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.
December 12, 1988 - An interview with Chuck Dewey, a writer of children's stories, including Subordinate Claus: Santa's Younger Brother. Dewey draws on the experiences of his youth to write humorous children's books with a distinct regional flavor.
December 17, 1988 - Midday’s Bob Potter interviews author Paul Gruchow about traveling the wilderness. Gruchow also answers listener questions about his book, The Necessity of Empty Places.
March 23, 1989 - Minneapolis businessman Harvey MacKay answers listener questions about how to succeed in business. MacKay is author of the best-selling book, How to Swim with the Sharks without Being Eaten Alive.
March 25, 1989 - MPR’s Mark Heistad interviews Craig and Nadine Blacklock about Border Country: The Quetico-Superior Wilderness, a book by Tom Klein, which features nature photography by the Blacklocks.
May 19, 1989 - MPR’s Tom Meersman does a profile on new production by performer Garrison Keillor. The production, called “Garrison Keillor’s American Radio Company of the Air,” will include monologue, music, and comic sketches. The new two hour show will follow in the footsteps of A Prairie Home Companion.
May 26, 1989 - A tribute to the late University of Minnesota political science professor, Mulford Q. Sibley. Program features his popular speech entitled, "My Last Lecture," as well as excerpts from an interview on Midday in June, 1982, and excerpts from a call-in program.
May 26, 1989 - MPR’s Kate Smith presents a reflection on the life of author and academic Mulford Q. Sibley. Segment includes interviews with those who knew Sibley and his political beliefs.
August 17, 1989 - On this Midday, local author Howard Mohr answers listener questions and reads from his book, A Minnesota Book of Days (And a Few Nights). The book is a humorous almanac that chronicles Minnesota life through 366 daily entries.
September 18, 1989 - MPR’s Tom Meersman reports on thriving Minnesota presses publishing poetry, essays, and other literature. Meersman interviews members of Milkweed Editions and Graywolf Press, who state that strong audiences are behind the positive literary business climate.
October 10, 1989 - Barry Morrow, a St. Paul native who won an Academy Award for the screenplay Rain Man, speaks to the Screenwriters Workshop in Minneapolis about his craft and career.