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.
August 30, 2006 - One of the oldest traditions at the Minnesota State Fair is experiencing Ye Old Mill, which is celebrating its ninety-third year at the fair in 2006. Minneapolis poet Leslie Ball took a ride, and sent us this.
August 30, 2006 - Why is History so important?Two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David McCullough answered that and many other questions in a recent appearance at the Aspen Institute.
August 31, 2006 - Minneapolis poet Leslie Ball snuck into the poultry barn a bit early this morning, to hear what it sounds like when hundreds of roosters wake up together.
August 31, 2006 - The Guthrie Theater recently opened its Dowling Studio, announcing a line-up of 17 plays for its first season. It's been two months since the Guthrie Theater moved from its original location on Vineland Place to the bold blue building on the Minneapolis riverfront. Now that the theater has settled into it's new space we thought it was about time to check into how the company and its audience have received it.
September 1, 2006 - In this final installment of Notes from Home series, MPR’s Sanden Totten sits down with Maya Lopez-Santamaria, author of “Musica de la Raza,” a book that tells the story of Minnesota's Mexican and Chicano musicians.
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.