State of the Arts Category Archive: Books

The best literary characters of all time

Posted at 2:13 PM on December 9, 2011 by Marianne Combs (12 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Writing

What makes a great literary character? According to today's conversation on Midmorning they grow and change, wrestle with conflict, make you see the world through different eyes and appeal to a part of us that others might not see. Oh and they stay with us.

Today callers shared their favorite characters of all time - I've compiled a list for your reading pleasure. Is your favorite character missing? Let me know. You can listen to this morning's conversation by clicking on the link below:

The best literary characters of all time:

Atticus Finch (To Kill a Mockingbird)

Guy Montag (Farenheit 451)

Holden Caulfield (The Catcher in the Rye)

Anne of Green Gables (series by L.M. Montgomery)

Jane Eyre

Glory (Glory Goes and Gets Some) - MN author Emily Carter

Beezus (Beezus and Ramona)

Jo March (Little Women)

Det. Harry Bosch (17 mysteries starting with The Black Echo)

Huck Finn

Gus McCrae (Lonesome Dove)

Santiago (The Alchemist)

The Doctor (The Plague)

Holly Golightly (Breakfast at Tiffany's)

Lisbeth Salander (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo)

Dagny Taggart (Atlas Shrugged)

Elizabeth Bennet (Pride and Prejudice)

Rabbit (John Updike's series of novels)

Anna Karenina

The Doctor (Cider House Rules)

Horatio Hornblower (C.S. Forester series)

Spencer (Robert B. Parker series)

David Copperfield (the book by Dickens, not the magician)

Dorothea Brooks (Middlemarch)

Sherlock Holmes

Okonkwo (Things Fall Apart)

Mrs. Murry (A Wrinkle in Time)

Edgar Sawtelle (The Story of Edgar Sawtelle: A Novel)

Roland (Stephen King's Gunslinger series)

Captain Ahab (Moby Dick)

Trixie Belden (The Trixie Belden Series)

Philip Marlowe (Raymond Chandler character)

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National Book Award winners announced

Posted at 9:35 AM on November 17, 2011 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Poetry, Writing

This year's National Book Award winners are:

Young People's Literature:

Inside Out & Back Again
by Thanhha Lai
(Harper, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers)

Poetry:

Head Off & Split
by Nikky Finney
(TriQuarterly, an imprint of Northwestern University Press)

Nonfiction:

The Swerve: How the World Became Modern
by Stephen Greenblatt
(W. W. Norton & Company)

Fiction:

Salvage the Bones
by Jesmyn Ward
(Bloomsbury USA)


In addition, the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters was awarded to John Ashbery and the
Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community was awarded to Mitchell Kaplan.

Here's Nikky Finney reading "Left" from her poetry collection Head Off & Split

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Betsy and Tacy are back

Posted at 12:02 PM on November 14, 2011 by Marianne Combs (24 Comments)
Filed under: Books

Maud Hart Lovelace, born and raised in Mankato, Minnesota, had a very happy childhood. And her memories formed the basis of a wildly popular series of children's books featuring two young girls named Betsy and Tacy who live in the fictional town of Deep Valley.

Now the first four of those popular children's books have been re-issued in a new volume called 'The Betsy-Tacy Treasury.'

Evidently these stories (which I'm embarrassed to admit I'm just discovering) are near and dear to the likes of Judy Blume, Nora Ephron, and Anna Quindlen, among others.

In the New York Times, Pamela Paul recently pondered the books' popularity:

Why all the excitement over a series of stories about everyday life in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the fictional town of Deep Valley, Minn. - a stand-in for the author's real hometown of Mankato, Minn.?

It could be the little touches that resonate with all young girls: The established perfidy of older sisters. A "chocolate colored" house. A nearby hill that looms over the backyard symbolizing the acquisition of independence. And of course the idealized friendship between Betsy Ray and Tacy Kelly, epitomized in that magnificent hyphen linking the two names together, testament to their girlish bond.

But does it also have something to do with the notion of five-year-old girls being allowed to dine outdoors together on a bench between their two homes, no grownups lurking overhead? Or two young friends mounting the big hill - on their own? Or the prospect of a mother leaving three schoolgirls at home unattended one afternoon, with instructions to heat up their own cocoa on the stove?

In the sweet, safe sanctuary of Deep Valley, Minn., more than 100 years ago, such things were possible, at least in Betsy-Tacy's universe. It's a far cry from the overprotective, omni-parented world of 21st-century America with its myriad threats, real and imaginary. After reading aloud a few chapters to my own six-year-old daughter recently, my daughter sighed and said simply, "I want to live in this book." She's probably not the only one.

Are you a Betsy-Tacy fan? If so, what makes their stories so appealing?

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What people are reading

Posted at 1:50 PM on November 2, 2011 by Marianne Combs (1 Comments)
Filed under: Books

The Hennepin County Libraries keep track of how often their books are checked out, and today released a report of top titles this year in various categories. Worth noting - of the top 25 titles in the adult titles, only one was non-fiction: "Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption" by Laura Hillenbrand.

Here are the top 5 titles in three major categories, based on data from :

The top 5 circulating adult titles:

1. The Help by Kathryn Stockett

2. Buried Prey by John Sandford

3. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

4. Freedom by Jonathan Franzen

5. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson

The top 5 circulating teen titles:

1. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

2. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

3. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

4. Catching fire by Suzanne Collins

5. The Maze Runner by James Dashner

The top 5 circulating children's books:

1. Dog Days by Jeff Kinney

2. Rodrick Rules by Jeff Kinney

3. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling

4. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Greg Heffley's Journal by Jeff Kinney

5. The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan

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Novel explores how history can be a fickle judge

Posted at 8:18 AM on October 31, 2011 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books

Alan Hollinghurst's new novel "The Stranger's Child" follows the life - and death - of a poet, and how history remembers him over the following century. Literary critics, relatives and historians come to very different conclusions depending on the era in which they live.

MPR's Euan Kerr recently met up with Hollinghurst, who admits he's challenging his readers.

"It's a very much a book about uncertainties, I think," Hollinghurst said. "In my earlier books I left very little doubt as to what had gone on between the characters.

"In this book, with all its gaps and mysteries, I hope that the reader too would be as unsure as to just what had gone on between two characters as some of the other characters in the book are. And decades later when they are trying to reconstruct just what might have happened between Cecil and Daphne, or Cecil and George, nobody knows for sure."

Hollinghurst says as in life, "The Stranger's Child" contains things that are never fully resolved or understood. He realizes doing this is a risk, but he believes readers will go along with it.

Alan Hollinghurst
MPR Photo/Euan Kerr

Hearing about Hollinghurst's novel reminded me of two other books: A.S. Byatt's "Possession" and Italo Calvino's "If on a Winter's Night a Traveler."

Why? Because Hollinghurst is exploring the nature of literary life and criticism (as does A.S. Byatt) while simultaneously testing the agility of his readers - and the structure of the novel -by creating a new world with each chapter (per Italo Calvino).

You can learn more about Hollinghurst's book by clicking on the audio link below:

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Wonderstruck tells story of 'people of the eye'

Posted at 10:36 AM on October 18, 2011 by Marianne Combs (1 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Drawing, Writing

Ben lives in Gunflint Lake, Minnesota. The year: 1977
Rose lives in Hoboken, New Jersey. The year: 1927

What do to two people so distanced by time and space have in common?

1. They are both deaf
2. They both leave home to travel to New York City
3. They are both characters in Brian Selznick's new book "Wonderstruck"

An illustration from Brian Selznick's "Wonderstruck."
Copyright 2011 by Brian Selznick. Used with permission from Scholastic Press

MPR's Euan Kerr spoke to Selznick about his new work, which tells Rose's story in pictures, and Ben's story in words.

Selznick said when he first thought of telling two tales simultaneously in text and pictures, he knew he needed the right subject. Then he saw the documentary "Through Deaf Eyes" which includes an educator who described deaf people as 'the people of the eye.' He latched onto that.

