Kelly Kathleen Ferguson, author of 'My Life As Laura'

From: KUFM - Montana Public Radio
Series: The Write Question
Length: 29:01

Not long ago, a middle-aged woman, Kelly Ferguson, left Missoula, Montana, with a crazy-sounding mission: wear a prairie dress, an apron and a bonnet, and travel around the mid-West visiting the historic homes of Laura Ingalls Wilder. During this program, she'll tell you why and read from the book she wrote about her experiences, 'My Life as Laura: How I Searched for Laura Ingalls Wilder and Found Myself.' Read the full description.

Piece Audio

Playing: Kelly Kathleen Ferguson, author of 'My Life As Laura'
From: KUFM - Montana Public Radio

Mylifeaslaura_small Kelly Kathleen Ferguson needed to know - was connecting with her lifelong heroine the key to knowing herself? She decided to find out. She donned a prairie dress and retraced the pioneer journey of Laura Ingalls Wilder. From Wisconsin to Minnesota, South Dakota to Missouri, she explored Laura’s past and her own. Part travelogue, part memoir and part social commentary, My Life as Laura shows how a relationship with a pioneer girl who lived in little houses long ago can give a sense of purpose for today.

Kelly Ferguson’s work has appeared in mental_floss magazine, Poets & Writers, Gettysburg Review (for which she received a Pushcart nomination), McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, and Brevity, among other publications. She has an MFA from the University of Montana, and is currently working on a PhD in creative nonfiction at Ohio University. Kelly is Libra, Cancer rising, moon in Aquarius. She is Irish/French/German, lapsed Roman Catholic, and right-brained. Kelly once received a minority scholarship for a machinist certification program at Durham Technical Community College. When Kelly was four, she ate a mothball and had to have her stomach pumped, or she would have died.

Visit Kelly Ferguson's Web site.

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Piece Description

Kelly Kathleen Ferguson needed to know - was connecting with her lifelong heroine the key to knowing herself? She decided to find out. She donned a prairie dress and retraced the pioneer journey of Laura Ingalls Wilder. From Wisconsin to Minnesota, South Dakota to Missouri, she explored Laura’s past and her own. Part travelogue, part memoir and part social commentary, My Life as Laura shows how a relationship with a pioneer girl who lived in little houses long ago can give a sense of purpose for today.

Kelly Ferguson’s work has appeared in mental_floss magazine, Poets & Writers, Gettysburg Review (for which she received a Pushcart nomination), McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, and Brevity, among other publications. She has an MFA from the University of Montana, and is currently working on a PhD in creative nonfiction at Ohio University. Kelly is Libra, Cancer rising, moon in Aquarius. She is Irish/French/German, lapsed Roman Catholic, and right-brained. Kelly once received a minority scholarship for a machinist certification program at Durham Technical Community College. When Kelly was four, she ate a mothball and had to have her stomach pumped, or she would have died.

Visit Kelly Ferguson's Web site.