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.
March 10, 2008 - The warmer weather has some Minnesotans wondering whether we might finally be headed for spring. Morning Edition commentator Peter Smith is looking ahead to his spring exercise program, and he says it's not going to be pretty.
March 12, 2008 - Midday presents recording of prominent Minnesotans sharing stories about Minnesota during a story telling event put on by the 2008 Minnesota Sesquicentennial Commission. Mark Seeley, University of Minnesota Climatologist; Carl Eller, professional football hall of famer; Al Quie, former Minnesota Governor; Amy Klobuchar, U.S. Senator (D-MN), and more gathered to wax Minnesota during a story telling event put on by the 2008 Minnesota Sesquicentennial Commission.
March 20, 2008 - Reknowned Minnesota author Jon Hassler died this morning. Hassler wrote about small town Minnesota life in novels such as "Staggerford," "Rookery Blues" and "The Dean's List." In 1999 Hassler told Minnesota Public Radio that he got his first real training as a novelist while working as a boy at his father's grocery store in Plainview.
March 20, 2008 - Famed Minnesota novelist Jon Hassler died early this morning. Hassler was 74 and had suffered from Parkinson disease. He had a string of novels to his name, many of them examining the intricacies of life in small Minnesota towns.
March 25, 2008 - Midday remembers Jon Hassler in his own words, rebroadcasting an interview he did with MPR in 1999. Midday host Mike Edgerly then talks with two of Hassler's longtime friends - Bill Holm, a fellow Minnesota literary figure and author of Windows of Brimnes: An American In Iceland;” and Nick Hayes, friend and colleague of Hassler, and a professor at St. John's University. The two remark on the impact of his work, both as a writer and a teacher.
March 27, 2008 - If you're one of many Minnesotans who would like the wintery weather to stop and spring to truly arrive you are not alone. Commentator Peter Smith has a fierce case of cabin fever.
March 27, 2008 - During the Depression, the Civilian Conservation Corps helped propel the conservation of Minnesota's natural resources, and it gave jobs to more than 77,000 Minnesotans. Author Barbara Sommer captures the stories of these workers in her new book, "Hard Work and a Good Deal: The Civilian Conservation Corps in Minnesota." She joins Midday to discuss her book as part of our coverage of Minnesota's sesquicentennial. Guest: Barbara Sommer: Author of "Hard Work and a Good Deal: The Civilian Conservation Corps in Minnesota.Part of MPR's original series "Minnesota Arrival", stories relating to Minnesota's 150th anniversary of statehood.
April 9, 2008 - Some of the most seasoned theater professionals in the Twin Cities are working together to show what life is like after 70. Their play is called "Exit Strategy" and opens this weekend at Mixed Blood Theater in Minneapolis.
April 12, 2008 - The Minnesota Book Awards will be presented tonight at a ceremony at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in St Paul. Awards are presented in eight categories, including novel and short story, memoir, Minnesota books and poetry. The event is organized by the friends of the St Paul Library. Awards co-chair Elaine Hopkins says the event has attracted a great deal of attention.
April 28, 2008 - One of Minnesota's best-known novelists, Louise Erdrich, discusses her book “A Plague of Doves,” a story that weaves together the murder of a family, a lynching of men innocent of the crime, and the tangled relationships of Ojibwe and whites living around the dying town of Pluto, North Dakota.