Humanities Talk Explores 'Deep Mapping' Sept. 14

The Plains Humanities Alliance at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln will feature University of Nebraska at Omaha scholar Susan Maher in a 3:30 p.m. Sept. 14 Research and Region colloquium on the subject of the "deep map." The talk is at Dudley Bailey Library in Andrews Hall on UNL's city campus.

Scholars define "deep map" as an emerging practical method of intensive topographical exploration, often taking the form of engaged documentary writing of literary quality.

William Least Heat-Moon's invention of the term as the subtitle of his challenging extended essay, "PrairyErth: A Deep Map" (1991), provides a metaphorical toehold into contemporary creative nonfiction of the Plains. Starting with Wallace Stegner's experimentation in "Wolf Willow" (1962), Plains nonfiction writers have been embracing a form of writing that explores vertically the horizontal spaces of expansive country. Maher's talk will survey the contributions thus far to the "deep map" genre and then examine one place, Eastend, Saskatchewan, perhaps the most deeply mapped location on earth.

Maher, chair and professor of English at UNO, is at work on a study of Great Plains deep map essayists on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border. She has published widely in the area of Western American literature, she has served as the president of the Western Literature Association (2001), and she serves as a fellow of the Center for Great Plains Studies at UNL. Her most recent article, "Deep Mapping the Biome," appeared in the winter 2005 silver anniversary issue of Great Plains Quarterly.

The talk is free and open to the public. It is presented by the Plains Humanities Alliance as a part of its Research and Region Colloquium series. For more information on this series, go to http://libr.unl.edu:2000/plains/events/research.html, or call Deborah Eisloeffel, at (402) 472-9478.

CONTACT: Deborah Eisloeffel, Program Coordinator, Plains Humanities Alliance, (402) 472-9478