Past Events

As part of National Willa Cather Center's efforts to commemorate acclaimed novelist Willa Cather’s 150th year, we are pleased to celebrate lauded writer and biographer Benjamin Taylor's much-anticipated biography Chasing Bright Medusas: A Life of Willa Cather!

As part of National Willa Cather Center's efforts to commemorate acclaimed novelist Willa Cather's 150th year, we are pleased to invite visitors to enjoy a special holiday tour of National Willa Cather Center historic sites!

As part of National Willa Cather Center's efforts to commemorate acclaimed novelist Willa Cather's 150th year, we are pleased to invite visitors to enjoy a special holiday tour of National Willa Cather Center historic sites!

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Fill your cup with holiday cheer and join us for the one-of-a-kind entertainment experience that is Dueling Pianos! These talented musicians will provide a request driven show full of your favorite Christmas music, and audience participation is encouraged. Cap off the year and kick off the holiday season with a holly jolly singalong as we celebrate another wonderful year—and 20th anniversary season—at the Red Cloud Opera House!

Fill your cup with holiday cheer and join us for the one-of-a-kind entertainment experience that is Dueling Pianos! These talented musicians will provide a request driven show full of your favorite christmas music, and audience participation is encouraged. Cap off the year and kick off the holiday season with a holly jolly singalong as we celebrate another wonderful year at the opera house.

To honor the sesquicentennial of Willa Cather’s birthday, a group of academics and students from area universities will read selections from the celebrated author’s letters, fiction, poems, and journalism written in and about Pittsburgh, which was her home 1896-1906 and a favorite writing retreat until 1915. A discussion and birthday cookies will follow the reading.

This event is free, but please RSVP. It will take place in the CLP Lecture Hall.

As we celebrate Willa Cather's 150th birthday, we journey to Santa Fe to explore one of Cather's favorite cities. Our tour guide, Garrett Peck, will lead us on a 2.5 hour Death Comes for the Archbishop walking tour, retracing Cather's steps through Santa Fe in 1925 and 1926.

We'll gather at the Plaza opposite La Fonda, the hotel where Cather and her partner Edith Lewis stayed during their visits. We'll read from Cather's letters, interviews, and articles, in addition to seeing historic Santa Fe.

Join us for birthday cake and a free talk by Dr. Robert Thacker, president of the Willa Cather Foundation Board of Governors at the National Willa Cather Center in Red Cloud, Nebraska! 

Acclaimed mystery novelist Alex Kava will be on hand to talk about her impressive career as a Nebraska author who writes in the tradition of other Nebraska mystery novelists such as the late Mignon Eberhardt. Mystery of Hunting's End, Eberhart's 1930 book set in the Nebraska Sand Hills is the 2023 One Book One Nebraska selection. 

We hope you'll join us in Taos, New Mexico, for a 3-day, 3-night excursion, November 9–12, 2023! We’ll explore the beautiful mountain town and the best of its historic and arts offerings, while learning about Cather’s time in New Mexico. We’ll discuss and share from Cather’s Death Comes for the Archbishop and The Professor’s House, as well as a host of selected outside readings, in addition to touring the Father Martinez Hacienda and Taos Pueblo, the Fechin House and the Millicent Rogers museum and more.