Author Talk — Benjamin Taylor with Chasing Bright Medusas: A Life of Willa Cather

Chasing Bright Medusas celebrates one of America’s greatest female novelists. This tender biography brings to life Willa Cather—her artistry and endurance, her immigrant family and the prairies on they lived, and her trailblazing success as a journalist and writer.

In this Zoom webinar author talk, Benjamin Taylor, winner of the 2021 Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, will speak with moderator Mary Beth Norton, the Mary Donlon Alger Professor of American History Emerita at Cornell University. Following the conversation, there will be time for an audience Q&A. During the program, attendees will be provided with a link to order copies of the book from Porter Square Books.

To attend, please register here.

About the book

In the early 20th century, Willa Cather leapt into the forefront of American letters with the publication of her novels O Pioneers! (1913), The Song of the Lark (1915), and My Antonia (1918). At the time, she was well into middle age. Her success followed years of working in journalism in Nebraska, brief spells of teaching, and editorial work on magazines. Chasing Bright Medusas is her story told by another mature and highly accomplished writer, the award-winning biographer Benjamin Taylor, a lifelong lover of Willa Cather’s work. Taylor’s elegant exploration of her artistic endurance and of her early years and family, bring us back in time to portray vividly the challenges of being an immigrant family, a woman, and a literary trailblazer—one the greatest authors of the twentieth century.

About the author

Benjamin Taylor received a 2021 Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His memoir Here We Are was published by Penguin Books in May 2020. His previous memoir, The Hue and Cry at Our House, received the 2018 Los Angeles Times/Christopher Isherwood Prize and was named a New York Times Editors’ Choice; his Proust: The Search was named a Best Book of 2016 by Thomas Mallon in The New York Times Book Review and by Robert McCrum in The Observer (London). Taylor is a past fellow and current trustee of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and serves as president of the Edward F. Albee Foundation.

About the moderator

Mary Beth Norton is the Mary Donlon Alger Professor of American History Emerita at Cornell University. Her highly acclaimed books include 1774, In the Devil’s Snare, Founding Mothers & Fathers, Liberty’s Daughters, and The British-Americans.

This program is part of the American Inspiration Series from American Ancestors/NEHGS and presented in partnership with with the the GBH Forum Network.

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