Kathleen Holt
Coordinator, HPPR Radio Readers Book ClubKathleen Holt has served High Plains Public Radio—in one way or another—since its inception in 1979. Currently “quasi-retired,” she volunteers as Coordinator of the HPPR Radio Readers Book Club. As a former HPPR staff member, Holt worked with a board committee to establish Legacy and Endowed Funds to provide for public radio into the future. Holt’s community development projects have upgraded the signals for many of HPPR’s translators, including KCSE (Prowers County, Colorado) and KONQ established with a partnership with Dodge City Community College to bring full time public radio to the area. “The thing I love best about the book club is re-connecting with many HPPR supporters across the High Plains, while also meeting new public radio friends across the five-state region," Holt says. "It’s not only about friends, but those friends are readers ready to explore the issues we all face living and working in our region.”
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For the past several weeks, the HPPR Radio Readers Book Club has been exploring something that shapes our lives every day, whether we notice it or not: wind and weather. Here on the High Plains, we know something about both. -
On January 12, 1888, what began as an ordinary winter morning across the Great Plains became one of the deadliest weather disasters in American history. A sudden Arctic front swept across the prairie with little warning, trapping children on their way home from one-room schools, isolating families, and forever changing the communities that survived it. -
Every High Plains family seems to have a tornado story. Some are rooted in history. Some become family legends. Others begin with the simple words, "My dad always used to say..." Long before weather apps, Doppler radar, and instant alerts, people learned to live with the uncertainty of tornadoes by sharing stories—some practical, some reassuring, and some simply unforgettable. -
Every place has its own weather, and every landscape leaves its mark on the people who live there. While the High Plains are shaped by wind, wide horizons, and sudden storms, Florida is a place of heat, humidity, lush landscapes, and the ever-present possibility of hurricanes. -
We rarely stop to think about the wind. We feel it on our faces, watch it ripple through wheat fields, hear it rustle the trees, yet it remains one of nature's most familiar—and most mysterious—forces. Invisible but ever present, the wind has shaped landscapes, influenced history, inspired artists and scientists, and quietly touched our lives every day. -
If I close my eyes, I can still hear my dad. It was the 1950s, and every evening our family gathered around the dinner table. There were six of us—Mom and Dad, three girls, and one brother. We were not a quiet family. Suppertime was noisy, full of stories about school, chores, neighbors, and whatever had happened that day. -
The HPPR Radio Readers Book Club's 2026 Fall Read, Wind & Weather, explores our enduring relationship with the natural world through four remarkable books that move us through the seasons—and through the power of the atmosphere itself. -
Welcome to this special edition of the HPPR Radio Readers Book Club’s celebration of Route 66 – 100 Years on the Mother Road. This iconic road has been called everything from the Mother Road to America’s Main Street to the Will Rogers Highway. -
With many thanks to the host poets of Season Two of Poets on the Plains, we welcome five new host poets to Season Three. You may remember that toward the end of each season, each host poet selects a successor, sometimes from the list of featured poets in the season and sometimes a surprise newcomer. Today’s opening features High Plains Morning host Jenny Inzerillo in an interview with Kansas Poet Laureate and Poets on the Plains founder Traci Brimhall. -
The HPPR Radio Readers Book Club 2026 Spring Read: 100 Years on the Mother Road came to a close with a panel discussion held on Historic Route 66 in Amarillo at ChapterHouse Books on Saturday, May 2, 2026.
