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 6, 2005 - Playwright Edward Albee, best known for writing "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf," says art should be dangerous. Albee speaks live from the Westminster Town Hall Forum in downtown Minneapolis.
October 10, 2005 - It's a busy week for Neil Gaiman. He has a new bestselling book, Anansi Boys, and this Friday a film that he wrote opens. It's called Mirrormask. He's not just a novelist and screenwriter...he's also the author of the comic book series The Sandman. Gaiman is a local boy of sorts. Although he's English, he found himself settled outside the Twin Cities about a decade ago.
October 12, 2005 - From one-room chapels to grand cathedrals, churches all over the state are part of Minnesota's landscape. Now nearly 100 of those churches are showcased in a new book. It's full of images from a wide variety of denominations and many different architectural styles. The book is by writer Jon Hassler and photographer Doug Ohman, who traveled the state in all four seasons to photograph the churches.
October 17, 2005 - The late playwright August Wilson now has a theater named after him on Broadway in New York City. Wilson lived in St. Paul during the 90s when he wrote many of his most famous plays. He died of liver cancer on October 2nd at the age of 60. The August Wilson Theater is the first on the Great White Way to be named after an African-American.
October 19, 2005 - What do baseball great Lou Gehrig and the biblical history of the modern-day Middle East have in common? Well, admittedly, not much, except that two nationally renowned authors who wrote books on those subjects were in town Sunday to talk about their books.Jonathan Eig, author of "Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig," and Bruce Feiler, who wrote "Where God Was Born: A Journey By Land to the Roots of Religion."
October 24, 2005 - Midmorning host Kerri Miller talks with author Joan Didion about grieving and memory. Joan Didion, author of "The Year of Magical Thinking." Didion has written five novels and seven previous books of nonfiction.
October 24, 2005 - Midmorning host Kerri Miller talks with author Joan Didion about grieving and memory. Joan Didion, author of "The Year of Magical Thinking." Didion has written five novels and seven previous books of nonfiction.
October 26, 2005 - A new play that makes its regional debut in the Twin Cities later this week examines the War in Iraq, the Patriot Act, and the political strategies of the Bush administration. The play is called "The God of Hell" and is done by playwright Sam Shepard. It looks at what could happen if those in power became a little too comfortable.
November 10, 2005 - When the Edmund Fitzgerald went down on Lake Superior 30 years ago tonight, among the 29 crew members lost were two cooks: Charles Robert Rafferty, and Alan Kalmon. They were two of the best in their trade. They worked in the galley kitchen of the famed ore freighter, feeding the rest of the crew with elaborate, freshly cooked meals. Yesterday, when the radio producers known as the Kitchen Sisters were here to talk about their new project "Hidden Kitchens," Davia Nelson told me they were reminded of the work they did which led to the discovery of the freighter food.
November 10, 2005 - Many people across the Northland will remember where they were thirty years ago tonight, when they heard about the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald. She was plowing through a fierce storm on Lake Superior when she disappeared from radar, sinking to the bottom of the big lake, with all crew members aboard. Despite a number of reports and many theories, the sinking of the Fitz is still a mystery. Michael Schumacher is the author of a new book, "Mighty Fitz: The Sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald." He says the crew never thought the big ship would go down.