Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
the next generation<br />
Starting the<br />
conversation<br />
<strong>Iowa</strong> poet laureate’s play addresses the kind of land transition<br />
challenges that many eastern <strong>Iowa</strong> farm families are now facing<br />
Mary<br />
Swander<br />
Kalona<br />
<strong>Iowa</strong>’s poet laureate<br />
Mary Swander sits in<br />
her home discussing<br />
her one-woman play,<br />
Map of My Kingdom,<br />
a story that details<br />
farmland ownership<br />
and transition.<br />
<strong>Eastern</strong> <strong>Iowa</strong> <strong>Farmer</strong> Photo / Brooke Taylor<br />
BY nancy mayfield<br />
eastern iowa farmer<br />
Angela Martin says “For most<br />
farmers I know, owning land<br />
means everything.” Martin<br />
is the fictional character in a<br />
one-woman play about land<br />
transition, Map of My Kingdom, written by<br />
<strong>Iowa</strong>’s poet laureate Mary Swander.<br />
<strong>Farmer</strong>s in eastern <strong>Iowa</strong> well understand<br />
the significance of that sentence. In an agricultural<br />
community, attachment to land –<br />
which has oftentimes been farmed by many<br />
generations of the same family – runs deep.<br />
In the play, Martin is a lawyer and mediator<br />
in disputes over land transition.<br />
She shares stories of how farmers and<br />
Read an<br />
excerpt<br />
from Map<br />
of My<br />
Kingdom,<br />
page 59.<br />
56 <strong>Eastern</strong> <strong>Iowa</strong> <strong>Farmer</strong> | fall <strong>2017</strong>
Change language