JEFFERSON CITY – The New Territory Magazine recently added three new directors to its nonprofit board: Leslie VonHolten of Lawrence, KS; Sara Maillacheruvu of Chicago, IL; and Cheyenne White of Topeka, KS. 

“Our directors share true passion for telling new stories about the Lower Midwest,” says board president Emily Render. “The new directors bring skills that will not only help foster writers, editors, and artists in our region, but also help send a high-quality magazine to our readers’ mailboxes.”

The 13-person board supports the organization’s mission to advocate and foster love and protection of the Great Plains, Ozarks, and Lower Midwest through publishing art and narrative writing focused on personal, natural and societal stories. 

This year marks the 10th consecutive year of publishing the biannual, full-color print magazine. 

“I am thrilled to welcome Sara, Leslie, and Cheyenne to our leadership in time to celebrate a big milestone,” says Tina Casagrand Foss, The New Territory Magazine founder and executive director. “Sara was a top-level editor with us for many years, so she knows the magazine intimately. Leslie and Cheyenne have both been champions of regional storytelling and are experts in art and material culture. They’re also expanding our reach across Illinois and Kansas, bringing us closer to fully representing a regional scope to which we aspire.”  

For more information, visit The New Territory Magazine nonprofit board page.

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About The New Territory Magazine
The New Territory Magazine is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization on a mission to advocate and foster love and protection of the Great Plains, Ozarks, and Lower Midwest through publishing art and narrative journalism focused on personal, natural and societal stories.

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JEFFERSON CITY – The New Territory Magazine was awarded a $24,831 reimbursement grant from the Missouri Arts Council, which will cover costs for producing its flagship publication, The New Territory. The grant renews in 2026.

The New Territory is an independent, longform literary magazine created by and for people living in the Lower Midwest, a region that includes Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Oklahoma, Northwest Arkansas, and Southern Illinois.

The Missouri Arts Council provides funding for artistic projects that demonstrate alignment with the council’s strategic goals of engaging people in meaningful arts experiences, growing Missouri’s economy using the arts, and strengthening Missouri education through the arts.

“The New Territory blends literary journalism with visual art that creates a showcase for the lower Midwest,” said Missouri Arts Council Executive Director Michael Donovan. “You feel its beating heart and it makes you glad to wake up in this vibrant region, sown with imagination and ideas.”

The magazine’s eligibility for this funding comes at the heels of a recent restructure. The New Territory incorporated as a 501(c)3 in 2023, which has allowed it to diversify its revenue streams to include philanthropic support rather than relying solely on advertising and subscriptions. The organization takes its nonprofit status seriously. The New Territory’s mission statement calls upon its contributors, editors, and board of directors “to advocate and foster love and protection of the Great Plains, Ozarks, and Lower Midwest through publishing art and narrative journalism focused on personal, natural, and societal stories.”

“Although The New Territory is celebrating its 10th anniversary next year, we are relatively new as a nonprofit organization,” says The New Territory founder and publisher Tina Casagrand Foss. “To receive this Missouri Arts Council grant is an honor and vote of confidence from the literary arts community of our creative state.”

The New Territory strives to expand the portfolio of American creative writing by publishing essential new voices from Missouri and the Lower Midwest. The magazine’s editorial team has a tradition of connecting new feature writers with contributing editors who have previously published with The New Territory or whose body of work lends expertise in the topic at hand. 

The New Territory publishes two full-color, 128-page issues per year, each featuring works from 25 to 35 contributors including writers of creative nonfiction, literary journalism, poetry, and short story as well as visual creatives such as documentary photographers, painters, illustrators, and multimedia artists. Since its founding in 2016, The New Territory has worked with more than 450 regional writers and artists.

“We believe strongly that supporting Missouri with the arts creates vital communities, effective education, and a better state to live, work, and visit,” Donovan said.

Direct all media inquiries to Tina Casagrand Foss. 

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About The New Territory Magazine

The New Territory Magazine is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization on a mission to advocate and foster love and protection of the Great Plains, Ozarks, and Lower Midwest through publishing art and narrative journalism focused on personal, natural and societal stories. Visit newterritorymag.com.

About the Missouri Arts Council

The Missouri Arts Council, a division of the Office of the Lieutenant Governor, is the state agency dedicated to broadening the growth, availability and appreciation of the arts in Missouri and fostering the diversity, vitality and excellence of Misosuri’s communities, economy and cultural heritage. The council is funded by the Missouri General Assembly, Missouri Cultural Trust, and the National Endowment for the Arts. 

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“Hearing Place will bring our Midwest humanities themes to life through vibrant programming that might remind you of your favorite field trips or TEDx events,” says Tina Casagrand Foss, executive director of The New Territory Magazine. A variety of activities will take place around Weston from 9:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m., with the main hub at Eventful at Locust Grove (25180 NW County Rd. JJ). University of Missouri scholars and New Territory leaders will engage participants in workshops and tours in the late morning and convene for an interactive moderated panel presentation in the early afternoon, with social time to follow for one-on-one conversation.

“The many different disciplines that are incorporating elements of sound across Missouri and the Midwest will deepen participants’ understanding of our place,” says Dr. Soren Larsen, professor of geography at the University of Missouri and organizer of the scholar panel. 

Presentation topics include ecomusicology, Indigenous soundscapes, folk music, creative writing centered on place, tobacco farming, and the Missouri River podcast River Town. “We believe words heal divides,” says Casagrand Foss. “And we look forward to working with Missouri Humanities to fulfill its vision of a more thoughtful, informed, and civil society.”

