Willa Cather Childhood Home | April 2024

Willa Cather Childhood Home Dedication & Ribbon-Cutting

Guided Tours to Follow

Special Events

Saturday, Jun 8, 2024 | 1:30 - 2:30pm CT

245 N. Cedar Street
Red Cloud, NE 68970
United States

Join Willa Cather Foundation leadership, project partners and supporters, Nebraska State Poet Matt Mason, and Nebraska Youth Poet Laureate Miranda Davis for a dedication and ribbon-cutting at the Willa Cather Childhood Home. We are honored to celebrate the reopening of this National Historic Landmark and its status as a literary pilgrimage destination for more than fifty years.

1:30 to 2:30 p.m. — Remarks, ribbon-cutting, and dedication
2:30 to 4:30 p.m. — Tour the Willa Cather Childhood Home, the Farmers and Merchants Bank, and the future site of Hotel Garber
6:00 to 9:00 p.m. — Banquet and readers theater featuring selections from Cather's fiction and correspondence

Your complimentary tickets to the dedication and tours can be reserved by contacting Jeniffer Beahm at (402) 746-2653 or jbeahm@willacather.org. Please RSVP by Friday, May 31.

Tickets to the banquet and readers theater are available using the link that follows.

Banquet & Readers Theater Tickets

To learn more about the recent restoration of the Willa Cather Childhood Home and Willa Cather wallpaper conservation project, click HERE.

Matt Mason

Featured Speaker

As part of this year's Willa Cather Childhoood Home dedication, we are excited to announce that Nebraska State Poet Matt Mason will read an original poem about Willa Cather and the house that brings so many of her readers to Red Cloud.

Matt Mason is the Nebraska State Poet and has run poetry workshops in Botswana, Romania, Nepal, and Belarus for the U.S. State Department. His poetry has appeared in The New York Times and Matt has received a Pushcart Prize as well as fellowships from the Academy of American Poets and the Nebraska Arts Council. His work can be found in Rattle, Poet Lore, Prairie Schooner, and in hundreds of other publications. Mason's 5th book, Rock Stars, was published by Button Poetry in 2023.

Learn More About Matt Mason

Miranda Davis

Featured Speaker

We are delighted to welcome Miranda Davis, the 2024-2025 Nebraska Youth Poet Laureate, who will read an original poem about Willa Cather as part of our Willa Cather Childhood Home dedication.

Miranda Davis is a senior at Norris High School in Firth, Nebraska and will be attending the University of Iowa to study English and Creative Writing. Her passions for poetry, nature, and music drive her to create a better world for herself and others through words. Davis's poetry has been published in multiple local anthologies and competes across the state at slam poetry competitions. She earned the prestigious title of Nebraska Youth Poet Laureate in April 2024. Davis has also been a member of the National Speech and Debate Association since 2021 and placed in the top 100 in the nation for poetry in 2022.