November 8, 2013 - When hard-living, hard-partying Texas cowboy Ron Woodroof received some very bad news in 1985, he likely had no idea that his life would inspire a movie.
July 16, 2013 - A new novel from a Minneapolis small press links blends elements of a spy thriller, a romance, history, philosophy and environmental concerns about the future of the planet. The New York Times raved about author J.M. Ledgard's "Submergence " calling it "a book obsessed with unexplored depths, whether of self, of world conflict or of the ocean." Euan Kerr reports Coffee House Press says the national publishing houses passed over the book, but it's exactly the material Coffee House seeks.
April 16, 2013 - In an unlikely collaboration double Tony Award winning actor Mark Rylance joins forces with Duluth poet Louis Jenkins to create a new play about ice fishing at the Guthrie.
March 13, 2013 - MPR’s Euan Kerr reports on Penumbra Theatre mounting its first show after almost closing its doors.
March 12, 2013 - MPR’s Euan Kerr profiles the Penumbra Theatre staging of “Spunk,” three short stories of Zora Neale Hurston adapted by Jelly's Last Jam writer George C. Wolfe.
February 6, 2013 - Australian guitarist Ben Frost lives and draws inspiration from his home in Iceland, where he creates ambient music. The result is a visceral listening experience.
January 15, 2013 - A man beset with the problem of an overfull fishpond, a student who has to face a grinning skull as he eats his Froot Loops, and a young girl preparing for the Rapture which is due to begin in a couple of hours. These are all characters in Minnesota writer Scott Dominic Carpenter's new collection of short stories "This Jealous Earth." Carpenter claims the stories came about as a distraction from other writing.
August 8, 2012 - Austin Minnesota native Amanda Hocking set out to earn a couple of hundred bucks to go see a show in Chicago one summer, but ended up becoming an internet publishing sensation and multi-millionaire. Now she's made the jump to printed books with a new series about murderous Sirens. She stresses however she's just looking for a quiet life in Minnesota.
May 14, 2012 - MPR’s Euan Kerr profiles Twin Cities native Maya Washington, who uses a short film she created about a deaf performance poet to challenge elementary school students to think about - and perform poetry.
May 10, 2012 - Penumbra Theater is presenting James Baldwin's "The Amen Corner" at the Guthrie. Director Lou Bellamy says he's waited 30 years to do the show, but now he has all the elements he needs, including his own perspective.