"There were a lot of things interesting me at the time as well," he said. "The history of museums, and ideas about New York City. And Minnesota, as well, ... became a very central part of the story."

As part of his book tour, Selznick is asking for sign-language translators at his readings, including one tonight at 6pm at Open Eye Figure Theater in Minneapolis.

You can hear more about Wonderstruck, and about Selznick's previous book "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" (the inspiration for Martin Scorsese's "Hugo") by clicking on the audio link below:

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National Book Award finalists announced

Posted at 1:05 PM on October 12, 2011 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Writing

Oregon Public Radio had the honor of announcing the National Book Award finalists today, which they live-streamed and live-blogged on their website.

At least one of the books has a "Minnesota connection" - in the nonfiction category, Deborah Baker's "The Convert: A Tale of Exile and Extremism" was published by Graywolf Press.

Young People's Literature

Debby Dahl Edwardson, My Name Is Not Easy
Thanhha Lai, Inside Out and Back Again
Albert Marrin, Flesh and Blood So Cheap
Lauren Myracle, Shine
Gary D. Schmidt, Okay for Now

Fiction

Andrew Krivak, The Sojourn
Tea Obreht, The Tiger's Wife
Julie Otsuka, The Buddha in the Attic
Edith Pearlman, Binocular Vision: New & Selected Stories
Jesmyn Ward, Salvage the Bones

Nonfiction

Deborah Baker, The Convert: A Tale of Exile and Extremism
Mary Gabriel, Love and Capital: Karl and Jenny Marx and the Birth of a Revolution
Stephen Greenblatt, Swerve
Manning Marable, Malcolm X
Lauren Redniss, Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout

Poetry

Nikky Finney, Head Off & Split
Yusef Komunyakaa, The Chameleon Couch
Carl Phillips, Double Shadow
Adrienne Rich, Tonight No Poetry Will Serve
Bruce Smith, Devotions

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A guide to NPR's top 100 sci-fi and fantasy books

Posted at 1:13 PM on September 30, 2011 by Marianne Combs (3 Comments)
Filed under: Books

Over the summer National Public Radio compiled a list of the 100 top science fiction and fantasy books, based on listener nominations. J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings came in first place.

Well, in a sharp departure from the norm, NPR failed to provide any contextual analysis for the list. It was a list, and nothing more.

But wait, the folks at SFSignal.com have come to the rescue; they've developed a flowchart to help you figure out which book is right for you.

Below is a just a miniature representation of the actual flowchart, which you can check out in all its glory here.

Is your favorite on the list? Which is it? Which great sci-fi or fantasy book failed to make the list? Let us know...

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Calvin Trillin Minneapolis Event Cancelled

Posted at 1:09 PM on September 22, 2011 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Libraries, People

Humorist Calvin Trillin's September 28th appearance at the Talk of the Stacks series in Minneapolis has been cancelled.

Trillin, who has been touring with his new book "Quite Enough of Calvin Trillin: Forty Years of His Funny Stuff," has returned to New York as a result of a medical emergency. A release from the Hennepin County Libraries which sponsors Talk of the Stacks, says Trillin is doing well, but the tour has now been postponed.

Organizers hope Trillin's appearance may be rescheduled for later this year or early in 2012.

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The completed St. John's Bible is unveiled

Posted at 3:00 PM on September 15, 2011 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Craft, Museums, Writing

Can we get an "Amen?"

After 15 years of painstaking calligraphy and illumination by an international team of artists, the St. John's Bible is complete.

Detail from Letter to the Seven Churches with the Heavenly Choir, Donald Jackson, 2011. The Saint John's Bible, Order of Saint Benedict, Collegeville, Minnesota.

In the tradition of medieval Bibles, The Saint John's Bible is two feet tall and three feet wide when opened. It's bound in seven distinct volumes. It is the first handwritten bible to be commissioned by a Benedectine Monastery in more than 500 years.

Starting tomorrow, visitors to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts can see excerpts from the final volume, which comprises the Book of Letters and the Book of Revelation.

Detail from Valley of the Dry Bones, The Saint John's Bible, Order of Saint Benedict, Collegeville, Minnesota

The St. John's Bible was written and drawn entirely by hand by a team of 23 professional scribes, artists and assistants, using quills and paints hand-ground from precious minerals and stones such as lapis lazuli, malachite, silver, and 24-karat gold.

The project was conceived and overseen by Donald Jackson, one of the world's foremost calligraphers and Senior Scribe to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth's Crown Office at the House of Lords.

"Now that I have inscribed the final Amen, I realise that over the long years of this task, a boyhood dream, I have gradually absorbed an enduring conviction of the pin-sharp relevance of these ancient Biblical Texts to the past, present and the future of our personal and public life and experience," Jackson said in a release. "These texts have a life of their own and their life is a mirror of the human spirit and experience."

Wisdom Woman, The Saint John's Bible, Order of Saint Benedict, Collegeville, Minnesota.

You can read about Minnesota calligrapher Diane von Arx's participation in illuminating the bible here.

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Milkweed gets a Presidential boost

Posted at 4:15 PM on August 22, 2011 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Media, News and reviews, Writing

The staff at Milkweed Editions in Minneapolis are celebrating a double Presidential boost with the help of the Boston Globe this week.

First of all the paper suggested that President Obama take Milkweed author David Gessner's book "My Green Manifesto:Down the Charles River in Search of the New Environmentalism'' as one of the five titles he should take on vacation.,

The other titles suggested were: "Caleb's Crossing'' by Geraldine Brooks, "The Submission'' by Amy Waldman, " Ethan Allen: His Life and Times'' by Willard Sterne Randall, and "The Magician King'' By Lev Grossman.

The Globe is now reporting that the Reader-in-Chief has a copy with him in Martha's Vineyard.

Well, actually it's reporting Globe reporters saw Presidential daughters Sasha and Malia carrying a bag of books including the Gessner title, and the accompanying picture shows the President piloting a golf cart rather than reading.

But hey, in the cutthroat world of book publicity, you take what you can get!

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Call and response: poetry transformed into art

Posted at 3:58 PM on August 19, 2011 by Marianne Combs (2 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Galleries, Poetry

While you've probably heard of the sonnet and the limerick, have you ever heard of an "ekphrastic" poem?

The term is used specifically for a poem which is inspired by another work of art. John Keats' "Ode on a Grecian Urn" is a famous example.

Poet Kathryn Kysar, along with several artist friends, is turning around the concept of the ekphrastic poem, and instead using poetry to inspire works of art.

Kysar says the idea in part came out of her struggle to move beyond the typical poetry reading circuit.

Poetry does not easily make its way into the world, and I am not much of a performer. I was looking for ways to get my poems off of the page and into the artistic and literary community, a way to reach an audience in a more exciting way than standing at a podium and reading poems in a monotone voice.

Love Poem from Jes Shimek on Vimeo.

An exhibition of artwork inspired by Kysar's poetry collection "Pretend the World" opens tomorrow night at Banfill-Locke Center for the Arts. It includes video, sculpture, paintings and photography, each inspired by specific poems.

Artist Jan Elftmann says the experience pushed her in two different directions: to create art literally about a poem, and to use a poem as a place from which to leap:

Using Kate's poetry was a little challenging for me in the beginning. I read "Pretend the World" many times, even taking it to bed it with me at night. Often times it was a few words of poetry that spoke to me and other times a greater meaning of the whole poem.

Jan Elftmann's "White Horse," created in response to Kathryn Kysar's "Early Spring: Dark Lake, 1997"

Jan Elftmann's sculpture "White Horse" was inspired by Kysar's poem "Early Spring: Dark Lake, 1997."

