Letters to Dan by Don House
2024 Arkansas Gem, Arkansas State Library
2022 Sassafras Award, Ozark Society
Praise for Letters to Dan:
“Behind each word lies the authority of a lifetime of observation and insight … Letters to Dan is a rare and remarkable book.” — Davis McCombs, Juror
Remote Access: Small Public Libraries in Arkansas by Sabine Schmidt and Don House
2022 Arkansas Selection The Library of Congress Center for the Book’s Great Reads from Great Places Program
2021 Arkansas Gem, Arkansas State Library
Praise for Remote Access:
“What a wonderful, lovely book this is: a much-needed celebration of rural libraries, librarians, and readers.” — Keith Carter, Photographer
Buy the Books:
To order signed, personalized copies of the books or prints of any image in the books directly from the authors, click here.
Letters to Dan and Remote Access: Small Public Libraries in Arkansas are available from the University of Arkansas Press, at many bookstores, and through the usual online book retailers.
Other Projects by Schmidt and House:
We’re Not Telling You Everything is a photography exhibition of 30 color and black-and-white images about the Wichita Mountains area in southwestern Oklahoma.
We’re Not Telling You Everything has been shown at Fayetteville Underground in Fayetteville, Arkansas; the Argenta Branch Library in North Little Rock, Arkansas; the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute on Petit Jean Mountain, Arkansas; and Cameron University in Lawton, Oklahoma. To book We’re Not Telling You Everything for your venue, please contact Schmidt and House for details.
About the Authors:
Sabine Schmidt holds an MA in American studies from the Universität Hamburg and an MFA in literary translation from the University of Arkansas. Her work has appeared in exhibitions and publications in the U.S. and Germany, including National Geographic and Rolling Stone. She received an installation commission from the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute, won an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Arkansas Arts Council, and was the recipient of the 2021 Artist Award from the Arkansas Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts. Schmidt was a 2022 grantee of the Artists 360 program from the Mid-America Arts Alliance and is the author of Remote Access: Small Public Libraries in Arkansas.
Don House was drawn from Michigan to the rugged isolation and unique character of the Ozarks. For thirty years, he has been photographing the human and natural landscape of the region in powerful, rich black-and-white imagery. His images have appeared in numerous exhibitions and in publications as diverse as Woman’s World and the Wall Street Journal. He is the author of Letters to Dan, Remote Access: Small Public Libraries in Arkansas, Buffalo Creek Chronicles, Not a Good Sign, and the children’s book Otto’s Great Adventure.
For inquiries, please email the artists at contact@schmidtandhouse.com.
All images and content on this site are the property of Sabine Schmidt and Don House and may not be used or reproduced without permission from Schmidt and House.
© 2013-2024. All rights reserved.
Books by Schmidt and House 
This endeavor is a long, long time coming. As a former newspaper journalist, and a 3-year student librarian at Conway, AR Senior High School under the late Miss Freida Cummings, I have personally hoped a project like this would be done to let the big city folks see the truth of rural Arkansas.
We have a lot of academic assets waiting to be discovered. Those assets are developed by our rural, small community libraries and their small staffs, many, whom are volunteers. Those volunteers love their community.
Randy,
Thank you for the kind words. It was a pleasure meeting you and hearing your experiences, and seeing the role you play in the community. Your description pretty much sums up the whole project. I started this endeavor with an awe and respect for libraries and librarians (and volunteers), and came back with it magnified exponentially. Thanks for being part of that journey.
Don House