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.
August 21, 2002 - Syndicated columnist and award-winning author Richard Reeves speaking about Richard Nixon's presidency.
August 27, 2002 - A new book explores how Minnesota-born artist Wanda Gag transformed children's literature and illustrating in the 1920's. Gag's books "Millions of Cats" and "The A-B-C Bunny" both won Newbury Awards. She's known as the first children's book author to draw an illustration that covers two pages of a book. Julie L'Enfant is a professor at the College of Visual Arts in St. Paul. Her book--entitled "The Gag Family: German-Bohemian Artists in America," looks at newly discovered works and documents. It explores how Wanda Gag's family and her life in New Ulm influenced her work. The patriarch of the family--Anton Gag--was a German-Bohemian immigrant who settled in New Ulm in 1879. He was an artist and one of the first photographers in the region. Julie L'Enfant says although Anton died of tuberculosis at a young age--he encouraged his seven children to live freely and to become artists...
August 27, 2002 - The Gag Family: German-Bohemian Artists in America explores how Minnesota-born artist Wanda Gag transformed children's literature and illustrating in the 1920's. Julie L'Enfant, professor at the College of Visual Arts in St. Paul, discusses her book with MPR’s Greta Cunningham.
August 28, 2002 - A new literary magazine that's based in Minnesota will hit newsstands across the country this week. It's called "Speakeasy," and it's published by the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis. The editors of the magazine want it to serve both people who love to write, and those who love to read. Bart Schneider is the editor of "Speakeasy." He says the premier issue covers a variety of topics.
September 10, 2002 - In the year since the terrorist attacks, thousands of copies of a book by a St. Paul author have made their way to the families of the September 11th victims. The book is called "The Next Place." It's a children's book about dealing with loss and grief. After 9/11, several people contacted author Warren Hanson because they wanted to share his book with people affected by the attacks. Eventually, some Minnesota schools got copies, and students wrote notes in the books before they were shipped to victims' families. Hanson says it all started with an e-mail he received on the morning of September 13th.
September 10, 2002 - In the year since the terrorist attacks, thousands of copies of a book by a St. Paul author have made their way to the families of the September 11th victims. The book is called "The Next Place." It's a children's book about dealing with loss and grief.
September 20, 2002 - New York Times foreign affairs columnist Thomas Friedman's Twin Cities speech The World After September 11th. He spoke at Temple Israel in Minneapolis Thursday night.
September 25, 2002 - Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter Judith Miller, author of the best-selling book, Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War" and Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy. He is author of "Living Terrors: What America Needs to Know to Survive the Coming Bio-Terrorist Catastrophe." They participated in the "Great Conversations" series sponsored by the U of M College of Continuing Education.
October 7, 2002 - Minneapolis writer Norah Labiner's (Lab-in-er's) new novel "Miniatures" takes readers into the lives of a reclusive literary couple. Owen Leib {Lee-ib} has returned to Ireland after years of self-imposed exile. Owen fled to Paris after his first wife, Franny, supposedly committed suicide in 1964. There are rumors surrounding Franny's unpublished second novel--and speculation about the circumstances surrounding her death. I spoke to Labiner about her book--and the unusual way she began the novel. "Miniatures" begins with a list of how many famous people met their untimely demise--from F. Scott Fitzgerald's death while eating a chocolate bar--to Virginia's Woolf's suicidal drowning.
October 7, 2002 - Minneapolis writer Norah Labiner's new novel "Miniatures" takes readers into the lives of a reclusive literary couple. Owen Leib has returned to Ireland after years of self-imposed exile. Owen fled to Paris after his first wife, Franny, supposedly committed suicide in 1964. There are rumors surrounding Franny's unpublished second novel--and speculation about the circumstances surrounding her death. I spoke to Labiner about her book--and the unusual way she began the novel. "Miniatures" begins with a list of how many famous people met their untimely demise--from F. Scott Fitzgerald's death while eating a chocolate bar--to Virginia's Woolf's suicidal drowning.