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 27, 1986 - Jim Klobuchar talks about his book, Eight Miles without a Pothole, a collection of his columns from the previous ten years.
November 1, 1986 - Al Sicherman, food writer for the Minneapolis Star Tribune, talks about his columns and answers listener questions on food.
November 10, 1986 - Minnesota poet and storyteller Robert Bly, answers listener questions about his writing and his relatively new interest in men's groups. Bly also reads some of his poetry.
November 11, 1986 - MPR’s Loren Omoto talks with William H. Hull, author of All Hell Broke Loose: Experiences of Young People During the Armistice Day 1940 Blizzard. Hull details the time period and recollections of those that lived through the storm.
November 17, 1986 - MPR’s Loren Omoto interviews Anne Kaplan, co-author of the The Minnesota Ethnic Food Book. Kaplan details of the cultural importance of varied foods and and history behind ethnic traditional dishes.
December 20, 1986 - Midday’s Bob Potter talks with WCCO’s Dave Moore about his book, A Member of the Family. Moore details the difference in his approach writing versus his usual television newscast work process.
December 23, 1986 - MPR’s Perry Finelli gets reactions from attendees of Dr. William Nolen’s funeral. The surgeon passed away on December 20th, 1986. Author of eight books, Nolen was nationally known for his book The Making of a Surgeon.
January 14, 1987 - Peter Fuhrken, a local junior high school student, interviews a Prairie Home Companion’s Garrison Keillor. As conversation progresses, Keillor attempts to flip the script and interview Peter.
January 24, 1987 - On this segment of Christine Sweet Reads, a look at "Sounds of the Night" and "Wild Encounters" from Of Time and Place.
February 6, 1987 - MPR’s Beth Friend reports on the enduring appreciation of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie books. Friend interviews Minnesota author Emilie Buchwald and three North View Elementary School students on what makes Wilder’s work fascinating.