel discussion with three scholars who will discuss architectural and interior styles, powerful landscapes, and domestic scenes that all feature prominently in Cather’s writings. These important backdrops to her novels were illuminated through her gift for idyllic description and acute observation. Join Claire Schmidt, Steve Tamayo, and Nathan Tye for this popular and perennial event that further explores our annual conference theme.

Join Peter Cipkowski for a conversation with Kate Kilbane and Dan Moses of The Kilbanes, the acclaimed musical duo currently adapting Willa Cather's My Ántonia into an original stage musical. Commissioned by Theater Latté Da in Minneapolis, their adaptation reimagines Cather's masterpiece through their distinctive blend of storytelling and music. The panel will explore the Kilbanes' creative process, their decision to bring My Ántonia to the stage, and how their musical style shapes the emotional and narrative contours of the work.

We are delighted to welcome Pulitzer Prize winner Jane Smiley! Her talk on "Willa Cather, My Ántonia and the Life of a Writer" will mark the conclusion of a year-long celebration of Cather's 1918 novel as a title selected by the National Endowment for the Arts' 2024-2025 Big Read program. Join us in the bookstore following the event for a book signing. 

The talk will be broadcast live on YouTube and a recording will be available for 2 weeks after the event.

The Ollie Webb Center, Inc.'s Art of Imagination program, in collaboration with University of Nebraska Omaha professor and screenwriter Todd Richardson, has created two short films based on excerpts from two Willa Cather novels.

The first film, “Tom Outland's Story,“ is from Cather’s novel The Professor‘s House and is about discovering an ancient cliff city. The other is excerpted from My Ántonia. This film chronicles the difficulties living through Nebraska winters in the 19th century.

This event is weather-permitting and depends on partly cloudy or clear skies.

Join author and tour guide Garrett Peck as he leads a special stargazing program at the Willa Cather Memorial Prairie for our second year! As you prepare to participate in this nighttime prairie event, please do the following:

Join us for refreshments at an unveiling as we celebrate the addition of Littleton Alston‘s larger-than-life statue of Willa Cather to the collection. This piece is Alston's second cast bronze of Willa Cather, and an exact replica of the Willa Cather statue that represents Nebraska as part of the National Statuary Hall Collection in the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center. The acquisition was made possible through the generosity of Jay Yost and Wade Leak, Chuck Shoemaker and Lynn Friedewald, and more than a dozen patrons who purchased one-foot statuettes in support of the acquisition.

Kick off the 70th Annual Willa Cather Spring Conference with a talk from Ann Lundberg, English professor and longtime interpretive ranger, about Cather at Mesa Verde.