‘March is the maddest month’: New book spins classic Eliot poem into a Lawrence lore-studded epic

“Day After the Waste Land,” written by Will Averill and illustrated by Kent Smith, is part graphic novel, part adult children’s book, and a full reimagining of T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land,” according to the author.

“Personally, I think T.S. Eliot probably would have hated this poem,” Averill said. “But also, you know, there’s ‘Cats,’ too. So I’m like, I think I did him better than ‘Cats.’”

Averill is a playwright, puppeteer, comedian, all-around storyteller and longtime Lawrencian. His first publication, in the mid-1980s, was a short story in then-Central Junior High School’s magazine. 

He found Eliot’s modernist view of London presented in “The Waste Land” to be too stodgy as a young reader, until he followed in Eliot’s footsteps and moved to England, when he reread the poem multiple times.

Averill moved back to Lawrence in 2008, where he again studied the piece in his degree course at KU. 

“And I thought, well, London has the Thames and Lawrence has the Kaw,” he said. “There’s no reason that both cities, both with rivers running through them, couldn’t be equally a grounds for an exploration of this piece.”

By 2013, he began tinkering with Eliot’s famous first line — “April is the cruelest month” — and realized that the obvious refrain should be “March is the maddest month,” in reference to basketball season.

The five sections of the book, modeled after the five movements of “The Waste Land,” began pouring out from there. 

Averill pulls in elements of sports and basketball history, the booming service industry and dynamics between students and townies. Downtown’s planters became allegories for the cycles of death and regrowth in nature found in Eliot’s work, and landmark Mass Street graffiti “formed the mantra” for an emotional coda.

Even the book’s title comes from the 1983 made-for-TV movie “The Day After,” which was partially filmed in town.

“There was a guy who had his foot amputated and put it in a jar on his porch in East Lawrence for a while, and I’ve always thought that was a fascinating story, the sort of stories that make up the urban legend of childhood,” Averill said. “… Those stories when I was a kid became kind of apocryphal urban legends about the community, and so I tried to throw those in as my postmodern take on some of Eliot’s classic poetic references.”

He also asks the reader to consider more suppressed aspects of Lawrence’s history, such as the Iⁿ‘zhúje‘waxóbe, or Sacred Red Rock, which was recently rematriated with the Kaw Nation, or the group of protesters at a 2016 city commission meeting who called on commissioners to declare solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and with members of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe who were fighting against construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. 

“I think it’s such an important part of the history and culture of this town to recognize, not only do we, you know, say that we’re an intensely liberal town, but then do we back that up?” Averill asked. “And sometimes I think we fall short of that.”

Ultimately, this rendition of “The Waste Land” isn’t a parody or a rewrite — Averill says it’s akin to the work of a cheeky cover band.

“It’s a slightly snarky love letter,” he said. “It’s a love letter from a friend that likes to take the piss out of you occasionally.”

Smith’s illustrations invoke the snarky, sensory and sometimes smelly experiences Averill writes about.

His polished artworks are easily spotted around town, including on the labels of multiple Free State beers. Yet many of his contributions to “Day After” come straight from his notebook, generated during his personal urban sketching adventures.

“It got to be a celebration of the sketch and the moment, and kind of like capturing more of the energy, or allowing things to be a bit wonky or a little boiled,” he said. “And it was a nice fit for the vibe and the energy of the poem.”

Smith was enticed by the poem, which felt like a personal time capsule — and reminded him how sorely he misses the Cheese & Salami Shoppe that lived at 801 Mass St. until its closure in 2009.

“I love the callbacks,” he said. “… I love that it can transport me not only back to the cheese shop, but just past times in life. I can celebrate it as it is today, and I can also remember and think about these golden times, or these memories and stages of where I was at and what I was doing.”

As Eliot did for some editions of “The Waste Land,” Averill has annotated his text to reveal the story behind the story, hoping it will tug at the heartstrings of any reader, Lawrencian or not, who feels a strong sense of home.

“Even if it’s not necessarily a place that they’ve been, I think they will resonate with this idea of looking at your hometown, looking at it both as a sanctuary and as a prison, sometimes, and appreciating the best and the worst of it,” he said. “And I think that is universal.”

Book events coming up

“Day After the Waste Land,” with page layout done by local writer Amber Fraley, comes out from Lawrence-based publisher Anamcara Press on Friday, Nov. 14.

Readers will have two opportunities to snag a copy of the book before then and celebrate with the author and illustrator.

A pre-release event with a reading hosted by the publisher will take place from 7 to 9 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 4 at Maceli’s Banquet Hall & Catering, 1031 New Hampshire St. Tickets range from $40 to $50 and include autographed copies of the book; they’re available here.

An additional free Q&A is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 11, at the Raven Book Store, 809 Massachusetts St. Learn more here.

Wulfe Wulfemeyer (they/them), reporter and news editor, has worked with The Lawrence Times since May 2025. They can be reached at wulfe@lawrencekstimes.com.

Read their complete bio here. Read their work for the Times here.

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