Willa Sibert Cather (1873-1947) was an American writer. She is probably best known today as the author of My Ántonia and Death Comes for the Archbishop, as well as a handful of short stories now firmly embedded in the canon of American writing. She also authored many beautiful works that are often overlooked, including my personal favorite, The Song of the Lark. Much of her work can be accessed for free at the Cather Archive, probably the best digital humanities project in existence.

My primary area of academic interest is the intersections of music and literature, and Cather, who made mention of forty-seven operas in her creative work, has become the focus of much of my research over the past several years (my book Cather and Opera was recently published by LSU Press.