The author Willa Cather, who in her novel My Antonia depicted 19th-century prairie life in the Red Cloud area, would have appreciated the global online discussion of her novel to be held next Tuesday, September 21, beginning at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, 7:00 Central, 6:00 Mountain, and 5:00 Pacific.  You are cordially invited to participate.   

 

This online event, sponsored by the Mid-Illinois Talking Book Center (http://www.mitbc.org/) (MITBC) and co-hosted by the Cather Project at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (http://cather.unl.edu/), will include a panel of graduate students from the University of Nebraska as well as lovers of the novel the world over, including blind and visually impaired readers served by MITBC and other talking book centers. 

The web address of the discussion is  http://www.tcconference.com/lib?auditorium&nopass_field=1. We recommend that people come to the website a few minutes early to try out the software.  

 

To participate, you do not need a high speed Internet setup.  A 56K dialup connection will work.  A soundcard and speakers or a headset are necessary to hear the discussion.  A microphone is optional since you can use a keyboard to type questions and share your thoughts about this wonderful novel.

The necessary software for this event downloads automatically to your computer as your enter the online discussion room.  The software program is very small and will not harm your computer. 

 

For your information, various digital versions of the novel are available from Blackmast.com at http://www.blackmask.com/cgi-bin/newlinks/search.cgi?d=1&query=my+antonia.    An online version in HTML format (http://www.willacather.org/MyAntonia/MyAntoniaHome.htm) also is available from the Willa Cather Pioneer Memorial in Red Cloud, Nebraska. An annotated scholarly edition from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln is available online at http://cather.unl.edu/works/se/antonia/entire/index.htm   



This event is free of charge, and no registration is necessary.  For more information, please contact Tom Peters ([log in to unmask]), who will be facilitating the discussion.  

 

The next ebookworm interview show is on Thursday, September 23 beginning at 4:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, 3:00 Central, 2:00 Mountain, and 1:00 Pacific:

Our featured guest this month will be Dan Moore from Phoneticom, a Swedish company. Phoneticom develops and sells DAISY Generator, a production tool that generates fully synchronized audio full-text talking books in the DAISY format with artificial narration using text-to-speech. 

The web address of the discussion is  http://www.tcconference.com/lib?auditorium&nopass_field=1. We recommend that people come to the website a few minutes early to try out the software.