This Far Country

Celebrating the United States Semiquincentennial in 2026, Joseph Bottum’s epic poem This Far Country highlights four of South Dakota’s quintessential symbols and themes – the meadowlark, chokecherry jelly, the homestead, and the river – in a lyrical distillation of the state’s history and culture. Turning to the events of 1776, Bottum ties South Dakota to the streams of thought, belief, and practice welling at the country’s founding to form “a swelling moment, a time that history starts to flood,” one that would eventually extend to the prairies and plains of South Dakota, “where liberty found a place.” Jeanne Bowman contributes beautiful woodcut-style illustrations to accompany Bottum's poetry.