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 17, 2012 - MPR’s Stephanie Hemphill presents a special science report on deformed frogs in Minnesota, first found in 1995. Even seventeen years later, scientists still have not completely solved the mystery of what caused frogs to develop deformities.
August 1, 2012 - For the 5th anniversary of the 35W bridge collapse, Minnesota poet laureate Joyce Sutphen reads her poem "Someone Just Like You."
August 3, 2012 - The new book Spirit of the Ojibwe: Images of Lac Courte Oreilles Elders is a comprehensive look at the history of a Wisconsin band of Ojibwe Indians.
August 6, 2012 - In this Pen Pals Lecture Series appearance, Brian Greene of Columbia University discusses his best-selling books, "The Elegant Universe" and "The Hidden Reality." He says science is about big ideas, not technical details. MPR's Stephen Smith interviews Brian Greene at the Hopkins, Minn., Center for the Arts.
August 8, 2012 - Austin Minnesota native Amanda Hocking set out to earn a couple of hundred bucks to go see a show in Chicago one summer, but ended up becoming an internet publishing sensation and multi-millionaire. Now she's made the jump to printed books with a new series about murderous Sirens. She stresses however she's just looking for a quiet life in Minnesota.
August 22, 2012 - Science fiction writer Ray Bradbury, who died in June 2012, giving a Pen Pals lecture in the Minnesota back in 2000 about the influences on his life and work. He was born Aug. 22, 1920.
September 7, 2012 - MPR’s Marianne Combs sat down with author and fiber artist Gwen Westerman, painter and sculptor Jim Denomie, actor and spoken word artist R. Vincent Moniz, Jr., and poet Heid Erdrich. The discussion included what it means to be a contemporary Native artist working in a world that still has stereotypical notions of what it means to be an American Indian.
September 19, 2012 - Minnesota author Jim Heynen knows the landscape and life of the farm. He is a master of the short short story, and he's been called "a Hemingway of farm life." His new novel "The Fall of Alice K," is a love story set in an Iowa farm town he calls Dutch Center. Both Heynen and his protagonist Alice know this landscape well.
September 21, 2012 - As protests continue in the Middle East over an online video that mocked the Prophet Muhammad, our panel will look at the debate over art and free expression, and what happens when art provokes violence. Guests: Syl Jones: Journalist, author and playwright. His newest play, "Going Up," will be performed by the Mixed Blood Theater. Mohannad Ghawanmeh: Curator of The Twin Cities Arab Film Festival, producer, and senior instructor in communications and film at Dunwoody College of Technology.
September 21, 2012 - Roundtable: Amid Middle East protests, a look at free expression. Guests: Syl Jones, Andrew Karre, Mohannad Ghawanmeh.