Following the Hearing Place event, The New Territory will host a fundraiser dinner to benefit the independent 501(c)3 nonprofit magazine’s narrative journalism, art and personal, natural and societal stories about the Great Plains, Ozarks, and Lower Midwest.

For more information on attending or sponsoring the event, please visit the Pageturner 2024 page at newterritorymag.com.

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About Missouri Humanities
Missouri Humanities’ programs remember the past by exploring Missouri’s Heritage, sharing Veterans stories, and preserving Native American and Civil War history. Visit mohumanities.org.

About The New Territory Magazine
The New Territory Magazine is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization on a mission to advocate and foster love and protection of the Great Plains, Ozarks, and Lower Midwest through publishing art and narrative journalism focused on personal, natural and societal stories. Visit newterritorymag.com.

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The post The New Territory Magazine Receives Missouri Humanities Grant to Support The Pageturner: Hearing Place Conference in Weston September 22 appeared first on The New Territory Magazine.

We seek brief essays (~600 words), accompanied by a photo of the site, to publish on The New Territory website for Literary Landscapes. This is an ongoing series on the website, with highlights published in the print magazine. All contributors will receive a one-year New Territory subscription as a thank-you.

It’s essential that this series represent the diversity of the Midwest, including the authors, contributors, and the types of landscapes and visuals that we publish. With that in mind, we especially seek pitches from Indigenous, people of color, people with disabilities, and LGBTQ+ contributors.

Here are a few possibilities from The New Territory team. Select one of these or pitch your own! Send inquiries and pitches to Departments Editor Andy Oler at andy@newterritorymag.com.

A (limited) list of potential sites:
*We will regularly add to this list and remove names/sites that have been “claimed” by a contributor. Last updated 6/20/2025.

• Hanif Abdurraqib (Columbus, OH)
• Kaveh Akbar (Warsaw, Indianapolis, or Lafayette, IN; Iowa City, IA)
• Lynda Barry (Richland Center or Footville, WI, or Chicago, IL)
• b: william bearheart (Turtle Lake, WI)
• Ana Castillo (Chicago, IL)
• Charles W. Chesnutt (Cleveland, OH)
• Maxine Clair (Kansas City, KS)
• Elizabeth Cook-Lynn (Crow Creek Reservation, SD)
• Violet Kazue de Cristoforo (Jerome War Relocation Center, AR)
• William Cunningham (sites from the Green Corn Rebellion in eastern Oklahoma)
• Ella Cara Deloria (Yankton or Standing Rock Reservations, or sites in Vermillion or Rapid City, SD)
• Rita Dove (Akron, OH)
• Louise Erdrich (all over! we are considering an Erdrich-focused volume)
• Paul Laurence Dunbar (Dayton, OH)
• Ralph Ellison (Oklahoma City, OK; Gary, IN; Chicago, IL)
• Eve L. Ewing (Chicago, IL)
• B. H. Fairchild (Tulsa, OK, or small towns and oil fields in Oklahoma or Kansas)
• Ross Gay (Bloomington, IN)
• Susan Glaspell (Davenport or Des Moines, IA)
• Paul Goble (Rapid City, SD)
• Zane Grey (Zanesville, OH, or sites from his westerns)
• Woody Guthrie (Okemah, OK, or sites from Bound for Glory)
• Joy Harjo (Tulsa, OK)
• E. Lynn Harris (Little Rock, AR)
• Velina Hasu Houston (Junction City, KS)
• Scott Heim (Hutchinson, KS)
• LeAnne Howe (Edmond or Stillwater, OK)
• Lawson Fusao Inada (Jerome War Relocation Center, AR)
• Cynthia Kadohata (Chicago, IL, or Springdale, AR)
• Elmore Leonard (Detroit, MI, or characters from Detroit, MI, Norman, OK, etc.)
• Oscar Micheaux (Gregory County, SD, or Great Bend, KS)
• Janice Mirikitani (Rohwer War Relocation Center, AR)
• N. Scott Momaday (Lawton, OK)
• Bich Minh Nguyen (Fort Chaffee, AR; Grand Rapids, MI; Ann Arbor, MI; West Lafayette, IN; Madison, WI)
• Ohiyesa/Charles Eastman (Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois)
• Tillie Olsen (Wahoo or Omaha, NE)
• Otokichi Ozaki (Jerome War Relocation Center, AR)
• Harvey Pekar (Cleveland, OH)
• Celia C. Pérez (Chicago, IL)
• Nate Powell (Bloomington, IN; Little Rock, AR)
• Susan Power (Chicago, IL)
• James Whitcomb Riley (Greenfield, IN)
• Tomás Rivera (Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, or Wisconsin)
• Damon Runyon (Manhattan, KS)
• Matȟó Nážiŋ/Luther Standing Bear (Rosebud or Pine Ridge, SD)
• Ruth Suckow (Hawarden, IA, or many other towns/farms/landscapes in Iowa)
• Joyce Carol Thomas (Ponca City, OK)
• Taitetsu Unno (Rohwer War Relocation Center, AR)
• V. “Valhalla” Vale (Jerome War Relocation Center, AR)
• Gerald Vizenor (Minneapolis or White Earth Reservation, MN)
• John Albert Williams (Omaha, NE)
• Xéhachiwinga/Mountain Wolf Woman (Black River Falls, WI)
• Ray Young Bear (Meskwaki Settlement, IA)

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