by Gerry Cox, Nebraska Center for the Book Editor

Photo courtesy of Mari Sandoz
High Plains Heritage Center, Chadron State College

ari Sandoz has finally joined Bess Streeter Aldrich, Willa Cather, and John Neihardt—Nebraska authors who have buildings dedicated to honor them.

The new Mari Sandoz High Plains Heritage Center on the Chadron State College campus houses memorabilia and photographs, and contains facilities for activities that will foster interest in her writing. The Center, in the remodeled college library, was dedicated in September in a ceremony that included a blessing by an Oglala medicine man and the unveiling of a life-size sculpture of Sandoz by Holdrege native, George Lundeen. The bronze statue depicts a barefoot Sandoz in a flowing skirt and western shirt.

Speakers at the ceremony included Thomas L. Krepel, President of Chadron State College; Ron Hull of Lincoln, friend of Sandoz and President of the Mari Sandoz Heritage Society; and Dick Cavett of New York, producer of a 1979 television documentary about Sandoz and a long-time member of the Heritage Society’s Board of Directors. Much of the dedication ceremony moved into the college auditorium during “the first rain all summer”—a pleasant irony that Sandoz would have relished. After students of the Mari Sandoz Elementary School in the Millard Public School district cut the ribbon to open the Center, the public was admitted to tour the new facility.

Sandoz was born south of Hays Springs in 1896 and died in 1966 after living in New York City for many years. Her nonfiction works include Winter Thunder, The Buffalo Hunters, Crazy Horse, Cheyenne Autumn, These Were the Sioux, and the story of her father, Old Jules. Novels include Slogum House and The Tom-Walker. She also wrote fiction and nonfiction stories for children.

The 2002 Nebraska Book Awards program, sponsored by the Nebraska Center for the Book (NCB), recognizes and honors books that are written by Nebraska authors, published by Nebraska publishers, set in Nebraska, or concerning Nebraska. This year’s winners are:

Cover Design/Illustration: All the Horses that He’d Rode, Charles E. Hunt and Daryl Poulin, Dageforde Publishing.

Fiction: A Cafecito Story: El Cuento Del Cafecito, Julia Alvarez, Belkis Ramirez, Bill Eichner, Chelsea Green Publishing.

Non-Fiction: Cold Snap as Yearning, Robert Vivian, University of Nebraska Press.

Non-Fiction Honor Book: The Nature of Nebraska, Paul A. Johnsgard, University of Nebraska Press.

Poetry: Bullroarer: A Sequence, Ted Genoways, Northeastern University Press.

Poetry Honor Books: Lost in Seward County, Marjorie Saiser, The Backwaters Press. Trans, Hilda Raz, Wesleyan University Press.

Books published in 2002 will be eligible for the 2003 Awards program. To receive notification of the 2003 Book Awards program, contact Mary Geibel, 402-471-2045, 800-307-2665, e-mail: Mary Geibel.