With the "White Horse" piece, Kate's poem, "Early Spring: Dark Lake, 1997", I took the image of the horse in her poem into my mind and the feelings of winter colors. I encrusted the horse with small, white and silver objects. The process was painting with objects, thinking of shape, color value and texture. I also added words from the poem. Words have never been a large part of my art before, so that was definitely an inspiration from Kate.

Kysar considers the exhibition a sort of "call and response;" she's even contemplating creating a body of new poetry in response to the exhibition.

Ultimately, I hope the show is a conversation between image and text, writer and artists. The viewers will be able to see the different interpretations each artist had of the book. I am excited about the diversity of the show, which includes photographs, paintings, videos, installations, and sculpture. Working on this project has been a wonderfully fun experiment.

"Pretend the World" runs through September 30.

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Rediscovering the lost mansions of the Twin Cities

Posted at 1:48 PM on August 19, 2011 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Architecture, Books

Today I had the pleasure of sitting in the host chair on Midday.

It was a particular pleasure because I got to spend the first hour talking with architectural historian Larry Millett about some amazing buildings.

Charles G. Gates' palatial home stood for only 19 years on Lake of the Isles Parkway in Minneapolis before it fell victim to its own lavishness.
Image courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society

Millett is the author of several books on Twin Cities' architecture; his newest book "Once There Were Castles" profiles 90 mansions and estates that have been lost to history.

One of the interesting facts gleened from the conversation: many of these mansions were "too big to survive" - once the owner died, there was no one around willing to take over the cost of upkeep.

You can listen to the entire hour by clicking on the audio link below:

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Lev Grossman: Fantasy literature came first

Posted at 1:45 PM on August 17, 2011 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Storytelling, Writing

Recently in an essay for the Wall Street Journal, author and book critic Lev Grossman mused on the lower class status that fantasy fiction garners from most adult readers. Fantasy literature, they seem to believe, is just for kids.

Grossman, the author of the popular "Magicians" series - which is written specifically for an adult audience, disagrees.

"All fiction is fantasy," he protested. "Fantasy is the rule, not the exception. If anything, it's realist literature that pretends to be real. Fantasy doesn't pretend."

Kerri Miller asked Lev Grossman to elaborate on this idea on Midmorning, and he had this to say:

Fantasy literature has a wonderfully long history - far longer than realist fiction, which, on the cultural clock, showed up around 11pm. There was a long period of time when most fiction was fantasy fiction - Homer wrote fantasy fiction. And the question whether it was for adults or kids didn't really pertain. You sat around the fire or the mead hall or the scriptorium and you read your Homer.

Only recently - and I peg it to about the 18th century - did this idea that realist fiction - serious writing about how live now - is literature, and all this stuff with fairies and magic in it was relegated to fairy tales or children's stories. That split happened relatively recently, and I think what's happening now is we are repairing the rift. Magic is coming back into the world of fiction, where it's always had a place.

You can hear Kerri Miller's entire conversation with Lev Grossman by clicking on the audio link below.

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The Walker's "reading room" vs. your local library

Posted at 12:00 PM on August 11, 2011 by Marianne Combs (3 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Museums

So I was chatting with Steve Seel and Jill Riley over on 89.3 The Current this morning, as I do each Thursday morning, talking about events coming up this weekend.

I mentioned, among other things, the Walker Art Center's "Reading Room" project, which I wrote about here yesterday. They're basically offering people a place to unplug and read, undisturbed.

Steve Seel looked at me wryly and said, "yes we used to have those - they were called libraries."

St. Paul Central Library in downtown St. Paul (MPR Photo/Tim Nelson)

So what is the difference between the Walker's reading room and a library?

Project creator Chris Fischbach explains it this way:

Libraries aren't quiet, and are not primarily used for reading books by most people. Also you are not asked to turn off your phone at the library, or to unplug. Reading Room is inspired by libraries. Or maybe it's what libraries used to be.

And sure enough, Current listener Alyssa Prater wrote in to back up Fischbach's premise:

I work for a Regional Library system, and often comment that the irony of my job is I have no time to read. At any rate, I visit each of our 14 Branch Locations on a monthly basis; and have to say some libraries are no longer quiet places to read. The concept of a quiet place to unplug and just read, might be just what we all need!

So what are libraries there for these days? A while back I reported on their changing role in communities, which has led them to be less about books, and more about people.

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Walker Art Center explores the art of reading

Posted at 3:02 PM on August 10, 2011 by Marianne Combs (3 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Museums, Public Art

Starting Friday, the Walker Art Center's Open Field is offering you a place to read without distraction. At different times on five different days, you're invited to check into the Walker's "Field Office." There will be books, but you can bring your own, too. All you have to do is disconnect yourself from your wireless world and read.

If only we had more time...
Photo: Martin Poole

Chris Fischbach of Coffee House Press is the man behind the project. I caught up with him to find out more about the reading room; he says the idea came out of his own inability to make time for reading purely for pleasure.

I began to wonder, in a sort-of-silly, sort-of-serious way if it would be a tenable business model to open a space where people would actually pay to come and read. There would be comfortable chairs, great lighting, maybe some quiet snacks. And absolutely no talking, and no phones of any kind. A space for immersive reading.

Of course people can do all of this for free, but they don't. But if you placed a dollar value on it, it will be worth something to them, and maybe they will do it. Like paying to go to the gym. You can do the exercise for free, usually, but if you are paying, you're more likely to go.

Fischbach mentioned the idea to fried Sarah Schultz, who is one of the minds behind Open Field at the Walker Art Center. She convinced Fischbach he should give the project a dry-run this summer.

The difference between this Reading Room and my original idea is that Reading Room MPLS on Open Field is totally free. It's an experiment. It also puts a frame around the act of reading and, I believe, makes you think not only about the role reading plays in your life, but in the life of a community. You might ask how you read or why. You might wonder about the form of the book and its morphing form over the centuries. You might think about reading as meditating, or as something that incites anger. I want to see if people will, if given the gentlest nudge, actually take time to go somewhere and sit in a room, turn off their phone, and read. And what happens when a number of people gets together to do a solitary act in a group setting? Will this catch on, and will people start going to bars to read in groups?

Fischbach says while he's participating in the Walker event as an individual, he sees it as a natural outgrowth of his work at Coffee House Press.

As a publisher, we obviously hope that people read, and even better if they read a book by one of our authors. But in addition to publishing great books by great writers that get great reviews and are nominated for national awards, I am interested in Coffee House Press and our books as tools for social engagement, as tools for change, as tools for further art-making. The role of Coffee House doesn't stop once the book is printed. Why can't these words and our efforts have an active role in effecting change in our (or any) community? They should. I want people to think of Coffee House Press, our authors, and our books as community assets.

There is a quote I like, by Kurt Vonnegut, "Literature is the only art form in which the audience performs the score." I'm not sure about "only," but in essence, I agree. Reading is an ACTIVE act, not a passive act. I've always thought that. And any active act can be a creative act. I once saw a piece of graffiti outside of an art school in Amsterdam that said, "I will not draw as I am told." First, off, I'm not sure why it was written in English, but secondly, I think people should know that they don't have to read as they are told either. You might find great joy in reading a poem backwards. Or reading a page from one book and then a page from another, back and forth. What happens to your mind when you do that?

The "reading room" will be open in the Walker's Flatpak Field Office at the following times:

Friday, August 12 6:00pm - 8:00pm

Saturday, August 13 2:00pm - 4:00pm
(note: visitors to the Open Field on Saturday also have the opportunity to pitch their book idea to Coffee House Press in a literary version of speed dating)

Sunday, August 14 2:00pm - 4:00pm

Tuesday, August 15 12:00pm - 2:00pm

Wednesday, August 16 3:00pm - 5:00pm

I'm curious - how do you make time for reading? Would you be willing to pay for a place free of distraction, where reading was your only objective? What would it be like?

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Red Balloon Bookstore changes leadership

Posted at 2:16 PM on July 22, 2011 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Media, People, Storytelling

In an economy where brick and mortar big box book behemoths keep failing, the Red Balloon Bookstore in St Paul has sailed along.

