MHS Author in the News

The Center for Democracy and Citizenship at Augsburg College has just released a study that finds Minnesotans are leaders in voting and volunteering in the United States. The study, which you can download, was cowritten by codirecter of the center Harry Boyte, who is also the author of The Citizen Solution: How You Can Make a Difference, a hands-on guide to community activism using examples from Minnesota.

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Northern Lights/Southern Cross: Tales from the Other Side of the Worldopens this weekend at the Guthrie Theater’s Dowling Studio. MinnPost describes the piece as a “cosmic collaboration between artists from the United States and Australia.” Both the play and Kevin’s book The Dog Says How relate his experiences surviving a near-fatal motorcycle accident. The Pioneer Press also reviewed the show.

Check out the 3-Minute Egg interview with Kevin about the show and video of Kevin at Interact Center in Minneapolis. Cathy Wurzer also talked with Kevin about the show on MPR.

Kevin’s newest collection of stories, Kevin Kling’s Holiday Inn, is in stores now. He’ll share stories from the book at the Minneapolis Central Library’s Talk of the Stacks on November 12 and at Common Good Books on November 17.

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In a recent article in the St. Paul Pioneer Press, the Coen Brothers mentioned MHS book Suburban World by Brad Zellar as one of the inspirations for their new film A Serious Man:

“The Coens give most of the credit for the re-creation of the ’60s to their crew, but they say the look of “A Serious Man” is based partly on the Brad Zellar book “Suburban World: The Norling Photographs,” a collection of midcentury images of Bloomington, and on their own recollections.”

The release date for A Serious Man is October 2nd, but Suburban World by Brad Zellar is available now at a fine bookseller near you.

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The Star Tribune spoke with Bette Jones Hammel, the author of Legendary Homes of Lake Minnetonka and featured photos from the book by Karen Melvin. The authors will share their book and stories about their favorite homes at The Bookcase in Wayzata on Wednesday October 14th at 7:00 p.m.

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N. M. Kelby, author of the short story collection, A Travel Guide for Reckless Hearts, will be in the Twin Cities later this week to share her work at Common Good Books, Grand Hand Gallery, Birchbark Books, and The Bookcase in Wayzata. The Star Tribune explains why “it’s fun to have N. M. Kelby’s voice banging around your head.”

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Twin Cities Public Television will air the feature film Sweet Land, based on the short story by Will Weaver  on Wednesday September 23rd at 8:00 p.m. on Channel 2. Cathy Wurzer interviewed director Ali Selim and writer Will Weaver on Almanac last Friday.

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Tomorrow, Friday Sept. 18th at 4:30 p.m. on FM 107 in the Twin Cities, N. M. Kelby, author of A Travel Guide for Reckless Hearts will be a guest on the popular radio show,  Lori & Julia. N. M. is a former broadcast journalist in the area who has since written several widely acclaimed novels and now an intimate and heartwarming collection of short stories. To quote Pulitzer Prize winning author Robert Olen Butler:

“N. M. Kelby has long been one of my favorite writers, and her new story collection, A Travel Guide for Reckless Hearts, is the sweet, pure, hilarious, sneakily profound essence of her. We ache and we laugh: this is the experience of living in the 21st century.”

The Utne Reader Great Writing blog recently began a lively discussion on the future of the short story collection in print and online. To quote N. M. Kelby, “short stories are the new black because they are the perfect read for the digital age!”

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MinnPost has just started a new section on their site devoted to Book Clubs called, very appropriately, the Book Club Club.

This week, they published a moving article by Sally Williams on MHS author, Cheri Register, author of Packinghouse Daughter, who just recently went ot speak in person to a book club not in a book store or a library, but in a women’s prison.

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Peg Meier, retired Star Tribune reporter and MHS author (Bring Warm Clothes and Too Hot Went to Lake), wrote an interesting article about a long-lost letter in the Minnesota Historical Society archives that revealed what really happened to Clell Miller’s body after the botched Northfield bank robbery led by Cole Younger. Cole Younger wrote about the raid in his lengthily titled autobiography The Story of Cole Younger: Being an Autobiography of the Missouri Guerilla Captain and Outlaw, His Capture and Prison Life, and the Only Authentic Account of the Northfield Raid Ever Published.

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Cathy Wurzer’s Tales of the Road: Highway 61 documentary that aired on TPT is nominated for regional Emmy Awards in the following categories:

Best Historical Documentary
Best Editing-Non News (Lisa Blackstone/Robert Hutchings)
Best Videography-Non News (Denny Behr/Joe Berglove)

The book features more stories from Highway 61.

Congratulations to Cathy and her documentary team!

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