Minneseota writer Bill Holm is celebrating a little. Today the McKnight Foundation named him its 2008 Distinguished Artist. (05/12/2008)

Look at any bestseller list, and most likely you'll find a few memoirs. Real life stories about tragic childhoods, abuse and recovery, failure and redemption are all the rage right now. Midmorning examines the popularity of the memoir. (Midmorning, 05/08/2008)

The cabin in wilderness writer Sigurd Olson's "Listening Point" has been named to the National Register of Historic Places. (05/07/2008)

Keith Gessen is a brave man. He created and edits a caustic literary magazine called "N+1" which has a reputation for its smart and often snarky criticism. Now he's published his own novel and is facing the critics. (05/06/2008)

A new book tells the story of one family's life in Minnesota after a harrowing escape from Laos. Hmong author Kao Kalia Yang has written a memoir called "The Latehomecomer." (05/06/2008)

Minnesota writer Leif Enger's new novel, "So Brave, Young and Handsome," is a tribute to the Western. An old cowboy seeks forgiveness from his estranged wife as he tries to shake a pursuing Pinkerton detective. (Midmorning, 05/02/2008)

Minnesota author Louise Erdrich's new novel, "A Plague of Doves," weaves together the murder of a family, a lynching of men innocent of the crime, and the tangled relationships of Ojibwe and whites living near a small North Dakota town. (Midmorning, 04/25/2008)

When author Don Lee began writing his latest novel, "Wrack and Ruin," he wanted to do something light. He wanted to set the story in a small northern California town, and make one of his characters a farmer. He said the choice of crops was narrow, and one stood out: brussels sprouts. (04/21/2008)

Geoff Herbach's new novel, "The Miracle Letters of T. Rimberg," tells a story in a very different and potentially controversial way. Most of the story is presented as suicide notes written by one man. (04/15/2008)

Laura Flynn writes of her at times luminous, at times agonizing experiences growing up with a mother going gradually insane. Flynn's mother suffered from schizophrenia at a time when the disease was not as well known. (Midmorning, 04/09/2008)

In the summer of 2003 Daoud Hari fled as government helicopters and armed horsemen attacked his village in Darfur. Several family members died in the assault. He wanted the world to know what was happening. (04/08/2008)

When Minnesota author Jon Hassler died last week at 74, colleagues of his remarked on the impact of his work, both as a writer and a teacher. Midday remembers Hassler in his own words, as we rebroadcast an interview he did with MPR in 1999. We also talk with two of Hassler's longtime friends. (Midday, 03/25/2008)

Famed Minnesota novelist Jon Hassler has died. Hassler, 74, had suffered from Parkinson disease. He had a string of novels to his name, many of them examining the intricacies of life in small Minnesota towns. As word spreads of his passing Hassler is being remembered both for his writing and his teaching. (03/20/2008)

Richard Price is acknowledged as one of the great masters of capturing the nuances of street life. His new novel "Lush Life" explores the ripple effect of a single gunshot across New York's Lower East Side. (03/11/2008)

A child's addiction transforms a family. Two new memoirs with different perspectives show how a child's meth habit nearly destroyed a son and almost devastated his father. (Midmorning, 03/06/2008)