Not that there haven't been bumps in the road admits Michele Cromer-Poiré. She and Carol Erdahl founded and opened the store in 1984, and they have remained at the helm ever since, weathering the storms of the book business against all odds.

The Grand Avenue store has become a St Paul institution, with a reputation for being well stocked with both classics and new releases, and as a great place for author readings.

Now Cromer-Poiré and Erdahl are retiring. Cromer-Poiré says they've been thinking about it for a while.

"Our husbands have been retired for, actually, decades," she laughs.

But she says they didn't want to just walk away

"We wanted to keep it going, and we think of it kind of as our legacy," Cromer-Poiré said. "We found these fabulous women and we think the Red Balloon has a fabulous future with them."

On August 1st Holly Weinkauf of St. Paul and Amy Sullivan of Minneapolis will become the Red Balloon's new owners. Cromer-Poiré is delighted by what she sees as the similarities between Weinkauf's and Sullivan's experiences and how she and Erdahl felt as they launched the store.

Cromer-Poiré says she thinks the Red Balloon has survived because she and Erdahl were, as she puts it "intrepid." They forged ahead, no matter the challenges, while keeping a close eye on finances to keep the store viable.

She says she never thought they wouldn't make it.

"No, I don't think that ever crossed our minds," she said. "One of the smartest things that we ever did was that we managed to own our own space, so we are not beholding to a landlord, and because of that we can control our occupancy costs."

But it's taken more than good financial management to make the Red Balloon the success it is. Cromer-Poiré says its a combination of good customer service, by staff with decades of experience, all working towards an important goal.

"We have really been focused on connecting kids with literature, with books, with authors with illustrators, and through that been promoting literacy and fun with reading."

The Red Balloon has been around for 27 years. When asked to predict how things will be in the book industry in 27 more, Cromer-Poiré doesn't miss a beat.

"I see the Red Balloon still surviving, I don't know that childrens books and quality childrens booksstores will go away ever. There's something special about the relationship between a parent and a child when the child is sitting on the lap and the parent is reading to the child."

She recalls how people predicted the introduction of audiobooks would spell the end of the paper books. That didn't happen, and while the Red Balloon does sell ebooks, she says they will never replace a good picturebook."

She won't be there behind the counter but Michele Cromer-Poiré says she'll still be there regularly.

"We wrote into the purchase agreement that Carol and I will get an employee discount," she said with a laugh. "I'm always going to buy my books from the Red Balloon!"

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Contemporary printers: breaking all the rules

Posted at 4:59 PM on July 26, 2011 by Marianne Combs (1 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Galleries, Libraries, Poetry, Storytelling, Writing

Printmaking - especially letterpress printing - is a precise art with a long tradition and a lot of rules.

In fact, says the Minnesota Center for Book Arts' executive director Jeff Rathermel, letterpress printers on the whole are a little bit anal.

For instance, the print should "kiss" the surface of the paper; embossing or indenting the page is considered "bad printing," because it will show up on the other side of the page.

Rathermel continues to rattle off a number of other rules involving page size and design, colors and fonts. Indeed, there are a lot of rules.

Macy Chadwick
"Connect the Dots"

But Rathermel says there is letterpress as a fine art tradition, and then there's the letterpress of the contemporary artist, which is constantly testing the boundaries of the form.

And that's why the MCBA is currently presenting an exhibition of letterpress artists who know all the rules, and have chosen to ignore them.

And they're not just breaking the rules in order to be mavericks -they're doing it in service to the art. Everything about an artist book is in service to the content- you're breaking rules because it's helping you to tell the story. It's adding another element to the text. It's adding a visual component, a texture, a layer to the story. Whereas if you're going by the traditional rules, you have a very straightforward approach to telling the story.

The exhibition is called "Fine & Dirty: Contemporary Letterpress Art."

Simon Redington
"Bomb"

The show comes at a time when book artists are enjoying newfound respect in the art world. According to Rathermel, just twenty-five years ago, letterpress printing was oft dismissed as irrelevant.

Rathermel co-curated "Fine and Dirty" with book arts scholar Betty Bright. Bright is the author of No Longer Innocent: Book Art in America, 1960 to 1980, the first comprehensive history of the book art movement in America. Bright says what's changed in the world of book arts in the past 25 years is, well, pretty much everything.

When I walk through the gallery, I am struck by the rampant diversity on show. Pattern and scale, text and image, structure and material - the letterpress printed book continues to absorb and transform every conceivable artistic element into a cohesive art work that you can touch and hold, page through, then pass along to the next reader.

Karen Kunc
"Air, Water, Oil"

Bright says contemporary artists are not only working with new media, but are using their voices to speak out on all manner of issues and ideas. And, she says, they are exploring and playing with the physicality of the book.

I believe that a larger cultural influence driving the interest in book art is a reaction against the overwhelming screen-based media stream that all of us live within. We don't live in our bodies as we used to, and we reach out to a medium that reconnects us with all of our senses. Don't get me wrong: I do not ascribe to a simplistic Luddite attitude, quite the contrary. Computer technology has played the hero's role in the revitalization of book art and of letterpress in particular. What I mean, is that the hours spent in front of a screen fosters an equal desire in humans for the sensual, for touch, for contact.

This show, according to Jeff Rathermel, features "the best of the best" in contemporary letterpress, with more than 40 artists from several countries. It also includes work by local artists Chip Schilling, Regula Russelle and Paulette Myers-Rich, among others.

Betty Bright says, by all art world standards, the field is healthy and growing.

Over the last twenty-five years book art has grown in every conceivable category. Every major U.S. city boasts a strong collection of artists' books, along with a place to study, either at a community-based or at a higher educational institution. Collections of artists' books exist at colleges and universities, in book art centers and museums (where they are often dispersed among print and photography departments). I cannot keep up with the organizational and educational vitality: it appears to be in a constant growth pattern.

"Fine & Dirty: Contemporary Letterpress Art" runs through October 16 at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts.

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From Princess Diaries to vampire love

Posted at 11:30 AM on July 12, 2011 by Marianne Combs (1 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Writing

It's the writer's equivalent of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Author Meg Cabot, best known for her Princess Diaries series, is now getting a name for blood lust.

MPR's Euan Kerr caught up with Cabot, who is on tour for her latest vampire novel "Overbite." Cabot says she blames the Twilight series for giving vampires too good an image.

"The sparkle thing is just a disguise to make us think that they're, you know, handsome and non-creepy, but that is not true," she told Kerr.

Cabot, it should be noted, is well aware of the dangers of vampire worshipping.

One of Cabot's early jobs was working in a New York University dorm around the time that Anne Rice published her novel "Interview with the Vampire." Some of the students got a little too enthusiastic about the book, Cabot said.

"And they started biting each other," she said. "And my job back then was to take students to the hospital when the were sick and these students happened to give each other hepatitis from biting each other. So we actually had a hepatitis outbreak. That's when I first realized how popular vampires were."

While Cabots Princess series was aimed at teenagers, the vampire series is geared toward adults. To find out more about the new series, just click on the audio link below, or read Kerr's story here.

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An Osseo woman's prohibition exploits beget a novel

Posted at 8:35 AM on July 5, 2011 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Writing

Sometimes a creative writing exercise can really pay off.

It certainly did in the case of St Paul writer Mary Desjarlais, who's first novel "Dorie Lavalle" is just out. MPR's Euan Kerr spoke with Desjarlais, who explained how the book came about:

The book grew out of a writing class taught at Saint Kate's by author Jonis Agee. She assigned students the task of writing about a relative about who they knew little.

DesJarlais immediately remembered the expression she saw in a vintage picture of her great-aunt Dorie.

She lived in rural Osseo, just north of Minneapolis in the 1920s. Dorie posed with her sisters. But while they were crowded together, Dorie stood off to one side, looking determined.

