Life of Willa Cather with author Benjamin Taylor and Ashley Olson, National Willa Cather Center

The Brattleboro Literary Festival continued its 2024 season on the evening of Friday, February 9, 2024, with award-winning author Benjamin Taylor and National Willa Cather Center Executive Director, Ashley Olson. They were in conversation about Taylor's newest book, "Chasing Bright Medusas: The Life of Willa Cather."
Benjamin Taylor’s "Chasing Bright Medusas" combines intricate analysis with an empathetic, lyrical voice, uncovering the reality of Cather’s artistic development, from modest beginnings to the triumphs of her mature years. The book is simultaneously an homage to her character, a warm consideration of her work, and a case being made to read Cather with renewed vigor.
Benjamin Taylor received a 2021 Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His 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 The New York Times Book Review and The Observer (London); and his Naples Declared: A Walk Around the Bay was named a Best Book of 2012 in The New Yorker. Author of two novels, he also edited Saul Bellow: Letters, named a Best Book of 2010 in The New York Times and The Washington Post, and Bellow’s There Is Simply Too Much to Think About: Collected Nonfiction, also a New York Times Editors’ Choice. 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. Chasing Bright Medusas, his biography of Willa Cather, was published in November.
Ashley Olson has been a member of the National Willa Cather Center's staff since 2008 and has served as the organization's Executive Director since 2014. Olson administers the museum, arts center, ten historic sites, and a 612-acre native prairie that make up the largest collection of nationally designated historic sites dedicated to an American author. Olson earned a master's degree in Public Administration from the University of Nebraska at Omaha and a bachelor's degree in Business Administration from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She lives in Red Cloud, Nebraska.