A crowd gathered to photograph the bronze statue of author Willa Cather after a dedication ceremony in the U.S. Capitol Statuary Hall on Wednesday June 7, 2023. The Cather statue is Nebraska's second added to the National Statuary Hall Collection. (Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)

LINCOLN — Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jane Smiley will be the keynote speaker at the annual Willa Cather Spring Conference Friday and Saturday in Red Cloud.

Smiley, author of several novels including “A Thousand Acres,” which is set on an Iowa farm, will speak at 7:30 p.m. Friday, followed by a book signing. Her free address is entitled “Willa Cather, My Ántonia and the Life of a Writer.” The theme of the 70th annual conference is “Cather’s House: Examining Built & Natural Environments in Her Work.”

The event

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