"This was a woman who got tired of being poor," DesJarlais said. "They were farmers, the land was not able to yield a good crop and she thought, 'What can I do to make some money?' Prohibition was raging. People wanted a drink. She decided to take that opportunity."

To find out more about Dorie LaValle's bootlegging adventures, you can click on the audio link below, or read the full story here.

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Author Ann Patchett reveals her deepest fear

Posted at 8:22 PM on June 28, 2011 by Marianne Combs (1 Comments)
Filed under: Books, People

Ann Patchett

MPR's Kerri Miller gets people to reveal some rather interesting things about themselves in her interviews, and her conversation with author Ann Patchet was no exception.

In this case, Miller brought up an incident involving a small boat, the Amazon river, and a 15 foot Anaconda - all part of Patchett's research for her latest book "State of Wonder." Patchett admitted it was a frightening experience, but that snakes do not top her list of pathological fears. What does?

You know what I'm afraid of? Really super-realistic looking baby dolls... of the kind my sister adored. Take a good hard look at one, in their plastic coffins lined up next to each other... it's like a row of dead babies in plastic boxes. It's beyond horrifying.

You can hear their entire conversation by clicking on the link below:

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Bookbinding: antique values, modern practicality

Posted at 9:33 AM on June 27, 2011 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Craft

I stumbled across this AFL-CIO promotional video from the 1960s, and found it both charming and fascinating. It's a detailed look at all the art and work involved in binding books, and a rather romantic and aspirational portrayal of the life of a tradesman, filled with such statements as the following:

"This is a happy marrying of antique values with modern practicality, and these workers know that the wearing out of a book from re-reading is a truer estimate of its worth than any review by a critic."

Of course the big punch is saved for the end of the video:

The art of bookmaking is older than printing by many centuries yet today's members of the brotherhood of bookbinders, artists of the AFL-CIO, are able to supply the demand for the most important ingredient of the modern world - literacy.

Following a craft as ancient as cave drawings, these union workers of the book industry are second to none in keeping pace with progress. The ingenuity which has been passed on to the folders, gatherers, sewers, trimmers, liners and casemakers in a proud profession is constantly at work for you to produce our greatest treasure - knowledge.

Today of course, with the automation of the bookbinding process, the outlook for someone interested in making books for a living is not nearly as secure.

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10 terrific summer reads

Posted at 1:56 PM on June 23, 2011 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books

This morning on Morning Edition, book-lover Nancy Pearl offered up her recommendations for some good summer reads.

You can read her full recommendations here, but in the interest of brevity I've condensed the list below. Have you got some favorite summer reads? Add yours in the comments section. The more, the merrier!

Midnight Riot
By Ben Aaronovitch; paperback, 320 pages; Del Ray, list price: $7.99

Matched
By Ally Condie; hardcover, 384 pages; Dutton Juvenille, list price: $17.99

Castle Waiting & Castle Waiting II
By Linda Medley; hardcover, 472 pages and 384 pages; Fantagraphic Books, list price: $29.95 each

Emily, Alone
By Stewart O'Nan; hardcover, 272 pages; Viking Adult, list price: $29.95

The Watery Part Of The World
By Michael Parker; hardcover, 272 pages; Algonquin Books, list price: $23.95

The White Woman On The Green Bicycle
By Monique Roffey; paperback, 448 pages; Penguin, list price: $16

Evening Is The Whole Day
By Preeta Samarasan; paperback, 352 pages; Mariner Books, list price: $13.95

The Coffins Of Little Hope
By Timothy Schaffert; hardcover, 272 pages; Unbridled Books, list price: $24.95

Tooth And Claw
By Jo Walton; paperback, 336 pages; Orb Books, list price: $15.95

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Allan Kornblum on the future of Coffee House Press

Posted at 1:35 PM on June 22, 2011 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Writing

Yesterday afternoon I wrote about the news that Chris Fischbach will be taking over the position of publisher at Coffee House Press, and that founder Allan Kornblum will now be the press' Senior Editor.

Yesterday Chris Fischbach cited some of his goals and challenges in taking over the successful independent literary press.

Today we hear from founder Allan Kornblum on the transition, which has been in the planning for the past two years.

I was so pleased to discover in Chris Fischbach, the rare combination of literary acumen, personal leadership, and good business sense that are needed to serve as the publisher of an independent literary press like Coffee House.

Coffee House Press founder Allan Kornblum

Kornblum says Fischbach is stepping in to run the press at a critical time.

Like every nonprofit arts organization, Coffee House faces an environment marked by declining donations and increased expectations. And I believe that the arts can play an important role in reminding America that we are a nation that plans and accomplishes great things.

But in addition to the general problems faced by all nonprofits, Coffee House must be nimble enough to anticipate rapidly changing technology for book production, changes in bookselling, the movement of book reviewing from print to the internet, and changes to the very shape and format of the book itself. All this, while retaining the literary vision that has always informed and enhanced our editorial acquisitions.

Kornblum says he's looking forward to continuing at the press as senior editor, and serving occasionally as counselor to Fischbach "upon his request."

Kornblum has accomplished alot of big things with his "small" press. Coffee House is commonly considered one of the top five independent literary presses in the nation, along with two other Twin Cities mainstays, Graywolf and Milkweed Editions.

I participated, with many others, in the movement to open the doors of publishing to women and writers of color. And in doing so, Coffee House participated in the greater, ongoing effort to broaden the perception of what it means to be an American. That is an effort I know that Chris, our staff, and our board, will continue to participate in.

Kornblum is always careful to note that "publishing is not a solo act," so he resists taking too much credit for accomplishments of the press he founded 27 years ago. But he will tell you that, by always pursuing literary excellence, Coffee House Press has exceeded his wildest dreams.

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Chris Fischbach takes over as publisher at Coffee House Press

Posted at 4:44 PM on June 21, 2011 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Arts management, Books

It's official. After a two-year transition process, Coffee House Press founder Allan Kornblum is handover the reins to longtime Associate Publisher Chris Fischbach.

Kornblum, who started Coffee House Press in 1984, will stay on as Senior Editor.

Allan Kornblum

Over its 27-year history, Coffee House has become one of the most highly regarded independent literary presses in the country. Fischbach started as an intern more than 15 years ago. He says he sees one of his biggest challenges as "walking the line between respecting and honoring Allan's legacy and establishing my own leadership."

In terms of the job itself, I currently see a couple things happening that I am already having to deal with somewhat, but which will only become more to a head in the coming years. That is, how to deal with sales expectations between print and e-book when we don't really know where the e-book market is going, nor do we have any kind of history with which we can make accurate predictions. If, for instance, print sales decline but e-books go up, what does that mean for our business model? Will it be 10% different or 40%? No one knows where the dust will settle with e-books, or if it will.

The other is that because of so much uncertainty in the economy and with
e-books, bookstores are ordering fewer copies and ordering them later. Then
they just re-order when they need more. This makes predicting how many books
to print for our initial print runs difficult, and risky. Learning how to manage this new bookstore behavior is something everyone is dealing with.

Chris Fischbach

Fischbach says there are some changes in the works. Names, he plans on Coffee House Press being much more visible in the community.

I will be looking for creative ways to collaborate with other local arts organizations as much as possible, working to allow connections to be made between our authors and other artists, and other arts organization. I have great admiration for the Walker's Open Field, the spirit of collaboration and experimentation in engenders. I want to bring some of that energy to Coffee House. I grew up here, and I love the Twin Cities. I want Coffee House to continue to be a part of what makes this place such a fertile area for vital and exciting art.

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How violent is too violent in teen fiction?

Posted at 1:31 PM on June 21, 2011 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Writing

The cover of "The Marbury Lens," a young adult novel by Andrew Smith.
(Image Courtesy of Macmillan Children's Publishing Group)

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal has started a heated debate over teen fiction.

