Repeatedly 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. This curation presents broadcasts over the decades of writer’s voices in form of speech, interview, and discussion.
June 5, 1992 - Australian author Tim Winton talks about his book, Cloudstreet. The novel tells the story of two working-class families, the Pickles and the Lambs, who are forced to live together in a large, haunted house in Perth, Western Australia, from 1943 to 1963.
June 15, 1992 - American author and a professor Mary Morris discusses Wall to Wall: From Beijing to Berlin by Rail, which details her overseas travel experience. During segment, Morris reads from her book.
June 22, 1992 - A collection of MPR staff reading pieces from Land in Her Own Name: Women As Homesteaders in North Dakota by H. Elaine Lindgren. The book recounts women's fascinating accounts from rural life…such as locating a claim, erecting a shelter, and living on the prairie in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
June 23, 1992 - MPR’s Kitty Eisle interviews American novelist and short story writer John Edgar Wideman. The two talk about the state of storytelling and Wideman’s book, Philadelphia Fire.
June 24, 1992 - Biology professor and author Roger M. Knutson talks about his book, Furtive Fauna: A Field Guide to the Creatures Who Live on You. Knutson “scratches” the surface on the small organisms.
June 29, 1992 - Donald Katz, author of Home Fires: An Intimate Portrait of One Middle-Class Family in Postwar America, details researching his book and reactions to the topic.
July 1, 1992 - Mark Sommer, author of Living in Freedom: The New Prague, comments on Czechoslovakia and the changes within country upon and after the “Velvet Revolution.”
July 3, 1992 - A Worldview conversation with author Barbara K. Walker about her book, Laughing Together: Giggles and Grins from Around the Globe. Walker shares how children from all over the world present a joke. Segment includes a few jokes along the way.
July 13, 1992 - A Midmorning interview with author Keith Melder, who talks about current politics and his book, Hail to the Candidate. Melder details how American campaigns have changed in the past century.
July 14, 1992 - MPR’s Kate Smith interviews Ellen Chesler, author of the book, Woman of Valor: Margaret Sanger and the Birth Control Movement in America. Chesler comments on a variety of women’s issues and the efforts of Margaret Sanger.