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.
September 1, 2006 - On this Minnesota Public Radio day at the State Fair, Minneapolis poet Leslie Ball has a traditional State Fair breakfast - a bag of mini-donuts.
September 4, 2006 - Minneapolis poet Leslie Ball reads a poem in honor of the closing day at the 2006 Minnesota State Fair.
September 4, 2006 - MPR’s Tom Crann talks with Minneapolis poet Leslie Ball about her experience watching and writing about the Minnesota State Fair.
September 13, 2006 - Toni Morrison, who has won both the Nobel Prize in Literature and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, spoke about her writing Sept. 5 at Macalester College in St. Paul. Her talk was part of the inaugural lecture series for the college's Institute for Global Citizenship.
September 14, 2006 - When Joe Helgerson talks about the Mississippi, he talks stories. They are stories about the power and the mystery of the river. The Minneapolis-based writer's new children's novel " Horns and Wrinkles" dwells on the Mississippi's magic.
September 14, 2006 - MPR’s Tom Crann interviews Claire Kirch on her thoughts of Garrison Keillor opening his own bookstore. Keillor was unavailable for comment about his new venture.
September 18, 2006 - MPR’s Stephen Smith moderates a civil rights panel discussion with an author, an activist, a teacher and a former vice president of the United States at the Children's Theatre Company of Minneapolis.
September 26, 2006 - Last night marked the second annual Ivey Awards for Twin Cities theater. The awards recognize talent and creativity in 63 different participating theaters. This year's Lifetime Achievement Award went to Jack Reuler, who founded Mixed Blood Theater 30 years ago.
September 29, 2006 -
September 29, 2006 - At this Talking Volumes event, MPR's Kerri Miller and author David Treuer discuss his book, The Translation of Dr. Apelles. David Treuer's sly and heart-pounding novel tells a story within a story: A reclusive translator of ancient American Indian texts stumbles across a love story that upends his workaday world and triggers his own need for love.