Meghan Cox Gurdon argues that over the years, young adult (YA) fiction has become increasingly dark:

How dark is contemporary fiction for teens? Darker than when you were a child, my dear: So dark that kidnapping and pederasty and incest and brutal beatings are now just part of the run of things in novels directed, broadly speaking, at children from the ages of 12 to 18.

Pathologies that went undescribed in print 40 years ago, that were still only sparingly outlined a generation ago, are now spelled out in stomach-clenching detail. Profanity that would get a song or movie branded with a parental warning is, in young-adult novels, so commonplace that most reviewers do not even remark upon it.

Cox Gurdon goes on to cite some examples of modern YA depravity, including Andrew Smith's 2010 novel, "The Marbury Lens," in which the main character is drugged, abducted and nearly raped by a male captor.

Yesterday on Midmorning, Andrew Smith discussed the accusation

When anybody says "there's too much of [something] going on" then it means there's some kind of definite quantifiable threshold where you can say "this is enough." And who's going to make that call, ultimately?

Smith says he isn't comfortable with the label of "teen fiction" or YA books, because they set up expectations in parents akin to the label of a "Happy Meal" - predictable contents, predictably packaged.

Instead he thinks of himself as a novelist, who happens to be read by teens.

Smith says his most recent novel "The Marbury Lens," while dark, is a particularly personal piece.

As far as The Marbury Lens is concerned, there's really no way that you can criticize the book and not criticize me, because they are one and the same. It's a very personal book, about things that actually did happen to me. And the effect of the book has been that in a lot of cases I'm either approached personally by kids, young men, or boys, or I get letters and e-mails from these kids who say things like "wow, this is exactly how I felt when this happened to me." And in that case, despite the fact that there are some dark themes that are present in Young Adult literature, when you can make that connection, when there are kids out there who suddenly realize that they're not alone, that their experience hasn't been confined to only them, that they're not damned - I think that it can be a really powerful thing.

Cox Gurdon says her concern is that these books not only to tell teens that they're not alone, but to popularize such violent behavior:

...It is also possible--indeed, likely--that books focusing on pathologies help normalize them and, in the case of self-harm, may even spread their plausibility and likelihood to young people who might otherwise never have imagined such extreme measures. Self-destructive adolescent behaviors are observably infectious and have periods of vogue. That is not to discount the real suffering that some young people endure; it is an argument for taking care.

Smith disagrees. He says the books Cox Gurdon singled out in her article are in the vast minority:

There are so many thousands and thousands of books that are published every year - to say that teens are being inundated or bulldozed with miserable dark subject matter is absurd. These are kids who learned how to read in a post-9/11 world, where our country has constantly been at war with multiple enemies and they're told that we have all of these enemies outside our borders. They're certainly getting inundated with dark subject matter, but it's not just coming from the fiction that they read.

What do you think? Are some novels too dark? How do you figure out what's appropriate for a teen reader?

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Bob Mould: still "stinging" from Husker Du days

Posted at 2:30 PM on June 15, 2011 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Music, People

Bob Mould

Bob Mould is widely considered one of the major players of the Minnesota music scene in the 1970s and 80s. A member of punk band Hüsker Dü, he went on to play in Sugar, and has had a solo career all his own.

Mould has released a new autobiography, out today, titled "See a Little Light: The Trail of Rage and Melody."

MPR's Chris Roberts interviewed Mould about the book, but rather than pose a bunch of typical reporter questions, Roberts went to some of Mould's old colleagues to find out what they were curious to know. The result is a very personal, dynamic interview.

At one point, Mould admits he never expected to live to the age of 30, given his pretty brutal lifestyle.

And while he broke up with Hüsker Dü bandmates more than 20 years ago, he says he doesn't see them ever getting back together, even just as friends:

I don't know if it'd be in anybody's best interest. I have no ill will. I'm still stinging a little bit, but life goes on.

You can read the full story here, or simply click on the audio link below:

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Author Joyce Sidman and illustrator Rick Allen win top honors

Posted at 12:37 PM on June 13, 2011 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books

Wayzata Poet Joyce Sidman and Duluth illustrator Rick Allen are on a roll.

Their picture book "Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night" has just been honored at the Boston Globe - Horn Book Awards, one of the most prestigious awards in the field of children's and young adult literature.

This after taking home a Newbery Honor in January, and the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award in April.

Here's a snapshot of the book in video form:

There's a lovely piece on how the book came together by Star Tribune writer Kim Ode here.

Rick Allen, along with his wife Marian Lansky, runs The Kenspeckle Letterpress in Duluth.

h/t Laurie Hertzel

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Lake Superior as literary figure

Posted at 10:06 AM on June 2, 2011 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Writing

Does a character need to speak to have a presence?

When it comes to something as giant and powerful as Lake Superior, no.

Danielle Sosin's book "The Long-Shining Waters" revolves around Lake Superior. And while it never speaks, it is ever-present in the lives of three different women whose stories are spread out over 400 years.

Euan Kerr interviewed Sosin about her book while standing on the shores of Lake Superior, but the force of the winds off the lake were so strong they were forced to beat a retreat to a car.

Sosin actually moved to Duluth for the purpose of writing this book, thinking it would only take a year.... but it ended up taking eight.

"The premise that I ended up working with was that, the idea that Lake Superior is holding all of its history, literally as in the stuff that is down there, which there's a lot of," Sosin said. "But more importantly in a watery subconscious way, so that everything that has happened on or around the lake is held in the waters, which effects the people who live on its shores."

You can listen to the whole story by clicking on the link below:

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Bob Mould sheds a little light on his music career

Posted at 10:01 AM on June 1, 2011 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Music

Wednesday, June 15th is the official publishing date of Bob Mould's autobiography "See a Little Light: The Trail of Rage and Melody." Mould is known for his work in the bands Hüsker Dü and Sugar, as well as his own solo career. The autobiography is said to take on not only his punk rock days, but also his struggles with his homosexuality and his drug and alcohol addictions.

Now Magers & Quinn Booksellers has announced that Mould will be in the store reading from his autobiography on Tuesday, June 14th at 9pm.

In music speak, Magers & Quinn writes "It's an all ages show, and it's free."

Stay tuned - in the coming days MPR's Chris Roberts will talk with Mould about the autobiography.

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Finalists for International Artist's Book Award announced

Posted at 4:09 PM on May 27, 2011 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Craft

A Guide to Higher Learning, Julie Chen
© Julie Chen; photo courtesy Minnesota Center for Book Arts

Today the Minnesota Center for Book Arts announced the five finalists for the 2011 MCBA Prize. The prize recognizes exceptional work by book artists from all over the globe. The five finalists were selected from a pool 147 submissions from 22 different countries.

Now, I'm no judge of book arts, but finalist Julie Chen's work really struck me. It's titled "A Guide to Higher Learning" and is reminiscent of both a book and a board game. According to a description from the MCBA, "as the text is read, panels are rolled over revealing increasingly complex layers of visual information such as communication models, mathematical equations, diagrams and matrices."

A Guide to Higher Learning, Julie Chen
© Julie Chen; photo courtesy Minnesota Center for Book Arts

Chen, a resident of Berkeley, California, was a finalist for the MCBA Prize in 2009 (it's offered every other year, to coincide with the MCBA's Book Arts Biennial, a two-day academic symposium on contemporary practice in the book arts).

"My approach to the artist's book involves intensive explorations of both form and content, says Chen. "I strive to present the reader/viewer with an object that challenges preconceived ideas of what a book is, while at the same time providing a deeply engaging and meaningful experience. Often the reader must engage in unexpected physical actions in order to fully read/view a piece."

A Guide to Higher Learning, Julie Chen
© Julie Chen; photo courtesy Minnesota Center for Book Arts

The Minnesota Center for Book Arts will display Chen's work along with those of the other four finalists during Book Art Biennial 2011, a two-day event at the end of July. The winner will be announced at a gala award ceremony on Saturday, July 30.

