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.
March 7, 1992 - Local teacher and writer Julie Landsman reads some of her writing. The setting of this piece is a cafe.
March 12, 1992 - Toni McNaron, professor of English and Women's Studies at University of Minnesota, discusses her book, I Dwell in Possibility: A Memoir. McNaron recalls early life with her mother and racist/lesbophobic atmosphere in the South.
March 13, 1992 - On this Voices from the Heartland episode, MPR’s Marlana Benzie-Lourey talks with central Minnesota poet Nancy Paddock about the growing popularity of poetry, teaching workshops at nursing home, and the different types of poems. Paddock also reads numerous poems.
March 19, 1992 - MPR’s Paula Schroeder talks with local poet and author Susan Marie Swanson about the changes in cultural subject matter within children books, with trend towards a depiction of diversity.
March 19, 1992 - Local author and teacher Julie Landsman records a reading about her father and the resistance during WWII.
March 20, 1992 - On this Voices from the Heartland segment, Duluth writer Barton Sutter reads his essay, A City upon a Hill. Sutter looks at the precarious nature of a wintery city on a hill.
March 21, 1992 - Local short story writer Jim Heynen reads Fewer Cats Now.
March 24, 1992 - Midmorning’s Paula Schroeder talks with former Minneapolis Police Chief Tony Bouza about his book, A Carpet of Blue: An Ex-cop Takes a Tough Look at America's Drug Problem.
March 27, 1992 - On this Voices of Minnesota segment, a commentary from storyteller Michael Cotter on the importance of storytellers in local communities.
March 30, 1992 - MPR’s Bill Wareham interviews Garrison Keillor on coming back home to Minnesota and A Prairie Home Companion.