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.
June 7, 2001 - Postcard from a Lynching, an MPR special report about an ugly chapter in Duluth's history. Then Michael Fedo, author of The Lynchings in Duluth, and Augsburg College History Professor Bill Green discuss the documentary and respond to listener comments and questions.
June 7, 2001 - "Take the advice of no one." This is the credo of August Kleinmann, 78 year old immigrant, self-made millionaire and central character of Ethan Canin's new novel "Carry Me Across the Water." Canin is currently on the faculty of the Iowa Writers Workshop, although he's probably the only MD on the staff. He took a brief sojourn into medicine as a backup in case his writing career failed to take off. Canin told Minnesota Public Radio's Tom Crann the novel is the story of his hero's journey to the US and then his journey of atonement late in life, when he reaches out to the family of a Japanese soldier he killed during World War Two.
June 12, 2001 - Misti Snow writes Mindworks, the Star Tribune's monthly forum for young writers. She shares what she's been hearing from kids for the past 18 years on Midday.
June 26, 2001 - Most Minnesotans know what the word Minnesota means. It means "sky-tinted water." It's a combination of the Dakota Indian words "mini," which means water, and "sota," which means somewhat clouded. But do you know how your city or town got its name, or that nearby lake or river? The Minnesota Historical Society recently published the third edition of the book, "Minnesota Place Names," which explains how cities and other places got their names. Ann Regan is the managing editor of the Minnesota Historical Society Press.
July 9, 2001 - MPR’s Elizabeth Stawicki presents report on attempts to save the Ojibwe language. Report includes various interviews, including Jim Northrup. At one time more than 300 American Indian languages were spoken in the U.S. But with each passing generation, many of the indigenous languages have died; others are on the verge of disappearing. With that in mind, tribes from northern Wisconsin and Minnesota are trying to keep their Ojibwe language from going silent and along the way gain new insight into how their ancestors viewed the world.
July 16, 2001 - In Carol Muske-Dukes' novel "Life After Death" a St. Paul woman tells her husband, in a fit of anger, to drop dead. The following day he does just that, collapsing of a heart attack while playing tennis. She is left angry, confused, guilty, and troubled by strange memories, such as the time he proposed to her in New York. Carol Muske-Dukes says when she began writing "Life after Death", she intended to write a satire on the funeral industry in the spirit of Evelyn Waugh and Jessica Mittford. But as she did her research, talking to funeral directors, she began wanting to write a book about what actually happens to people, both living and dead, when someone passes away. Then, as she told Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr, things took a bizarre twist. The week she mailed the finished manuscript for publication, her own husband collapsed and died on a tennis court.
July 20, 2001 - A favorite speech for the summer by author Rebecca Wells. Wells is the author of Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood and Little Altars Everywhere. She visited the Twin Series during the 2000-2001 season of the Hennepin County Library Foundation's Pen Pals Lecture Series.
July 30, 2001 - MPR’s Annie Feidt interviews slam poet Thadra Sheridan. She is one of five local poets that are sharpening their words, and clearing their throats in perparation for this year's National Poetry Slam.
August 3, 2001 - Local author James Chiles talks about his new book, Inviting Disaster: Lessons from the Edge of Technology.
September 25, 2001 - Great religious minds reflect on tragedies surrounding September 11, 2001. As America moves beyond raw emotion and religious sentiment, this program explores theological and spiritual reflection for the long haul. Host Journalist-theologian Krista Tippett has gathered provocative reflections across a broad spectrum of faith, woven together with evocative sound and music. Guests: Richard Mouw, Christian philosopher and president of Fuller Theological Seminary. Joan Dehzad, Episcopal deacon and executive director of the Institute of New Americans. Rabbi Barry Cytron, director of the Jay Phillips Center for Jewish-Christian Learning.Patricia Hampl, poet and author of A Romantic Education and Virgin Time. Linda Loving, pastor at the House of Hope Presbyterian Church, St. Paul, Minnesota. Dan Grigassy, Franciscan friar and professor of liturgy, Washington Theological Union. Cynthia Eriksson, clinical psychologist at the Headington Program in International Trauma.