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.
December 4, 2006 - St. Paul's Citywide Book Club will focus exclusively on Minnesota authors this year. It's a way to mark the 150th anniversary of the St. Paul Public Schools. The schools, together with the the City of St. Paul and the St Paul Public Library, announced seven selections today, including "The Things They Carried," Tim O'Brien's collection of short stories about the Vietnam war. St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman says he's proud of this selection because it can give Minnesotans perspective on what's happening in Iraq.
December 7, 2006 - To mark the anniversary of Peral Harbor attack, Midday talks with local author Dave Kenny on the Minnesotans' memories of Pearl Harbor. He has written a book Minnesota Goes to War. Program includes call-in commentary and questions.
December 25, 2006 - Stage Sessions, with Minnesota poet and author Bill Holm and host Heather, bring together an eclectic Christmas show featuring an unexpected mix of literature, music and more.
December 25, 2006 - "A Christmas Memory" and other stories. To keep you company this Christmas, Midday presents stories of the season from a host of top-flight story tellers, including Truman Capote, Garrison Keillor and David Sedaris.Hour 2: "Six to Eight Black Men," by David Sedaris. Read by the author in 2002 at Carnegie Hall in New York City. This story is included in Sedaris' latest book "Dress your Family in Corduroy and Denim." "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," by Dr. Seuss. Read by former Minnesota Public Radio host Bob Potter. "A View From the Card Table," by Kevin Kling. Read by the author on his CD, "Stories off the Shallow End." "The Polar Express," by Chris Van Allsburg. Read by Minnesota Public Radio's Dan Olson at the Fitzgerald Theater in 2004. Sound effects provided by Tom Keith.
December 25, 2006 - "A Christmas Memory" and other stories. To keep you company this Christmas, Midday presents stories of the season from a host of top-flight story tellers, including Truman Capote, Garrison Keillor and David Sedaris. Hour 1: "A Christmas Memory," by Truman Capote. Read by the author at the University of North Dakota's 1976 Writer's Conference. "Mr. Bergy's Christmas," by Garrison Keillor. Performed in 1991 on Keillor's radio show "A Prairie Home Companion." "Is There a Santa Claus?" This letter first appeared on the editorial page of the New York Sun newspaper in 1897. Minnesota Public Radio's Dan Olson reads the letter in only slightly altered form.
December 29, 2006 - Graywolf Press in St. Paul has announced that it's successfully completed a one-million-dollar fundraising campaign. That may seem like small potatoes compared to the accomplishments of other cultural institutions, but this is a singular feat in the world of literature.
January 11, 2007 - A capacity crowd is expected for a special reading at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis tonight. Writer Neil Gaiman and artist Dave McKean are one of the hottest teams in the comic book world. McKean combines painting, drawing, photography, and collage to create disturbing off-kilter images that complement Gaiman's brand of fantasy fiction. In a collaboration that's lasted 20 years so far, they have worked on the award-winning Sandman comic book series, several graphic novels, and four children's books. They have also made a film, "Mirrormask," which Gaiman wrote and McKean designed and directed. Both men are English, but Gaiman lives in the US and McKean in Britain.
January 22, 2007 - Hour 1 of Midday: Voices of Minnesota with Aviva Breen and Robert Treuer. Aviva Breen chairs the board of Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights. Robert Treuer grew up in a Jewish family in Austria and survived the human rights abuses of World War II. He is now a tree farmer near Bemidji. They both spoke to MPR's Dan Olson as part of his Voices of Minnesota interview series.
January 31, 2007 - Norman Mailer tells Hitler's story and his own.Even at 84, Norman Mailer hopes he still has one more book in him. This year Mailer released his first major work of fiction in a decade: "The Castle in the Forest," which is about the boyhood of Adolph Hitler. In a Jan. 23 discussion in New York City, Mailer said he'd like to write one more book before he dies.
February 5, 2007 - In this installment from The Bookshelf series, MPR’s Cathy Wurzer talks with State Senator Mee Moua about books that are important to her. Moua came to the United States as a Hmong refugee when she was nine years old, and she said that even though she never read books when she was young, stories were a big part of her childhood, particularly when she lived in a refugee camp in Thailand.