This collection encompasses 50-plus years of interviews, readings, speeches, and reports on the vibrant literary scene in Minnesota. Not only home to giants F. Scott Fitzgerald and Sinclair Lewis, our state has an array of incredible contemporary poets, novelists, and playwrights. Their words make up majority of this collection.
Repeatedly being named the “Most Literate City in the United States,” the Twin Cities has played host to numerous visiting national writers via book tours, festivals, and lectures. Many recordings of these are also included.
This project was funded by the National Historical Publications & Records Commission.
May 20, 1997 - Public and private landholders are challenging Chippewa Indian's plans to take fish and other game in eastern Minnesota, under terms of an 1837 treaty. But miles north of the region under contention, Chippewa Indians have been harvesting fish and wild rice and hunting moose and deer on public lands with little fanfare, and no public protests.
May 23, 1997 - "My First Trip Up North" by John Sonnen, a retired real estate agent and writer who lives in St. Paul. We heard an excerpt from a memoir published in "The Minnesota Volunteer," the magazine of the Department of Natural Resources.
May 23, 1997 -
May 26, 1997 - A Voices of Minnesota interview with Joe Gomer, one of the Tuskegee Airman during World War II. Also Walter Benjamin of Hamline University, author of "War & Reflection." He looks back on his experiences as a member of the Navy in World War II and the ongoing meaning it has in his life.
May 30, 1997 - 1997 happens to be the 100th anniversary of the publication of Emily Bronte's classic novel, "Wuthering Heights". In honor of the novel's centennial year, an experimental theater company in Minneapolis called 15 Head, has brought the story to the stage. But the production lends itself more to the world of dreams than the world of theatrical adaptations of literary classics.
May 30, 1997 -
May 31, 1997 - Kids are staring their summer vacation and you know what that means--within 48-hours they'll claim utter boredom. Well, Curious George and Dr. Seuss may save the day. But choosing a book is a challenge. The Red Balloon Book Shop in St. Paul and the children's section of many public libraries are great places for kids and parents to find books. The owner of the Red Balloon--Michelle Cromer-Poire' says book sellers and libriarans are good resources.
June 13, 1997 - John Henricksson, "A Parliament of Owls," from North Writers II - The Lives Around Us edited by John Henricksson, published April 1997 by University of Minnesota Press.
June 19, 1997 -
June 20, 1997 - Adapted from the book The Bird in the Waterfall: Exploring the Wonders of Water by Jerry Dennis, with drawings by Glenn Wolff. Published by HarperCollins Publishers, 1996.