Willa Cather Biography

Willa Sibert Cather was a writer celebrated for her novels of the immigrant experience on the American frontier, including O Pioneers! (1913) and My Ántonia (1918).

Cather was born in Virginia, but in her tenth year she moved with her family to a farm in Red Coud, Nebraska.

While a student at the University of Nebraska (1891-95), she published her first short story and contributed to the Nebraska State Journal.

After earning her degree, Cather worked in Pittsburgh as an editor and writer for The Home Monthly and the Daily Leader, and published a book of verse, April Twilight (1903).

She then moved to New York, where she edited McClure’s Magazine (1906-1912) and wrote short stories, publishing a collection in 1905 (The Troll Garden).

Her experiences in Nebraska informed much of her work, and during her long career she was a prolific and well-regarded writer, known for strong female characters and acute observations of life.

She won a Pulitzer Prize in 1923 for her novel One of Ours, and received several honorary degrees and awards during her life. Her novels include The Song of the Lark (1915), Lost Lady (1923), Shadows on the Rocks (1931) and Sapphira and the Slave Girl (1940).