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.
June 26, 1992 - On this Voices from the Heartland segment, author Laurie Allmann reads her essay on Mississippi wildlife.
June 27, 1992 - S. Elizabeth Bird, anthropology and popular culture specialist at University of Minnesota-Duluth, shares details from her book, For Enquiring Minds: A Cultural Study of Supermarket Tabloids.
July 3, 1992 - On this Voices from the Heartland segment, Barton Sutter reads his essay, Boundary Waters Canoe Park. Sutter recalls the travails to get into Boundary Waters being far more treacherous than the wild.
July 9, 1992 - A Midmorning interview with writer Patricia Hampl, who is keynote speaker at the Betsy-Tacy Convention in Mankato, Minnesota. Hampl describes the importance of the book characters to her and many a childhood.
July 10, 1992 - MPR’s Lorna Benson reports on The Betsy-Tacy Convention, a celebration of Mankato author Maud Hart Lovelace, which offers fans of the series the chance to visit the fictional "Deep Valley Minnesota," based on Lovelace's hometown.
July 10, 1992 - Local playwright and author Beth Gilleland reads a story from her childhood about wardrobes and fashion.
July 14, 1992 - A Worldview interview with Mayme Sevander on how she came to write They Took My Father. The book is a riveting memoir of one family’s struggle under a totalitarian regime.
July 22, 1992 - St. Paul psychologist and author Renee Fredrickson discusses topics from her book, Repressed Memories: A Journey to Recovery from Sexual Abuse. The Father James Porter sex abuse trial is also mentioned.
July 31, 1992 - On this Voices from the Heartland segment, Barton Sutter reads his essay on disappearing birch trees, Dieback.
August 4, 1992 - Midmorning’s Paula Schroeder interviews local sportscaster and historian Stew Thornley, who has written numerous books on baseball.