About the Artists

Alison Moore, Humanities Scholar
Alison Moore, MFA, is a former Assistant Professor of English/Creative Writing in the MFA Creative Writing Program at the University of Arizona and a current Humanities Scholar in Texas. She lives in Austin and is completing a novel on the Orphan Trains with a grant from the Texas Institute of Letters and the Dobie/Paisano Foundation of the University of Texas at Austin. She is the author of three books, a new collection of short stories entitled The Middle of Elsewhere (Phoenix International/University of Arkansas Press 2006), Small Spaces between Emergencies (Mercury House, 1992) one of the Notable Books of 1993 chosen by The American Library Association, and a novel, Synonym for Love (Mercury House 1995). In 2004 she received the Katherine Ann Porter Prize for Fiction. You can find more about Alison's books at http://www.alisonmoorebooks.com.

Phil Lancaster, Presenter/Audio-Visual Technician
Arkansas Arts on Tour musician Phil Lancaster (Professor Strings) was born in Texarkana and studied art and music at L'Ecole De Beaux Arts in Angers, France. He became a member of a bluegrass band that traveled and played throughout France and produced an album entitled "Bluegrass Oldies Ltd./Traveling Show." He also worked as a stage theatre technician for La Coursive Theatre Nationale in La Rochelle, France. After returning to the U.S. he met three Arkansas musicians and the acoustic quartet "Still on the Hill" was formed in Fayetteville. They released their first CD in 1997, the second in 2000. The group performed at national and international festivals. He currently lives in Austin and is a co-presenter of Riders on the Orphan Train. In 2007 he received an Arkansas Arts Council fellowship for Music Composition.

We were so moved by the documentary we saw on the Orphan Trains that we each wrote a ballad about the subject and began to research the material through the Orphan Train Heritage Society which turned out to be right in our backyard in Springdale, Arkansas. We were privileged to take part in The Orphan Train Heritage Society's tenth anniversary celebration in 1997, a reenactment of an orphan train ride from Springdale to Van Buren, Arkansas. We dressed in period costume and rode the train performing the songs we had written. The experience of seeing this event unfold visually in much the same way we had imagined it in writing the songs and the story was extraordinary. We hope to help bring this subject to public awareness through the medium of artistic performance, to extend what has become a personal passion that will teach as well as touch people concerned not only with an experience that is uniquely American but ultimately, deeply human.

Phil Lancaster & Alison Moore
351 Cowpoke Canyon, Austin, TX 78619
512-393-9457
ridersontheorphantrain@yahoo.com