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.
October 28, 1985 - MPR’s Bill Catlin reports on Garrison Keillor making the cover of Time Magazine. Catlin interviews Time editors on how and why Keillor was chosen.
November 11, 1985 - Tomie DePaola, children's book author and illustrator; and Al Greenfield, reading specialist with the Minnesota Department of Education, discuss reading and literacy. Other topics include wordless books and verbal skills. DePaola and Greenfield also answer listener questions about literacy problems for children and adults.
January 18, 1986 - MPR’s Mark Heistad interviews Charles Johnson, a professor at Macalester University, about Hmong folktales. Johnson is the author of collected Hmong traditional folk stories translated in English for ESL studies.
February 5, 1986 - MPR’s Loren Omoto gets insights from Don Boxmeyer, St. Paul Pioneer Press and dispatch columnist, on the efforts in creating very tall ice palace on Lake Phalen for the 1986 Winter Carnival.
April 4, 1986 - MPR’s Beth Friend profiles Minnesota writer and performer Kevin Kling. Segment includes an interview with Kling about his plays and on pushing stage boundaries.
May 1, 1986 - Poet, author, and farmer Wendell Berry speaks at the College of Saint Benedict in Saint Joseph. The speech is entitled "In Defense of the Family Farm."
May 16, 1986 - Ely’s Jackpine Bob Cary predicts a big fish opener for Minnesota anglers. Cary comments on fish…and politics.
May 27, 1986 - MPR’s Kate Moos talks with St. Paul’s Ann Bancroft about her expedition to the South Pole. Bancroft recounts the challenges of being in the Arctic.
May 29, 1986 - On this Midday program, Paul Gruchow is interviewed and answers listener questions about the Minnesota prairie and his book, Journal of a Prairie Year.
May 30, 1986 - As Minnesota Press Club prepares to host a publisher and writers conference, MPR’s Loren Omoto interviews local writer Will Shetterly about the conference and discusses the history of The Scribblies, a group of local fantasy and science fiction writers that came together in 1981 to develop their writing talents.