Mid-America's vast prairies have inspired countless artists. But in a place so wide open, there's always the danger of a person's voice getting blown away by the wind. Perhaps that's one reason 'Lost Writers of the Plains,' a new multimedia literary project, captured the imagination of Los Angeles Times book critic David L. Ulin.
"I'll be honest," Ulin wrote last month. "With the exception of Willa Cather and Ted Kooser, I don’t know all that much about Plains literature. But this is my kind of project, a bit of cultural excavation, a way of bringing what might otherwise be shadows in an archive back to something resembling life."
Produced by Nebraska's NPR and PBS stations, the literary magazine Prairie Schooner and the University of Nebraska's Center for Great Plains Studies, the 'Lost Writers' project involves radio features, an ebook and website.
KCUR begins airing three episodes of particular interest to audiences in our listening area this weekend:
April 18, 7:35 and 9:35 a.m.: Margaret Haughawout
Long before actress Diane Keaton made it fashionable for women to wear men's suits, poet Margaret Haughawout had hers tailor made. She never quite fit in. Born in 1874 in Fairmont, Neb., she was highly educated, never married, and taught poetry in Pittsburg, Kan. While the area was an island of liberal thinking, it was still too conservative for this self-described "old maid."
April 25, 7:35 and 9:35 a.m.: Zolley Lerner
Imagine that it's 1942. You're a Kansas City playwright and director and your dream to make it to Hollywood is about to come true, but not unless you change your name. Like many Jewish people who worked in Hollywood at the time, Zolley Lerner found success — but only as Thomas Loring.
May 2, 7:35 and 9:35 a.m.: Earl Guy
Earl Guy wrote his first novel in a Minnesota prison. With his chair leaned against the wall of his cell and a pen and notebook in hand, Guy told the story of a family struggling to keep afloat as the Mississippi River encroaches on their land.
Funding for this series was provided in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
