May 25, 2009 - Heather McElhatton will tell you she knows a thing or two about dating. She's spent enough time using on-line dating services to know what the terms men use to describe themselves in their profiles REALLY mean.
April 3, 2009 - Four years ago Canadian novelist Joseph Boyden burst onto the literary scene with "Three Day Road," a tale of two Canadian Cree Indians who volunteer as snipers during World War One. Boyden is all about dichotomies. He is part Ojibwe and part Scots-Irish. He splits his time between New Orleans where he teaches and James Bay in Northern Ontario where he fishes and hunts on the reservation. His new novel "Through Black Spruce" has two narrators. The first is Will Bird, a hard drinking former bush pilot who is in a coma on a Cree reservation. The second is his niece Annie. She also lives on the reservation, but leaves to work as a model, while trying to find her sister who has disappeared. The book just won Canada's top literary award, the Giller prize. Boyden told Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr he chose the characters because he wanted to write about the extremes of modern native life.
February 13, 2009 - The Penumbra Theatre in St. Paul announced it is trimming its budget by almost a quarter and pushing a major production into next year.
February 13, 2009 - In what it calls a proactive move, St Paul's Penumbra Theatre has trimmed it's 3.8-million-dollar budget by almost a quarter.
February 12, 2009 - The Penumbra Theatre in St. Paul, the largest professional African American theater in the country, announced its trimming budget by almost a quarter and pushing a major production into next year as a result of the economic downturn. Penumbra recently completed a three-million-dollar fundraising campaign. Artistic director Lou Bellamy says the cuts are preventative measures to protect what the company has built in recent years.
February 12, 2009 - Interview excerpt with Penumbra Theatre’s Lou Bellamy on the organization’s budget cuts and plan to postpone its final production of the current season until the 2009-2010 season, while preserving its important programs.
January 26, 2009 - It's been a good day for local writers. Both of the top awards from the American Library Association, the Newbery and Randolph Caldecott medals went to books with Minnesota and Wisconsin connections. The Newbery Medal for Children's literature went to Neil Gaiman for "The Graveyard Book." It's the story of a young boy adopted by the ghosts and other supernatural spirits who live in an old cemetary. Gaiman who lives in Western Wisconsin is known for his work writing comic books, novels, and film scripts. He is in Los Angeles for the release of the film adaptation of another of his children's books "Coraline." He told Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr he was still a little stunned.
January 16, 2009 -
December 16, 2008 - MPR’s Euan Kerr sits down in a café to talk with poet Todd Boss.
October 6, 2008 - Later this week fans will likely pack a St Paul church to hear author Neil Gaiman read from his latest novel, "The Graveyard Book." Gaiman is a writing rock star, producing best selling comic books, novels and film scripts. He's often swamped at reading and now has devised a new way to keep himself physically accessible to his readers.