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.
January 16, 2001 - A Minnesota Author has won the American Library Association's prestigious Newbery Honor for Children's Literature. Kate DiCamillo's book "Because of Winn-Dixie" follows the friendship of ten year old India Opal Buloni and a stray dog named Winn-Dixie during their first summer together in a small Florida town. DiCamillo says she is still recovering from the shock of finding out she had won.
January 30, 2001 - A new American Radioworks documentary, Prison Diaries.
January 31, 2001 - Author Margaret Atwood, speaking recently as part of the Pen Pals Lecture Series sponsored by the Library Foundation of Hennepin County. Her latest book is The Blind Assassin.
February 16, 2001 - Texas author and radio commentator Jim Hightower discusses his new book, If the Gods Had Meant Us To Vote They Would Have Given Us Candidates.
February 28, 2001 - Music producer T. Bone Burnett joins Gary Eichten from Los Angeles to talk about his latest movie "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" and his life in the music world. On the program, T. Bone mentioned three artists to check out if you like the soundtrack from "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" They are Elizabeth Cotton, Skip James, and Washington Phillips.
February 28, 2001 - The last day of February means anglers have to take their ice houses off Minnesota lakes. But with so much snow on the ground, skiing and snowmobiling enthusiasts are still living it up. And for some Minnesotans, another winter activity could start any day -- maple sugaring. The season is unpredictable -- requiring warm days and cold nights. Author Susan Carol Hauser writes about maple sugaring and is preparing to tap the trees near her Bemidji-area home. She says according to folklore a wet winterlike the one we've had means more sap.
March 15, 2001 - A Macalester College speech given this week by NAACP Chairman and 40-year civil rights leader Julian Bond.
March 22, 2001 - Minnesota Author Evelyn Fairbanks has died at the age of 72. Fairbanks wrote "Days of Rondo," a memoir about growing up in St. Paul's largest black neighborhood in the 1930's and '40's. The Rondo neighborhood was razed in the 1960's to make way for interstate 94. Fairbank's book was published in 1990 and is now in its fourth printing. In 1991, Fairbanks gave up city life and moved to the outskirts of tiny Onamia, Minnesota, where she operated a 20 acre tree farm. In a 1995 interview with Minnesota Public Radio's Beth Friend, Fairbanks described why she was drawn to the country.
April 3, 2001 - In the first half of the 20th century, the union movement in Minneapolis grew with the city. Minneapolis was the flour milling capitol of the country, and OTHER industries that supported flour milling, like banking and machine tools were growing as well. Unions were trying organize the workers, but were opposed by a coalition of employers that came to be known as the Citizens Alliance. The story of how these employers blunted the union movement in Minneapolis is the subject of a new book titled "A Union Against Unions." Author William Millikan says at the turn of the century, employers in Minneapolis didn't really have to worry about unions. But in 1902, the Teamsters went on strike, and employers had to change.
April 9, 2001 - MPR’s Lorna Benson interviews author and Minnesota Twins fan Mick Cochrane, who grew up watching team during one of the their winning streaks in the late 1960's. His love for the team inspired his latest novel, Sport. In the book, 13-year-old Harlan uses the regular rhythm of baseball and his beloved Twins to anchor his increasingly chaotic life.