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.
November 26, 2007 - MPR’s Gary Eichten interviews Minnesota writer Jim Klobuchar about his book "Pieces of My Heart: Everyone has an Everest." Klobuchar, an award-winning former columnist for the Star Tribune, discusses collection of essays about the people on his travels who have inspired him.
November 28, 2007 - Misfits. Rebels. Anti-rock stars. Those are just some of the descriptions of one of Minnesota's most notorious and influential rock bands, The Replacements. The group became synonymous with the Twin Cities' music heyday of the 1980s. Now, more than 15-years after its break-up, the band has achieved near myth status among many fans and critics. Writer Jim Walsh has assembled an oral history entitled "The Replacements: All Over but the Shouting."
November 28, 2007 - Morning Edition’s Cathy Wurzer interviews author Carrol Henderson about his book “"Oology and Ralph's Talking Eggs” and bird history/conservation in North America. The book details new discoveries that have come from researching a collection of about 4,000 bird eggs gathered by an Iowa farmer named Ralph Handsaker.
December 3, 2007 - Arvonne Fraser recounts her life in politics.Arvonne Fraser has been a force in Minnesota's DFL Party for more than half a century. Fraser, who is married to former U.S. Rep. Don Fraser, disussed her new memoir "She's No Lady" recently with public radio icon Garrison Keillor.
December 14, 2007 - A non-game wildlife expert from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources takes questions about how birds and other wildlife behave in winter. Guest: Carrol Henderson: Non-game wildlife specialist at the Minnesota Dempartment of Natural Resources. Henderson is the author of "Oology: Ralph's Talking Eggs."
December 20, 2007 - BIll Holm speaks at the Minneapolis Library series Talk of the Stacks. Holm talks about what living in Iceland teaches you about America in his book "Windows of Brimnes: An American In Iceland."
December 24, 2007 - A memorial service is being planned for early next year for Carol Bly. She died of ovarian cancer on Friday at the age of 77. Bly is being remembered as an exemplary writer and an excellent mother. She was a fiction writer, essayist and creative writingA memorial service is being planned for early next year for Carol Bly. She died of ovarian cancer on Friday at the age of 77. Bly is being remembered as an exemplary writer and an excellent mother . She was a fiction writer, essayist and creative writing teacher. Carol Bly was born in Duluth, but spent part of her childhood living with her aunts in rural North Carolina because her mother was often hospitalized. Bly talked about her mother during an interview with Dan Olson in March of 1999.
December 25, 2007 - Truman Capote reads his story "A Christmas Memory," Garrison Keillor does a Christmas "News from Lake Wobegon," and Dan Olson reads the famous 1897 New York Sun Christmas letter "Is there a Santa Claus."
December 25, 2007 - Stage Session's "The Traditions of Christmas: Those You Want and Those That Are Foisted Upon You," with Heather McElhatton and guest poet Bill Holm, who present an eclectic Christmas show featuring an unexpected mix of literature, music and more.
January 16, 2008 - MPR’s Marriane Combs interviews poet Robery Bly and actor Mark Rylance about Guthrie Theater’s “Peer Gynt” production.