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 8, 1990 - Weekend presents an interview with Joe Murphy, a Minneapolis-based explorer and mountaineer. Murphy discusses his book South to the Pole by Ski, which details his experience exploring in Antarctica.
September 14, 1990 - MPR’s Chris Tetlin profiles Maude Kegg, an Ojibwa storyteller, folk artist, and cultural interpreter. Kegg shares life memories and her concerns over Ojibwa language being lost in the coming generations.
October 13, 1990 - A Weekend Edition interview with author Judith Strommen, from Clearwater, Minnesota. Strommen explains her process in writing children’s literature and bout her first novel, Grady the Great.
November 2, 1990 - MPR’s Kitty Eisele reports on Lance S. Belville’s play, Exile from Main Street: A Portrait of Sinclair Lewis. The one-man play showcases Lewis's life as a brilliant mimic and satirist.
November 3, 1990 - John Shepard, author of Minnesota Backgrounds and Minnesota: Off the Beaten Path, answers listener questions about Minnesota vacation destinations during fall and winter.
November 15, 1990 - Morning Edition’s Mark Heistad reaches out to Jim Lenfestey, board president for Minnesota Center for Book Arts, as the organization celebrates the 5th anniversary at MCBA. Lenfestey details the energetic environment behind bookmaking.
November 16, 1990 - A Morning Edition interview with Francis Carroll, co-author of The Fires of Autumn: The Cloquet-Moose Lake Disaster of 1918. The history book is based upon the Cloquet Moose Lake Fire.
November 17, 1990 - MPR’s Paula Schroeder interviews Minnesota author Wayne Johnson about his book, The Snake Game. The novel chronicles the lives and fates of a group of Native Americans along the Minnesota/Canada border and the young white man drawn into their world
December 13, 1990 - MPR’s Paula Schroeder interviews Philp Furia, professor of English at University of Minnesota, about his book, The Poets of Tin Pan Alley: A History of America's Great Lyricists.
December 18, 1990 - MPR’s Mark Heistad interviews Winthrop resident Martha Wilhelmina Peterson on her 100th birthday. Peterson is featured in the book The Pie Lady of Winthrop and Other Minnesota Tales by Peg Meier and Dave Wood.