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.
February 2, 2005 - Midday broadcasts A Writer's View program event at the Fitzgerald Theater for a discussion on true crime with Minnesota author Judith Guest. The writer is accompanied by pianist Dan Chouinard.
February 7, 2005 - Say the word 'lobotomy' nowadays, and the reaction will likely be either revulsion or gallows humor. For decades the operation was widely used to in the U.S. Between 40 and 50 thousand people are believed to have had the operation. A psychiatrist, Dr Walter Freeman developed the technique. A lobotomy involves severing parts of a patient's brain to treat mental illness. Freeman performed the operation on almost 3500 people, many of them during an out-patient procedure. Minneapolis author Jack El-Hai just completed a biography of Freeman called "The Lobotomist." El-Hai told Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr the lobotomy seems brutal now, but in the first half of the 20th century doctors treating mental illness had few viable options. We should note, this conversation deals with some detailed descriptions of brain surgery.
February 11, 2005 - MPR’s Dan Olson reports on a VocalEssence tribute to artist Gordon Parks. Report includes numerous commentaries.
February 16, 2005 - Minnesota author Judith Guest is drawn to the dark side of life. She loves reading the most lurid tales from the daily newspapers: the kidnappings and the murders. Her latest novel, "The Tarnished Eye," is based on the real-life unsolved killings of a father, mother and their four children.
February 17, 2005 - Author Mary Pipher is out with a new book that details what happened when her hometown of Lincoln, Neb. became an official refugee resettlement community. Pipher talks about writing "The Middle of Everywhere" in this live speech from the Westminster Town Hall Forum in Minneapolis.
February 25, 2005 - By the time you finish this sentence, you may very well have decided whether or not to listen to Malcolm Gladwell's speech at the Commonwealth Club of California. Gladwell's book "Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking" is about these kinds of split-second decisions: how they are made, why they are often surprisingly good and why they are sometimes tragically bad. Part 1
February 25, 2005 - By the time you finish this sentence, you may very well have decided whether or not to listen to Malcolm Gladwell's speech at the Commonwealth Club of California. Gladwell's book "Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking" is about these kinds of split-second decisions: how they are made, why they are often surprisingly good and why they are sometimes tragically bad. Part 2
March 2, 2005 - John Feinstein covered sports and politics in his eleven years at the Washington Post. He has written several bestselling books, including "A Season on the Brink" and "A Good Walk Spoiled," but Feinstein's latest novel is his first foray into the genre of young adult fiction. "Last Shot" is the story of two teenagers who win press passes to cover college basketball's Final Four and unearth a plot to fix the big game.
March 4, 2005 - For years New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman wrote prolifically on globalization. Then 9/11 happened, and the tragedy consumed his attention. Friedman has said he "lost the thread" of globalization for a while. His forthcoming book, "The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century," picks up the thread. Thomas Friedman is a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner, a bestselling author and a native of St. Louis Park, Minn.
March 5, 2005 - The main character in Minnesota author Bart Schneiders' new novel, "Beautiful Inez," seems to have it all. She's a beautiful violinist with the San Francisco Symphony in the 1960s. Inez has a flourishing career, two children and a powerful husband. Yet she's unhappy. Schneider says his father spent 50-years playing the violin with the San Francisco Symphony. He says this "behind the scene access" to the world of classical music helped to shape the novel. Schneider says Inez uses music and relationships to try to grasp happiness.