April 10, 2001 - Flood fighters across Minnesota are watching the river, and the skies. With a lot of rain in the forecast, river crest projections have been raised across the region. Along the Red River in the north, devastated by the flood of 1997, officials say they are confident they can handle the higher water levels, although some will add a couple more feet to their dikes. Along the Minnesota River and the Mississippi, where communities had problems in 97, but on a lesser scale, there's now greater concern. National Weather Service Hydrologist Gary McDevitt says taking projected rainfall over the next few days into account, there could be record water levels.
April 9, 2001 - Like many writers, Australian author Richard Flanagan wanted to write about what he knew and loved. His experiences, though, are a little out of the ordinary. He grew in Tasmania, the island a couple of hundred miles off the Australian coast, and worked as a river guide on the Franklin River which rages through the wilderness. As a result his novel "Death of a River Guide" is a little out of the ordinary too. It tells the story of a man with his head jammed between two rocks underwater who is slowly drowning. He told Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr he wasn't sure how to write a book but knew he wanted to...as he puts it... "sing his world into being."
March 21, 2001 - Nuala O'Faolain (Oh-FWAY-lawn) made a splash a couple of years back with her memoir "Are You Somebody?" The rave reviews and her regular Irish Times column, have actually made her somebody, in her native Ireland and here. Her new book, "My Dream of You," is a novel within a novel and it's not without its parallels to her own life, and Irish history. Its protagonist, Kathleen de Burca is an Irish travel writer based in London. She has kept her life "even and dry" for two decades, living in a London basement when she's not globetrotting. But after a friend dies, she heads back to Ireland and becomes obsessed by a centuries old scandal. O'Faolain told Minnesota Public Radio's Tom Crann she got the idea for the story as a result of a chance meeting during one of her own travels:
March 16, 2001 - On Word of Mouth, MPR’s Chris Roberts provides a radio guide to the local arts. This episode includes Yoko Ono, Peter Ostroushko, Popular Creeps, and an arts round-up.
February 28, 2001 - In the four years Deborah Copaken Kogan worked as a press photographer, she travelled in Afghanistan with rebel fighters, visited drug dens in Amsterdam, uncovered the horrors of the Romanian orphanages, and dodged bullets during the Moscow coup in 1991. She tells her story in "Shutterbabe: Adventures in Love and War", a book which has drawn both praise and criticism for its frank descriptions of her love life. Kogan told Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr she was drawn to photography when she realised a camera could be a passport to many places. But it wasn't the only factor that led her to become a war photographer.
February 27, 2001 - VENTURA Governor Jesse Ventura met with Minnesota lawmakers in Washington today as he wrapped up a three-day trip to talk with his fellow governors ... and court the new Bush administration as well. Judith Smelser has the story.
February 27, 2001 -
February 22, 2001 - Ned Kelly is probably best known as the Australian bushwacker, or bandit, who made inch thick armour out of farm implements. He was hanged in the 1880's for the murder of three policemen, not long after the rest of his gang was killed in a shootout with police. Yet despite this a criminal life and his sticky end, Kelly is a national hero in Australia When Booker Prize winning author Peter Carey began considering a book on Kelly he says he was more interested in what this said about Australians. In his novel "True History of the Kelly Gang" he tells the story from Ned Kelly's point of view, as the son of pennyless immigrants living under a corrupt colonial system. Carey told Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr some Americans equate the story to a western, but he sees it as much more than that....
February 16, 2001 - The Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis is celebrating today after announcing Great Britain's Royal National Theater will bring its award-winning "Hamlet" to Minneapolis in May. Since Sir Laurence Olivier founded the London-based theater in 1962 it has become a major force in world theater, and this production of "Hamlet" has been the hit of this year's West End season. Guthrie Artistic Director Joe Dowling told Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr Guthrie staff began negotiating as soon as it learned the show might be available for Minnesota audiences.
February 9, 2001 - Commentator Dale Connelly may have been spending too much time in his front room recently, which resulted in a few thoughts about his furniture. Dale Connelly can be heard weekdays on the Morning Program on Minnesota Public Radio's Classical Music service.