March 4, 2005 - On this Literary Friendships event, host Garrison Keillor shares the stage with poets Dana Gioia and Kay Ryan. Both being California poets with working-class origins, the two became good friends.
September 29, 2006 - At this Talking Volumes event, MPR's Kerri Miller and author David Treuer discuss his book, The Translation of Dr. Apelles. David Treuer's sly and heart-pounding novel tells a story within a story: A reclusive translator of ancient American Indian texts stumbles across a love story that upends his workaday world and triggers his own need for love.
January 15, 2007 - In this installment of MPR series The Bookshelf, Lou Bellamy, founder and artistic director of St. Paul's Penumbra Theatre, talks about Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, a novel featuring an unnamed black narrator whose race makes him "invisible" to others.
November 11, 2011 - On this special Veterans Day Midday program, a remembrance of legendary radio dramatist Norman Corwin with a short documentary on his career, and excerpts from his masterpiece, On a Note of Triumph, which remains the most listened to radio drama in U.S. history. Later in the hour, author Tim O'Brien reads and discusses his critically acclaimed short story collection on the Vietnam War, The Things They Carried.
July 14, 2016 - People in our community are expressing their feelings about the death of Philando Castile in many ways. 15 local poets gathered at the Penumbra Theater in St. Paul for a community reading. It was part of Black Poets Speak Out, a poetry-driven protest that began after the death of Michael Brown in 2014. Report includes an excerpt of Michael Kleber Diggs reading his poem "St. Paul Morning."