You can see the work of the other finalists here. However if you visit the MCBA's website you may experience technical problems; evidently the announcement of the finalists inspired such a flurry of traffic that it crashed the site.

A Guide to Higher Learning, Julie Chen
© Julie Chen; photo courtesy Minnesota Center for Book Arts

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New book looks at women who helped establish Minnesota art scene

Posted at 2:31 PM on May 20, 2011 by Marianne Combs (2 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Museums, Painting

"Pioneer Modernists: Minnesota's First Generation of Women Artists" was published last month by Afton Press

Tomorrow afternoon Julie L'Enfant will be speaking at Grand Hand Gallery in St. Paul, and signing copies of her new book "Pioneer Modernists." The book depicts Minnesota's first generation of women artists, and was inspired by an exhibition by the Minnesota Museum of American Art back in 2007. You can read reviews of the book here and here.

1. Why did you want to write this book?

I was deeply impressed by "In Her Own Right: Minnesota's First Generation of Women Artists," an exhibition curated by Brian Szott of the Minnesota Historical Society and shown at the Minnesota Museum of American Art in fall 2007.

The paintings in this show, many of which are in private collections, gave me an exhilarating sense of discovery, for these artists are relatively unknown today--in contrast to their contemporary, Wanda Gág, who left Minnesota in 1917 and made a lasting reputation in New York.

They weren't members of an organized group, and they were recognizably "modern" without being abstract. They were independent women and thoroughly engaging characters, often outspoken and irreverent. They went their own way, yet were deeply engaged with the community.

I eagerly accepted the invitation of Patricia McDonald, publisher of Afton Press, to write a book. We decided to add Elsa Laubach Jemne and Evelyn Raymond - equally accomplished artists of the same era who mastered media traditionally associated with men (murals and architectural sculpture).

Elsa Jemne, The Chinese Screen, ca. 1924.
Courtesy of Kurt and Nancy Hammond, Baltimore, Maryland

2. Are these women artists really that extraordinary compared to pioneering women in other states? How so? In other words, what makes their stories worth telling?

They are extraordinary for a number of reasons. One is the high quality of their work. They were well-trained and sophisticated. Art schools in Minneapolis and St. Paul were remarkably good. And, with one exception, they went on to major art centers - New York, Philadelphia, Paris - for further study with some of the best teachers of the day. Each made art her profession - no hobby painters here - and produced work in a variety of media comparable to that of better-known artists such as Peggy Bacon or Isabel Bishop.

These artists also have compelling personal stories. All had connections with pioneers on the American frontier - Minnesota was still referred to as the "Northwest" in the early years of the 20th century. Most grew up in humble circumstances and had to work very hard to establish careers and support themselves. Wanda Gág's story is well known in Minnesota, but these seven artists are similarly inspiring.

It's remarkable that all but one earned her living as an artist, and taken together they show the variety of ways this could be done. Many worked for the WPA. They founded and ran art colonies, societies, and galleries, thus were at the forefront of organizations that have made the Twin Cities a major center for the arts. Their work was exhibited not only in Minnesota but also in larger cities in the United States and abroad. Almost all were also respected and influential teachers, and one (Greenman) was a perceptive and entertaining writer as well.

While some of these women did marry and have children, none was unduly circumscribed by marriage and family, nor was any the protégé of a dominant male artist in the way of Gabrielle Műnter or Frida Kahlo. Clara Mairs, who had a long partnership with Clement Haupers, is a case in point.

Evelyn Raymond, sculptor, with many of her works
Image courtesy Minnesota Historical Society

3. Are there any favorite stories you learned in the process of putting this book together?

I loved reading about how Clara Mairs and Clem Haupers lived in the Montparnasse area of Paris in the 1920s, taking printmaking and sculpture classes and frequenting Sylvia Beach's famous bookstore, Shakespeare and Company.

I also think of the young Evelyn Raymond, working on a dairy farm in Duluth for eight years while her mother was ill, reading art books by flashlight all night. Each of these artists' lives was intriguing, and I found myself wishing I could go on to write a book about each.

It is hard to select a favorite from among the works of art we've found and photographed for the book. But I have to say I have a special fondness for the paintings of Ada Augusta Wolfe. In many ways she had the hardest professional life - I was surprised and dismayed when I found out how she made a living [as an employee in her brother's punchboard business]. Her beautiful paintings - many of which have turned up in garage or estate sales - have the fine touch of the French Nabis.

Wanda Gág, Fireplace, 1930
Courtesy of Minnesota Historical Society

4. What do you hope readers take away from this book?

I hope the book will help revive the reputations of these successful women and establish their significance in the development of art and culture in the Midwest - and the nation as a whole. There has been a lot of art historical scholarship in the last forty years devoted to rediscovering women artists, also to re-examining the idea that "modernism" means only the new, and particularly abstraction, but there is still a lot of work to be done. I hope this book will make a contribution to this effort. But mainly I hope that readers will enjoy discovering or re-discovering these accomplished artists as they read this beautifully produced book. And I hope it will inspire young women artists to work hard and achieve great things.

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Why vampires rule

Posted at 4:34 PM on May 19, 2011 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Writing

Novelist Justin Cronin is fascinated by vampires, so much so that he's writing a trilogy about them. But his writing is not the romantic type - instead he is bent on making them a plausible beast with scientific reasons for its reaction to garlic, and the need to stake one through the heart to kill it dead.

Today Kerri Miller interviewed him on Midmorning about the first book in the trilogy, The Passage. During the conversation Cronin explained why vampires are simply cooler than other monsters, especially as a literary device.

We have four basic monster stories that we come back to again and again: We've got Frankenstein, we've got the werewolf, we've got the zombie and we've got the vampire.And I think the Vampire figure wins - it's the most interesting, it has the best details, I think it has the most plasticity as a story if you're going to use it as a metaphor for whatever's on your mind. I mean werewolves are great but the one message of the werewolf story is that men are dogs, which we all know, so it feels a little obvious. But the vampire story is full of all kinds of interesting little bits and it's very easy to maneuver the pieces and to make it fit a pressing anxiety of the moment.

You can listen to the whole interview by clicking on the link below:

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Joined at the Hip: A History of Jazz in the Twin Cities

Posted at 4:10 PM on May 17, 2011 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Music

This morning on Morning Edition, host Cathy Wurzer spoke to jazz historian Jay Goetting, the author of a new book on the Twin Cities jazz scene called "Joined at the Hip."

A couple of things struck me in the interview. First, relative youngster that I am, I had no idea there was such a strong connection between jazz music and riverboat culture. Well it didn't take long to find out that there are entire tomes dedicated to the subject.

Secondly, while I knew jazz musicians often play some lowly gigs just to pay the rent, hearing Goetting talk about a gig playing backup for a belly dancer was downright incongruous. What an image!

You can listen to the entire interview by clicking on the link below:

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Pen Pals series to host Michael Ondaatje, Wallace Shawn

Posted at 7:30 PM on May 12, 2011 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Events, People, Writing

Author Michael Ondaatje

Tonight Dave Eggers is at the Hopkins Center for the Arts as the final guest of the Pen Pals Author Lecture Series. And as part of the event, the Minneapolis Library Foundation is announcing the featured authors for the 2011/2012 season.

It's an impressive list - see for yourself:

October 27/28, 2011

Jhumpa Lahiri received the Pulitzer Prize in 2000 for Intrepreter of Maladies, her debut story collection that explores issues of love and identity among immigrants and cultural transplants. Alongside her Pulitzer Prize, Jhumpa Lahiri has won numerous awards including the PEN/Hemingway Award, an O. Henry Prize, and the Addison Metcalf Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her second novel, The Namesake, was published to great acclaim in 2003 and adapted for film in 2007.

