On an early June afternoon in Red Cloud, chairs are full in the town’s opera house, visitors drift between storefronts clutching their bookstore purchases and conversations about literature spill from conference rooms onto sidewalks. The Willa Cather Spring Conference is equal parts academic seminar and cultural festival. For three days each year, the rural community of 962 draws upward of 150 visitors, some of whom return annually to network with fellow Cather fans and explore the region where one of America’s most recognized literary figures spent her formative years.
Conference-goers are a mix of Nebraskans, out-of-state readers and scholars from across the nation and abroad. They browse galleries and bookstores between lectures, linger over coffee and lunch downtown and embark on guided tours through the sites and landscape that inspired Cather’s fiction. What keeps them coming back is the lure of Cather’s writing, the charm of the rural community and the relationships built with fellow readers.
Sharon Kohout, a retired public health professional who now resides in Vermont, attends annually because of friendships forged that have enriched her life. She also appreciates the conference’s intellectual depth, “I like the challenge of the scholarly presentations, but I love that you don’t have to be a scholar to appreciate the rich tapestry of Cather’s writing,” she noted.
Each year, participants read a selected Cather work and explore it through lectures, panel discussions and the visual and performing arts. In some ways, the event functions as a sizable book club, supplemented by explorations of sites and landscapes connected to Cather’s life and literature.
The Cather Center’s executive director, Ashley Olson, noted that the shared reading experience is an important aspect of the event. “With the declines our nation has seen in the number of individuals who read for pleasure,” she said, “we’re always looking for ways to encourage people to come together and share in the joy of reading great literature.”
Survey results released by the National Endowment for the Arts in recent years show that the percentage of adults who read novels, short stories or poetry has declined sharply over the course of a decade — 45.2% in 2012, 37.6% in 2022.
The Cather Center leans into immersive experiences that bring literature to life to spark enthusiasm for reading or revisiting her literature. Visitors often describe moments of recognition when the world of Cather’s fiction becomes tangible: standing on the open prairie watching the grass ripple in the wind while listening to the song of western meadowlarks, or climbing the narrow steps to Cather’s attic bedroom, the secluded space that informed some of the most autobiographical moments in her fiction.
“Especially for those who reside abroad or outside the Midwest, coming here and seeing the landscape Cather described is illuminating, and people are really touched by the experience,” Olson noted.
Beyond the benefits to visitors, the conference and year-round heritage tourism tied to the Willa Cather Center and its historic sites have benefited the local economy in meaningful ways. According to the data published by the Nebraska Tourism Commission, direct travel spending in Webster County generated $3.9 million in economic activity and more than $265,000 in tax receipts in 2024. Equally meaningful has been the addition of new businesses that cater to visitors and residents. Over the last decade, a wine bar, coffee shop, art gallery and a new hotel and restaurant have filled storefronts and revitalized buildings downtown.
But for attendees, the conference’s greatest value is not measured economically. In an era of declining leisure reading and ever-more digital lives, it offers something increasingly rare. The event fosters a community built around books and place.
More than a century since many of Cather’s texts were published, readers continue to find relevance in her descriptions of humanity and the American experience. This year’s conference celebrates her literary legacy and explores themes of memory, myth and meaning. Highlights include a public lecture by rare book specialist and author Rebecca Romney, the opening of a new permanent exhibit All Aboard: West-Bound Trains in American Culture at the Center’s restored Burlington Depot and the Nebraska premiere of a stage adaptation of Cather’s short story “The Bohemian Girl,” performed by the Harbor Stage Company of Wellfleet, Massachusetts. And the week after it concludes, Red Cloud residents will rejoice in shorter lines for coffee and planning will begin for the 72nd annual conference.