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.
May 2, 2008 - Minnesota writer Leif Enger's new novel, "So Brave, Young and Handsome," is a tribute to the Western. An old cowboy seeks forgiveness from his estranged wife as he tries to shake a pursuing Pinkerton detective. And the book's narrator is a writer attempting to match the success of his first book. Enger's first novel, "Peace Like a River," was a best-seller.
May 6, 2008 - The cabin in wilderness writer Sigurd Olson's "Listening Point" has been named to the National Register of Historic Places. Olson wrote nine books, including "The Singing Wilderness" and "Listening Point," named after a spot on an island in Burntside Lake. The cabin is maintained by the Listening Point Foundation. Executive Director Alanna (ah-LAH-nuh) Johnson says Olson worked for wilderness preservation on a national level, but he lived for many years in Ely.
May 7, 2008 - The federal government has recognized Sigurd Olson's rustic cabin on Burntside Lake in northeastern Minnesota as historically significant.
May 7, 2008 - Morning Edition’s Cathy Wurzer talks with Hmong author Kao Kalia Yang about her book “The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir.” Yang also describes her family life experience and transition to living in the United States.
May 12, 2008 - Writer Bill Holm is celebrating a little. Today the McKnight Foundation named him its 2008 Distinguished Artist. The award carries a fifty-thousand dollar stipend. Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr called Holm to talk about the news and found him looking both forward and back.
May 12, 2008 - The McKnight Foundation today gave writer Bill Holm its 2008 Distinguished Artist Award. The award includes a fifty-thousand dollar grant.
May 29, 2008 - This weekend two stage veterans who have worked together on and off since the early 1960's will present their latest collaboration. Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr reports Wendy Lehr and Bain Boehlke will star in "The Gin Game" at the Jungle Theater in Minneapolis.
June 13, 2008 - A new production at the Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis is trying to bring the experience of being online to the stage. "SadGrrl13" tells the tale of a missing girl, the journalists covering the story and the internet vigilantes trying to bring online predators to justice.
June 18, 2008 - In a recent Twin Cities appearance, bestselling author David Sedaris read from his new book, "When You Are Engulfed in Flames." Midday broadcasts part of his reading, as well as his interview with Minnesota Public Radio reporter Nikki Tundel.
July 14, 2008 - Lin Enger's new novel "Undiscovered Country" explores the effect of a northern Minnesota man's apparent suicide on his family. Enger teaches writing at Minnesota State University Moorhead, and under the pen name L.L. Enger, has written several crime novels with his brother Leif. Lin Enger told Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr that "Undiscovered Country" began with a thought he had while sitting in a deerstand a dozen years ago.