Minnesota is the land of Manabozho and Nokomis, Paul Bunyan and his Babe, Longfellow’s Hiawatha and Minnehaha, Keillor’s Lake Woebegone, and the Coen brothers’ Fargo... according to the Western Literature Association (WLA). And UMD will help present the 2017 WLA conference that celebrates the region.
Susan Naramore Maher, dean of the School of Liberal Arts, is co-president of the WLA annual conference in Minneapolis. The conference theme is “Sweet Land, Mighty Waters: Myth and Storytelling West of the Mississippi" and it will be held from October 25-28. Florence Amamoto from Gustavus Adolphus College joins Sue as co-president.
"The conference introduces our members to some of Minnesota's greats," Sue says. "The participants are quite international and the program is diverse: culturally and intellectually."
In addition to her administrative roles, Sue will chair a plenary session with Will Weaver, two-time winner of the Minnesota Book Award. She will be part of a panel discussion entitled Thinking Continental and will host rock/blues songwriter Erik Koskinen at an evening event.
Sue and fellow editors, Tom Lynch, Drucilla Wall, and O. Alan Weltzien, will host a book launch of a collection of original essays and poems, Thinking Continental: Writing the Planet One Place at a Time, during the conference.
UMD is well represented. Linda LeGarde Grover, novelist, short story writer, and UMD professor in the Department of American Indian Studies, will join Will Weaver in presenting a luncheon talk. She will also offer a solo presentation at a plenary session.
Jill Doerfler, associate professor and department head of American Indian Studies, will lead sessions during the conference. John Schwetman, assistant professor in the Department of English, is part of a panel discussion, and an English graduate student is presenting on Joan Didion.
The event, held at the Marriott City Center in Minneapolis, features dozens of additional renowned writers including Heid Erdrich and Kalia Yang.