For The Media

For media inquiries, please contact press@liwlra.org. For questions about the conference, write conference@liwlra.org.

You can learn more about LauraPalooza and the LIWLRA on Facebook, Twitter, and the LIWLRA Blog.

About the Laura Ingalls Wilder Legacy & Research Association

The Laura Ingalls Wilder Legacy & Research Association (LIWLRA) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving and promoting the legacy of Laura Ingalls Wilder through research, events, awareness, and unwavering support for the museums and sites across the country that honor her, her family, and her series of Little House books.

About LauraPalooza

LauraPalooza is the only academic and fan gathering of its kind, celebrating the literary, historical, and cultural impact of Laura Ingalls Wilder, Rose Wilder Lane, and their families. It was first held in 2010 in Mankato, Minnesota, where it won the Greater Mankato Convention and Visitors Bureau’s Bring It Home Award. It returned to Mankato in 2012. The third LauraPalooza conference, Through Laura’s Eyes: Imagery, Illustrations, and Impressions from the Little House, took place July 2015 at South Dakota State University in Brookings, South Dakota. The fourth LauraPalooza conference, Little Houses, Mighty Legacy: Celebrating 150 Years of Laura Ingalls Wilder, was held 12-14 July 2017 at University Plaza Hotel, Springfield, Missouri.

The most recent conference, All Roads Lead to Laura, was held at Stoney Creek Hotel and Conference Center in Onalaska, Wisconsin, on 7-10 July 2019.

LIWLRA Response to the Renaming of the ALA Laura Ingalls Wilder Award

LauraPalooza In The News

Print and TV

A Year to Toast Independence, Reformation and Satire (Published 2017)

Political unions, milestones related to deceased authors and the commemoration of one major religious event highlight the 2017 anniversary calendar. Germany will examine the Protestant Reformation that began in 1517 when Martin Luther tacked up his 95 theses on what he viewed as abuses by the Roman Catholic Church in Wittenberg.

Review | At 150, Laura Ingalls Wilder still speaks to readers old and new

"Once upon a time, sixty years ago, a little girl lived in the Big Woods of Wisconsin, in a little gray house made of logs." That famous first line of "Little House in the Big Woods" introduced a family of homesteading pioneers who have become fixtures in the American imagination.

The Science of "Little House on the Prairie"

smithsonianmag.com To read Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books is to step out of one's own world and into hers. For all their relentless nostalgia, their luscious descriptions of life on the prairie, it's hard to criticize their rich detail.

From Maryland to Missouri: An Osher Member Celebrates Laura Ingalls Wilder | Engage TU

"Life is often called a journey...Why not call it a voyage of discovery and take it in the spirit of happy adventure?" -Laura Ingalls Wilder Ann Weller Dahl, Osher member since 2005, is taking Laura Ingalls Wilder's advice and spreading it far and wide.

Laurapalooza draws Wilder fans from across globe

Floor-length dresses and bonnets were not uncommon in Brookings on Thursday. These bonnet heads - what they like to call themselves - were in town for Laurapalooza, an academic conference that is held every two years to celebrate Laura Ingalls Wilder. Conference attendees came from near and far to experience the third annual Laurapalooza.

The other palooza

In 1974, disco fever was taking off. Everyone was wearing stretchy flame-pattern knit shirts and blindingly shiny Qiana dresses. Bell-bottoms were still in. And I was sweeping around my rural Massachusetts high school in a prairie skirt, complete with apron.

They're wild for Ingalls Wilder at LauraPalooza

If you hold a Laura Ingalls Wilder conference, they will come. Fans of Laura Ingalls Wilder arrived in Mankato from all over the world this week to attend "LauraPalooza: Legacies 2010" at Minnesota State University. Carolyn Pappin decided to make the long trek from Australia to Minnesota after reading about LauraPalooza on the website www.beyondlittlehouse.com.

Radio

New stories -- not for kids -- in Laura Ingalls Wilder's 'Pioneer Girl' autobiography

Laura Ingalls Wilder is known for the "Little House" series, based her family's journey across the American plains. But until now, Wilder's autobiography, "Pioneer Girl," has never been published. Jeffrey Brown speaks with Pamela Smith Hill, author of "Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Writer's Life," on the details Wilder saved for her more mature account.

True Stories Of The Real 'Pioneer Girl'

With Guest Host Jessica Yellin . A big new look at the legacy of Laura Ingalls Wilder and the woman behind the Little House. Laura Ingalls Wilder was the pioneer girl with pluck. Along with Ma, Pa, sisters Mary and Carrie, and a covered wagon, this "half-pint' took generations of readers on a heartfelt history lesson of 19 th century America.

How would Laura Ingalls Wilder describe this year's winter?

How would Laura Ingalls Wilder describe the winter of 1880-81, when blizzard after blizzard pounded the settlement town of DeSmet, in what was then Dakota Territory? National Weather Service meteorologist and climatologist Barbara Mayes Boustead joins us today to put that long, difficult winter into perspective.

Blogs

LauraPalooza - The Pioneer Girl Project

I am just back from my first-ever LauraPalooza, sponsored by the Laura Ingalls Wilder Legacy and Research Association (LIWLRA) and held this year in Onalaska, Wisconsin, just over an hour away from Pepin, Wisconsin.

LauraPalooza 2010: Putting the "Oh!" in Mankato

We went to LauraPalooza last week. Yes, it was really called "LauraPalooza": the first-ever combined academic conference/fan fair/geekcon devoted to Laura Ingalls Wilder, and YES, it was all that and a bag of cracklings.