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.
July 6, 1997 - This long holiday weekend is the perfect time to head up to the cabin with a good book. If you like stories set in Minnesota--you may want to consider packing Lorna Landvik's latest novel "Your Oasis on Flame Lake". The book is set in a small Minnesota town as two best friends from High School approach 40 and reassess their lives.
July 21, 1997 - Hume Cronyn is an acting renaissance man. He's been a famous stage actor since the 1930s. He's a playwright and a screenwriter. He acted on television in 1939, and he's been in movies since 1943's Shadow of a Doubt, when he played a rabid murder mystery fan.
August 8, 1997 - The Blandings Turtle is never going to attract attention like an eagle can, or a timberwolf, or a peregrine falcon. Turtles personify the low profile; but Blandings turtles are nevertheless a threatened species here. Now, researchers at Camp Ripley are tracking the reptiles' movements -- and taking their temperatures -- in a two-year study they hope will improve the turtles' modest hold in Minnesota.
August 15, 1997 - In Little Falls, a choral group is rehearsing, "View from the Air" a new work by Mankato State University professor David Dickau . It premieres this weekend as a part of the 70th anniversary celebration of Charles Lindbergh's famous flight across the Atlantic. Lindbergh grew up on a farm in Little Falls in central Minnesota. His daughter, children's author Reeve Lindbergh, who also wrote the poem this music is based on, returns to Little Falls this weekend to take part in the celebration.
August 16, 1997 - A St. Paul author is vying to become the next Tom Clancy. Vince Flynn's new book "Term Limits" is an espionage thriller set in Washington, DC. This self-published book is receiving a lot of attention--not bad for a guy who tended bar at O'Gara's by night so he could write by day.
August 18, 1997 - A Midday call-in program about ecumenism in religion and other trends in organized religion with studio guest Clark Morphew, St. Paul Pioneer Press religion writer and nationally syndicated columnist.
August 23, 1997 - There's something different in your St. Paul Pioneer Press. This week the paper began an 11-part newspaper novel called "Murder on a Stick." Each chapter of the novel is written by a different reporter--kind of like a long group chain letter. The project is the brainchild of Editor Walker Lundy--his inspiration came from the Miami Herald's "Naked Came the Manatee" and Newsday's "Naked Came the Stranger" series. The initial title for THIS project also included a "naked" reference. But the reporters thought "Naked Came the Corn Dog"--might overstep the boundaries of good taste. "Murder on a Stick" includes references to Corn Dogs, butter sculptures and other state fair traditions. Here now are reporters Larry Millett, Linda McDonald and Jim Ragsdale reading part of their contributions.
September 2, 1997 - As students and teachers head back to class today, one of the state's best-known teachers will be staying home. Jon Hassler, the author of novels like "The Dean's List" and "Staggerford", has retired after 42 years teaching high school and college.
September 26, 1997 - Gay-themed movies and T-V shows generally address the most broad themes of gay life, like the difficulty of coming out. Edmund White's latest book, "The Farewell Symphony," digs deeper into the trials and tribulations faced by homosexuals in American society today. Yet, taking a mentor's advice, White keeps you at a little distance, letting you draw your own conclusions. "The Farewell Symphony" is an autobiographical novel about White's repressive Midwest childhood and his life as a usually struggling writer in New York and Europe, during which time he had sex with thousands of men. In the title, White may be saying farewell to Brice, his lover of five years, who died of AIDS in 1994. This was White's first reciprocated love affair and you'd think he'd be more prominent in the book, but Brice makes only cameo appearances in "The Farewell Symphony." We learn why he's mostly quiet about Brice when White is reunited with an old flame.
October 1, 1997 - 2099 is a playlist In his new novel "Floating Kingdom", Minneapolis writer George Rabasa tells the story of a family living on a tiny island in the middle of the Rio Grande, smack in the middle of the border between the U.S. and Mexico.