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 3, 1991 - Minnesota-based author, educator, and outdoor enthusiast Bill Hansen comments on overpacking for excursions into the wilderness.
September 9, 1991 - A Voices from the Heartland interview with Duluth writer Barton Sutter. Segment includes a reading from the book, My Father's War and Other Stories.
September 25, 1991 - An interview with Susan Broadhead, director of the Loft Literary Center, about the organization’s activities and on writing communities in the Twin Cities.
September 28, 1991 - Larry Millett, staff writer on architecture and urban development for the St. Paul Pioneer Press, answers listener questions about architecture, both old and new buildings, and the new city skylines.
October 5, 1991 - Karal Ann Marling, author and professor of Art History and of American Studies at the University of Minnesota, gives her impressions of sexual identity in 1990s arts & culture.
October 12, 1991 - On this Midday, Garrison Keillor reads from his novel, WLT: A Radio Romance, and talks about the new season for the American Radio Company. Keillor also answers listener questions.
October 14, 1991 - American writer and scholar Gerald Vizenor discusses his book, The Heirs of Columbus. The book inverts the historical record by re-imagining Christopher Columbus as a descendant of Mayans and Sephardic Jews who now wants to return home.
October 18, 1991 - MPR’s Mark Heistad interviews member of Minnesota Center for Book Arts about the creation of a library for organization and an open house weekend activity based around “wayzgoose.”
October 18, 1991 - MPR’s Paula Schroeder interviews Fred Stonehouse, author of Shipwreck of the Mesquite: Death of a Coast Guard Cutter. Stonehouse discusses his book, Lake Superior shipwrecks in general, and the specific dangers of the lake.
October 21, 1991 - A Voices from the Heartland essay by writer and poet Laurie Allmann on experiencing fall colors.