National Willa Cather Center News

While Willa Cather was the member of the Cather family who shared life in early Nebraska with a reading public, she arrived with her parents a full decade after the first of her relatives settled down in the newly-formed Webster County. Several of our earliest collections feature museum objects and papers related to the lives of those early homesteaders, and we've talked about them in this series before.

Sarah Arneson was born and raised in Red Cloud and has returned many times to visit—and to perform. In this 20th anniversary celebration year of beloved performances, we are delighted to welcome her again to the Red Cloud Opera House stage on September 1. In addition to program notes on selections related to Cather’s works, this recent interview reveals more about Red Cloud’s own special artist's musical interests, highlights of her career, and the origins of her craft.

As has been noted so often before, there exists within Willa Cather so many interesting dualities. She was intensely engaged with her small hometown, even as she became a traveler of the world; she was down-to-earth and plain spoken, but she enjoyed the niceties that her career afforded her—the fine clothes, the fascinating company. The Willa Cather Pioneer Memorial Collection contains even more evidence of these dichotomies in Cather's nature.

Willa Cather, the National Willa Cather Center, and some of our archival holdings are featured in an article by Jennifer Howard. You can read “Mapping Willa Cather” in the Summer 2023 issue of Fine Books & Collections and order the magazine from their website.

Creating a culture of reading on the frontier wasn't easy! With days-long travel between towns, getting supplies of any kind—food, lumber, clothing, medicine—could be difficult and costly; it only stands to reason that reading materials like books and magazines might be considered a luxury. 

On Friday, June 2, we awarded and celebrated our 2023 recipients of the Norma Ross Walter, Ántonia, Antonette Willa Skupa Turner, and National Willa Cather Center scholarships. Six students presented their winning essays at the 68th annual Willa Cather Spring Conference, followed by a Q&A session with conference participants.