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.
November 28, 2007 - Morning Edition’s Cathy Wurzer interviews author Carrol Henderson about his book “"Oology and Ralph's Talking Eggs” and bird history/conservation in North America. The book details new discoveries that have come from researching a collection of about 4,000 bird eggs gathered by an Iowa farmer named Ralph Handsaker.
December 3, 2007 - Arvonne Fraser recounts her life in politics.Arvonne Fraser has been a force in Minnesota's DFL Party for more than half a century. Fraser, who is married to former U.S. Rep. Don Fraser, disussed her new memoir "She's No Lady" recently with public radio icon Garrison Keillor.
December 14, 2007 - A non-game wildlife expert from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources takes questions about how birds and other wildlife behave in winter. Guest: Carrol Henderson: Non-game wildlife specialist at the Minnesota Dempartment of Natural Resources. Henderson is the author of "Oology: Ralph's Talking Eggs."
December 20, 2007 - BIll Holm speaks at the Minneapolis Library series Talk of the Stacks. Holm talks about what living in Iceland teaches you about America in his book "Windows of Brimnes: An American In Iceland."
December 24, 2007 - A memorial service is being planned for early next year for Carol Bly. She died of ovarian cancer on Friday at the age of 77. Bly is being remembered as an exemplary writer and an excellent mother. She was a fiction writer, essayist and creative writingA memorial service is being planned for early next year for Carol Bly. She died of ovarian cancer on Friday at the age of 77. Bly is being remembered as an exemplary writer and an excellent mother . She was a fiction writer, essayist and creative writing teacher. Carol Bly was born in Duluth, but spent part of her childhood living with her aunts in rural North Carolina because her mother was often hospitalized. Bly talked about her mother during an interview with Dan Olson in March of 1999.
December 25, 2007 - Truman Capote reads his story "A Christmas Memory," Garrison Keillor does a Christmas "News from Lake Wobegon," and Dan Olson reads the famous 1897 New York Sun Christmas letter "Is there a Santa Claus."
December 25, 2007 - Stage Session's "The Traditions of Christmas: Those You Want and Those That Are Foisted Upon You," with Heather McElhatton and guest poet Bill Holm, who present an eclectic Christmas show featuring an unexpected mix of literature, music and more.
January 16, 2008 - MPR’s Marriane Combs interviews poet Robery Bly and actor Mark Rylance about Guthrie Theater’s “Peer Gynt” production.
January 18, 2008 - Theater Mu open's its musical "The Walleye Kid" tomorrow night at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in St. Paul. After fifteen years of performing in smaller theaters around the Twin Cities, the asian-american company is getting some welcome exposure in high-profile venues like the Ordway and the Guthrie.
February 7, 2008 - Minneapolis writer Charles Baxter describes his new novel "The Soul Thief" as being about "soul vampirism." It's a bit like identity theft, only instead of stealing a person's bank account and social security numbers, a Soul Thief tries to actually become the other person. Baxter who was nominated for a National Book Award for his book "Feast of Love," told Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr "The Soul Thief" grew out of something that happened to him many years ago.