Nebraska Dispatches - University of Nebraska Press

PRAISE

“Delightfully intimate yet soaringly ambitious, Christopher Cartmill’s lovely and lovingly told memoir of his journey through personal and national history is a fascinating meditation on the infinite meanings of home. This is a terrific nonfiction debut from a terrifically gifted writer.”—Adam Langer, author ofEllington Boulevard and My Father’s Bonus March

“It is not as a disinterested witness that Christopher Cartmill embarked on this extraordinary exploration, but as a passionate participant, often literally risking body and soul, with a clear eye, a probing intellect, and a compassionate and fearless heart. The result is a fascinating, and very moving, chronicle of his journey.”—Eva Rubinstein, actress and internationally acclaimed photographer

“The Nebraska Dispatches sensitively chronicles a time when paths crossed—when the past intertwined with the present and remade a future.”—Renee Sans Souci, Umonhon (Omaha) poet

“Cartmill writes with such power and beauty. The Nebraska Dispatchesresonated with me personally. Even though our experiences are of course different in the discovery journey that led to our respective projects . . . there are many deep and striking resonances.”—Jocelyn McKinnon, lecturer at The University of Newcastle, Australia, and creator of the performance piece,Listening: Indigenous Stories from the Central Coast

Praise for Christopher Cartmill’s play Home Land, on which this book is based:
“This is a mature, sophisticated play. Like rainwater in the Nebraska Sandhills, the play’s haunting truths seep into the cracks where life begins and ends. And it is here where those hard truths are delivered with whispers—not megaphones—which of course make them resonate even louder.”—Joe Starita, author of I Am a Man

A description of the production by Shaun B. Wilson --

"This past Friday I had the opportunity to see Barbara Hammond's new play "Beyond the Pale" at St. Peter's Rectory in Chelsea, part of the 1st Irish 2009 Theatre Festival in NY. Almost as soon as the play began, I realized that I had been led astray. This was not a play. This was one of those dreams that feels like a film or a palpably familiar trip to a place you've never been. This was an invited invasion into the lives of others. This was, quite simply, an experience. The play took place in an Irish Manor house in Northern Ireland and began in the back garden. We, the audience, found our places among the walkways and shrubs as the play began and moved with the cast through the first floor of the manor throughout the course of the play. We were no longer audience members, but a fog moving through the countryside of Ireland, gently oppressing the manor's inhabitants. In what I feel is a stroke of genius, the convention of the audience's close proximity to the cast mirrored the railing against a silent heaven that dwelt in the play. The three main characters, Siobhan, Terry, and Declan seemed as if they were trying to escape from or engage with some invisible force that hemmed them in, watched them, and never spoke. This convention also left no room for the actors to be false or distracted, or for the dialogue to be tricked up and stiff as we were no less than three feet away from them at all times. The entire creative team rose to the challenge quite successfully. It was a beautiful whisper of a play, simple and true."

For a slide show of the event check out the home page at www.barbarahammond.com