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 4, 1976 - Pledge drive with Garrison Keillor, Bill Kling, and Gary Eichten. Kling asks Dave Peters, executive editor of Minnesota Monthly to talk about the April issue. Bemidji writer Marilyn Heltzer also talks.
March 10, 1976 - An MPR News Feature where poet Robert Bly talks about reading poetry, about how he doesn't consider himself a Minnesotan poet, and that he rejects the idea of "regional poetry." The feature also includes Bly reading and a few fans of Bly speaking about the importance of his work.
March 10, 1976 - Audio excerpt of Minnesota poet Robert Bly performing a reading.
March 22, 1976 - A reading of poem from quarterly poetry magazine “Moons and Lion Tailes.”
March 26, 1976 - Reflections of the North documentary presents two Minnesota naturalists and artists: writer Sigurd Olson and photographer Les Blacklock, who offer readings and personal commentary on life in the ‘North.’
July 16, 1976 - MPR’s Dennis Hamilton reports on speech made by author and historian Hiram Drache at Crookston Rural America Conference. Hamilton also presents a short interview with Drache after the completed remarks.
August 5, 1976 - An address by educator-farmer-writer Hiram Drache on the family farm and the future of American farming before a conference on rural America, held in Crookston, Minnesota. The speech is titled "Agriculture in the Year 2000."
January 1, 1977 - A Home for the Weekend program of readings and music with Minnesota poets Nancy and Joe Paddock.
February 8, 1977 - Dr. Hiram Drache, an agricultural historian, author, and professor of history at Concordia College in Moorhead, talks with Bill Siemering and John Ydstie about transitions in farming and his book Beyond the Furrow: Some Keys to Successful Farming in the Twentieth Century.
March 4, 1977 - A news feature highlighting poetry written later in life and on presenting poetry to diverse audience on public buses.