Articles > Missourians

Eight Seconds

By Jeremy Goldmeier

DUSTIN HALL EARNS his paycheck eight seconds at a time. Think that sounds easy? Ask his coworker: two thousand pounds of bucking, snorting rage. Making a living as a professional bull rider has its perks—plenty of downtime, exotic travel, and hearty prizes for placing at an event. But for those eight pivotal seconds, it’s the least desirable position in the world of sports: hanging on tight as a wild bea…... Read more >

Missouri's First Poet Laureate

By Scott Spilky   As the state’s first poet laureate, Ashland native Walter Bargen has crisscrossed the state speaking, reading his work, and championing the power of words to move the imagination.   “Poems are more relevant than they have ever been,” he says.   Walter, the award-winning author of eleven books, has been writing for nearly thirty years. His work has appeared in more than one hundre…... Read more >

Twain's Ammunition

By Roberta Moores   Missouri boasts movers and shakers in American political, literary, and cultural history. However, only one figure represents all three: Samuel Clemens, whose pen name, Mark Twain, has taken on mythical proportions. Columbia will be fortunate on April 29 to receive a return visit, of sorts, from Twain, in actor Hal Holbrook’s one-man show at a performance in the University Concert Series at Jesse Hall. In a 20…... Read more >

Tom and Huck

  “Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer swears they will keep mum about this and they wish they may drop down dead in their tracks if they ever tell and rot,” agree Tom and Huck in the Mark Twain classic The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.  Tom and Huck had more than a few secrets, and the Springfield Little Theatre will reveal all in its annual Literature to Life presentation of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer from March 27 through April 6….... Read more >