Learn about the influence of quilts on the literary works of Willa Cather

Evelyn Haller will present the program Willa Cather and Quilts on Tuesday, Oct. 9, 6:30 p.m. at Millard Branch, 13214 Westwood Ln. Haller is a professor of English and chair of the Fine Arts/Humanities Division at Doane College in Crete, Neb. The event is free and open to the public. 

Willa Cather's earliest memory of art was sitting under quilting frames as a child. This early experience of art as craft—listening to stories and looking at thoughtfully arranged materials of everyday life—remained with Cather. Throughout her life, Cather chose to work in places that recalled the small space under the quilting frame, including the attic room in her Red Cloud home, the attic sewing room her friend Isabelle McClung prepared for her in Pittsburgh, and the tent she wrote on the island of Grand Manan. Slides will illustrate quilts Cather names in her fiction as well as related historical sites and materials. 

This presentation is made possible by the Nebraska Humanities Council (NHC) and Omaha Public Library as part of the NHC Speakers Bureau. Willa Cather and Quilts is one of approximately 300 programs offered through the Nebraska Humanities Council Speakers Bureau. The more than 165 available speakers include acclaimed scholars, writers, musicians, storytellers and folklorists on topics ranging from pioneer heritage to ethics and law to international and multicultural issues, making it the largest humanities speakers bureau in the nation.

This program is part of OPL’s 140th anniversary celebration. Visit omahalibrary.org for information about additional programs offered at Omaha Public Library’s 12 metro locations.