Amy Mattson Lauters is a professor of mass communications at Minnesota State University and a history scholar with a particular interest in Laura Ingalls Wilder.
Lauters is the author of two books. She is also a freelance journalist.
Although the first LauraPalooza conference has yet to take place, it’s a pretty safe bet that a good time will be had by all.
“LauraPalooza 2010: Legacies” is a three-day, multi-event extravaganza that is dedicated to all things related to Laura Ingalls Wilder, her life and her writings.
“It just came to me,” says Amy Mattson Lauters, the moving force behind the event and a Laura Ingalls Wilder scholar. “The idea of having an event that was all about Laura simmered in the back of my mind for quite some time before I began working on it.”
And work on it she has. Since the fall of 2008, the Minnesota State Mankato mass communications professor has been pulling together speakers, panelists and presentations to create an almost non-stop Laura-athon meant to satisfy even the most dedicated of fans.
Lauters is in almost constant contact with other Laura Ingalls Wilders aficionados via her website, www.beyondlittlehouse.com, which is dedicated to “the life, literature, and many homes of Laura Ingalls Wilder.” The site also describes the newly formed Laura Ingalls Wilder Legacy and Research Association. LIWLRA is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the preserving and encouraging research regarding Laura Ingalls Wilder, Rose Wilder Lane and the Little House home sites. LIWLRA, along with the mass communications department at Minnesota State Mankato, is sponsoring LauraPalooza.
Among the events planned are a tin pail lunch that is actually a barbecue buffet, a spelling bee and a field trip to Walnut Grove. Guest speakers include Laura Ingalls Wilder biographer John Miller and Dean Butler, the actor who played Laura’s husband Almanzo on the Little House television series in the 1970’s. Butler will be screening a documentary about Laura Ingalls Wilder on Friday evening. There will also be crafting and educational workshops.
Presentations during the conference range from a panel entitled, “Loving Laura in a Lindsay Lohan World,” to “Too Much Estrogen in this Little House?” Dave Larsen, MSU’s Director of American Indian Affairs, will be presenting “The Minnesota Dakota Conflicts,” a talk that Lauters hints might prove to be controversial. “There are so many different angles to that part of history,” she says.
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