The Farmer’s Lawyer: The Fight to Save the Family Farm

Speaker: 
Sarah Vogel
 
18 Apr 2023
 
7:00 PM
 
Great Hall, Memorial Union
Co-sponsors: 
  • Pearl Hogrefe Fund
  • Humanities Iowa
  • MFA Program in Creative Writing and Environment
  • Department of English
  • Sketch Magazine
  • Committee on Lectures (funded by Student Government)

A Pearl Hogrefe Lecture

Sarah Vogel is an attorney, advocate, and author of The Farmer’s Lawyer, a memoir about her landmark class action lawsuit, Coleman v. Block. Vogel brought the historic case against the federal government on behalf of 240,000 family farmers facing foreclosure during the 1980s farm crisis. Vogel served two terms as North Dakota Commissioner of Agriculture, and was the first woman in U.S. history to be elected to this position. Since its publication, The Farmer’s Lawyer has been shortlisted for the Reading the West Award and was named as an honoree for The Society of Midland Authors Award. 

 

Special pre-event: Resesarching & Writing a Legal Narrative

From 2-3pm in the Gold Room, attend a moderated conversation about craft, author and lawyer Sarah Vogel will discuss her process of researching and assembling materials from her landmark class action lawsuit into her award-winning book, The Farmer’s Lawyer, an unforgettable true story of a young lawyer's impossible legal battle to stop the federal government from foreclosing on thousands of family farmers.

 

The ISU Book Store will be at the evening lecture selling copies of Vogel's book.

This event was recorded and will be available for two weeks on the Lectures website at https://www.lectures.iastate.edu/recordings/available-recordings