Voices of the Land
Voices of the Land

Author: Katherine Koller

Publisher: Au Press

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 193

ISBN-13: 9781926836942

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The sound of the wind across a Prairie field, the smell of grass on the first day of spring, the vocalization of birds in the early morning woods, the silence of the lake at night interrupted by call of the loon - these are the shapes and sounds of the Prairie landscape. Katherine Koller invokes the Prairie setting as a central character in each of the four plays in Voices of the Land. Serving a supportive and, at other times, antagonistic role, the landscape acts upon the characters, driving and intensifying their transformation. The land and those who live in intimate terms with it are the focus of Koller's plays. In The Seed Savers, farmers face pressure to purchase genetically modified seed; a protagonist refuses to sell untilled land for development in Cowboy Boots and a Corsage; a dying woman sees a lake as her final resting place in Abby's Place; and in The Early Worm Club, Millie realizes a deep sense of belonging to the Alberta parkland and its birds while searching for her mate. Nature goes beyond mere setting and backdrop in these plays to effect transformation and resolution on the characters. Ranging from romantic comedy to drama and from one-act to full-length, the plays in Voices of the Land show western Canadians at the point of leaving, returning, and renewing against the backdrop of their native landscape.

The Tallgrass Prairie Reader
The Tallgrass Prairie Reader

Author: John Price

Publisher: University of Iowa Press

Published: 2014-06

Total Pages: 385

ISBN-13: 1609382463

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This is a collection of literature from and about the tallgrass bioregion. It focuses on autobiographical nonfiction including adventure narrative, spiritual reflection, childhood memoir, Native American perspectives, literary natural history, humor, travel writing and reportage. Writings by early explorers are followed by works of nineteenth-century authors that reflect the fear, awe, reverence, and thrill of adventure of the time. After 1900, following the destruction of the majority of tallgrass, much of the writing became nostalgic, elegiac, and mythic. A new environmental consciousness asserted itself midcentury, as personal responses to tallgrass were increasingly influenced by larger ecological perspectives. Preservation and restoration emerged as major themes. Early twenty-first-century writings demonstrate an awareness of tallgrass environmental history and the need for citizens, including writers, to remember and to help save our once magnificent prairies.