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.
July 22, 2008 -
July 24, 2008 - Joel Achenbach, author of "The Grand Idea: George Washington's Potomac and the Race to the West," talked about George Washington and his vision for America at this summer's Aspen Ideas Festival.
July 30, 2008 - Political ambition and class identity drive the plot of a new novel by Ethan Canin. The Iowa Writer's Workshop instructor takes his inspiration from the Kennedy family, in particular Ted Kennedy.
July 31, 2008 - The 15th annual Minnesota Fringe Festival, the midwest's biggest performing arts festival, opens today. For the next ten days actors and dancers will perform in over 150 shows throughout Minneapolis. Covering the event seemed an impossible task for one reporter - so we sent out four to see what's in store for Fringe-goers this year.
August 10, 2008 - Well-loved St. Paul Pioneer Press columnist Don Boxmeyer died Sunday after a long illness.
August 11, 2008 - Former St. Paul Mayor George Latimer remembering Don Boxmeyer. Boxmeyer, who wrote for the St. Paul Pioneer Press for over 35 years, died ysterday at the age of 67.
August 12, 2008 - As the media, politicans, protesters, and police all prepare for the upcoming Republican National Convention, in one man's mind it's already happened. And it's been chaotic. It's a pretty good bet that Bart Schneider has written the first book ever set during this year's RNC in Minnesota. His private eye protagonist Augie Boyer is right in the middle of it. Augie's adventures take him in and out of dozens of recognizable Twin Cities locations as he uncovers a murderous plot even as an absurd demonstration is being planned on the state Capitol grounds. I asked Bart Schneider about his book -- The Man in the Blizzard -- and it's crime noir hero.
August 15, 2008 - MPR’s Euan Kerr reports on a musical of “Little House on the Prairie” premiering in Minneapolis. Kerr talks with creative team member of show and others in the theatre scene about musical’s potential success.
August 18, 2008 - New York Times reporter David Carr thought his life might make a good book. So he wrote about the time of his life that was filled with drug use, parenting mishaps and close encounters with oblivion. It's a junkie memoir, but one that Carr says was reported, not invented.
September 23, 2008 - Many of the Twin Cities theaters, dance companies and music groups are quietly facing a leadership crisis. Many were started in the late 1960s and early 70s by members of the baby boomer generation. In the years since they've become an important part of the cultural scene and the local economy. Now, as those artists are approaching the traditional age of retirement, their organizations must decide whether to carry on without them, and if so, how.