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.
February 1, 1992 - Minneapolis author Lawrence Sutin comments about the lives of authors…one of dreams and struggle.
February 7, 1992 - MPR’s Cathy Wurzer profiles the 10th Anniversary of Minnesota Voices Project Competition. Segment includes interviews with Catherine Meyer, managing editor of New Rivers Press; Sharon Oard Warner, author of Learning to Dance and Other Stories; and poet Mark Vinz, author of The Weird Kid.
February 7, 1992 - Nancy Raeburn reads from her book, Mykonos: A Memoir. The title was winner of the 1990 Minnesota Voices Project.
February 14, 1992 - Midmonring’s Paula Schroeder gets recollections from Cloquet Valley State Forest district ranger about J.C. "Buzz" Ryan, a longtime forester who died on February 14th, 1992.
February 14, 1992 - On this Voices in the Heartland episode, MPR’s Marlana Benzie-Lourey talks with central Minnesota poet Joe Paddock about nature, history of the land, and his poetry. Paddock also reads numerous poems.
February 21, 1992 - Duluth writer Barton Sutter reads an essay on surviving winter. The work is entitled Map Fishing.
February 21, 1992 - Black writer and educator Evelyn Fairbanks talks with MPR’s Paula Schroeder about researching rural Black Americans in Minnesota.
February 25, 1992 - MPR’s Paula Schroeder interviews Rochester poet Rose Harmon-Davis. They discuss poetry, race, and identity in the business world. Segment also includes reading of poem.
February 28, 1992 - On this segment of Voices from the Heartland, an essay about the quality of February winter in Minnesota by Laurie Allmann.
February 28, 1992 - A review of Syl Jones' play "Cincinnati Man."