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.
September 26, 1987 - MPR’s Kate Moos reports on Minnesota Poets in the Schools Program (now COMPAS). Segment includes interviews with John Caddy and Randy Jennings, who describe program and its history.
October 17, 1987 - On this Weekend edition of Midday, an interview with Carol Bly, author of Letters from the Country and a contributor to Soil and Survival with Joe and Nancy Paddock. Carol talks about living in rural Minnesota and answers listener questions.
October 24, 1987 - Weekend host Mark Heistad interviews Minnesota author Mary Logue about her first novel, Red Lake of the Heart. The book is a murder mystery containing the character Claire Watkins, a police officer in a small Minnesota town.
November 1, 1987 - Host and authors Patricia Hampl and Carol Bly present the first installment of Hampl and Bly on Books, a collaboration between MPR and The Loft. The program includes a look at idea of family in fiction, a profile on writer Joseph Brodsky, and an introduction on ‘living list' of great books.
November 8, 1987 - Host and authors Patricia Hampl and Carol Bly present the second installment of Hampl and Bly on Books, a collaboration between MPR and The Loft. The program includes a look at violence in books and a dictionary questionnaire.
November 15, 1987 - Host and authors Patricia Hampl and Carol Bly present the third installment of Hampl and Bly on Books, a collaboration between MPR and The Loft. The program includes a look at writers and a birthday celebration of poet Marianne Moore.
November 22, 1987 - Host and authors Patricia Hampl and Carol Bly present the fourth installment of Hampl and Bly on Books, a collaboration between MPR and The Loft. The program includes a look at kindness in literature and illegal reading.
November 29, 1987 - Host and authors Patricia Hampl and Carol Bly present the fifth installment of Hampl and Bly on Books, a collaboration between MPR and The Loft. The program includes a look at letters, comic reads, and ‘poetry wars’ at Los Angeles Times.
December 6, 1987 - Host and authors Patricia Hampl and Carol Bly present the sixth installment of Hampl and Bly on Books, a collaboration between MPR and The Loft. The program includes a look at children’s books and good books on bad weather.
December 10, 1987 - Jon Hassler, author in residence at St. John's University in Collegeville, reads from some of his works and discusses his career as an author in an appearance at the St. John's "Basilica Series" lectures in Minneapolis.