December 1/2, 2011

Michael Ondaatje is one of the world's foremost writers -- his artistry and aesthetic have influenced an entire generation of writers and readers. Although he is best known as a novelist, Ondaatje's work also encompasses memoir, poetry, and film, and reveals a passion for defying conventional form. In his novel, The English Patient, which was adapted into an Academy Award winning film, he explores the stories of people history fails to reveal, intersecting four diverse lives at the end of World War II. His forthcoming novel, The Cat's Table, will be published in the US in the fall of 2011.

March 15/16, 2012

Wallace Shawn is beloved for his comedic roles as a film and stage actor, in such works as My Dinner with Andre and The Princess Bride. As a playwright and an essayist, he is revered for his exploration of difficult, often controversial themes. Much of his writing in his collection Essays (2009) has the same cadence as the dialogue in his award-winning plays and screenplays -- bold assertions, often provocative, that outrage and even startle. In 2005, Wallace Shawn received the PEN/Laura Pels Foundation Award for "showing the way to a new kind of theater...."

April 19/20, 2012

Dr. Brian Greene is one of the world's leading theoretical physicists and author of the national bestsellers, The Elegant Universe and The Hidden Reality. A brilliant, entertaining communicator of cutting-edge scientific concepts, Greene was described by The Washington Post as "the single best explainer of abstruse concepts in the world today." In 2008, he co-founded the annual World Science Festival. The Festival's mission is to take science out of the laboratory, making the esoteric understandable and the familiar fascinating to the general public.

May 10/11, 2012

Arthur Phillips was born in Minneapolis and educated at Harvard. He has been a child actor, a jazz musician, a speechwriter, a dismally failed entrepreneur, and a five-time Jeopardy champion. His first novel, Prague, was named a New York Times Notable Book and received The Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for best first novel. He is the author of five novels, including Egyptologist, The Song is You and The Tragedy of Arthur. His work has been translated into twenty-five languages and is the source of three films currently in development.

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Dave Eggers: writer, activist, superhero, pirate

Posted at 4:30 PM on May 11, 2011 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books, People

This Friday I'm going to talk with author Dave Eggers as part of the Minneapolis Library Foundation's Pen Pals Series.

Eggers' bio reads a bit like a superhero who's pen is mightier than the sword. Of late, it seems that each book he writes spawns a foundation bent on making the world a better place. With his latest book Zeitoun, he depicts one family's true story and, by doing so, simultaneously takes on rebuilding New Orleans, and interfaith understanding. Prior to that he wrote "What is the what," a novel based on the real life story of one of the Lost Boys of Sudan. That book led to the creation of the Valentino Achak Deng Foundation, dedicated to building secondary schools in southern Sudan.

In the video clip above, Eggers talks about how he's managed to partner 1400 volunteers with students for one-on-one after-school tutoring in the same building where he runs his publishing house McSweeney's.

Interested in hearing Eggers speak this week? You have two opportunities.

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The interactive book

Posted at 3:31 PM on May 3, 2011 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Media, Technology, Writing

In a rather low energy talk, software developer Mike Matas demos the first full-length interactive book for the iPad -- featuring video, audio, and even a windmill that responds to your breath. The book is "Our Choice," Al Gore's sequel to "An Inconvenient Truth."

One commenter on the TED website said "It's an interesting way to present information, but I don't think it's a book." What do you think?

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A museum for writers in Minnesota?

Posted at 2:30 PM on April 19, 2011 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Museums, Storytelling, Writing

There was a special guest at this weekend's Minnesota Book Awards ceremony: Malcolm O'Hagan, President of the The American Writers Museum Foundation. O'Hagan is on a quest to find a home for his literary museum, which is still in the early fundraising stage of creation.

O'Hagan was the guest of Pat Coleman, acquisitions librarian for the Minnesota Historical Society, and brother of St. Paul mayor Chris Coleman. Irish by birth, I'm sure O'Hagan was delighted to see poet Leanne O'Sullivan take the stage to receive the O'Shaughnessy award.

Two articles, from the Pioneer Press and MinnPost.com, go into detail on O'Hagan's visit, which included a performance of the opera "Wuthering Heights" inspired by Emily Brontë's novel (according to reviews, that may not have been such a good idea).

Possible homes for the museum that were bandied about include the Minnesota History Center and the James J. Hill Reference Library. But evidently Chicago is the frontrunner in this race.

Chicago? Really?

I thought it might be fun to make a list of just why such a museum should find its true home here in the Twin Cities, so without further ado, see below. Am I missing something? Add it in the comments section.

Why a National Writers' Museum would do well to settle in the Twin Cities:

1. F. Scott Fitzgerald lived and wrote here.
2. So did Sinclair Lewis.

3. Minneapolis is the third most literate city in the nation

We are home to three of the top four independent literary presses in the United States:
4. Milkweed Editions
5. Graywolf Press
6. Coffee House Press

7. St. Paul is the 7th most literate/literary city in the nation

8. We are home to Open Book, a unique center devoted to a love of the book, which, in addition to housing Milkweed Editions, is also home to:
9. The Loft Literary Center
10. and the Minnesota Center for Book Arts

11. St. Paul has poetry embedded in its sidewalks.

Then there's:
12. Robert Bly
13. Carol Bly
14. Bill Holm
15. Louise Erdrich
16. Kate DiCamillo
17. Garrison Keillor, author and host of Writers' Almanac, in addition to hosting A Prairie Home Companion.
18. Rain Taxi Review of Books

The Twin Cities are home to a wealth of independent book stores, including (but not limited to):
19. Micawber's Books
20. Birchbark Books and Native Arts
21. Magers & Quinn
22. Once Upon a Crime
23. Red Balloon Bookshop
24. Sixth Chamber Used Books
25. Wild Rumpus
26. Uncle Edgar and Uncle Hugo
27. True Colors Bookstore
28. Common Good Books

Oh and let's not forget:
29. Leif Enger
30. Pete Hautmann
31. Kevin Kling

32. We have a theater named after F. Scott Fitzgerald
33. We have a restaurant/cafe named after Oscar Wilde

Obviously I could go on and on - what would you add to the list?

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Writing Minnesota

Posted at 5:27 PM on April 14, 2011 by Marianne Combs (2 Comments)
Filed under: Arts around the state, Books, Writing

It's not often that I use the blog to promote a radio show before it airs, but this one merits exceptional treatment.

My colleague Annie Baxter is not just an accomplished business reporter, she's also a great writer. When MPR conducted an internal "contest" for show ideas, Baxter pitched a show that would highlight the amazing literary talent in our state. To her delight it was accepted. Fast forward many late-nights and long weekends, and "Writing Minnesota" was born.

The show, which airs tomorrow (Friday) at noon and Sunday at 6pm is an hour-long program which, Baxter says, "will sound like nothing else on our airwaves."

We've got some amazing poems by poets from around the state, which are very place-based. We had Chris Roberts record the poets reading at the locations mentioned in the poems, so you really feel transported to the Mississippi and the grain fields of Red Wing. And we've adapted a fabulous short story by Charles Baxter (no relation) for the radio. It's called "The Winner," and it's set in the hills bordering Lake Superior in a millionaire's bizarre compound. We hired a team of talented actors to bring the piece to life. We've also got some great interviews with various writers about the extent to which they identify as a Minnesota writer-- i.e. whether they see their work as consistent with any kind of regional voice.

Some of the other featured writers include Steve Healey, Robert Hedin, Philip Bryant, Kao Kalia Yang, and Nicole Helget.

So, will Writing Minnesota become a regular feature on MPR airwaves? At this point, Baxter doesn't think so. But in the off-chance it does become a series, Baxter already has plenty of ideas:

If I had the chance to produce more episodes, I wouldn't organize every one around work that references Minnesota as a place. Instead, I'd probably pick themes like "Minnesota writers on love" or "Minnesota writers on death," etc. Maybe I'd have a few place-specific shows still, looking at, say, the writing scene in Duluth or writings specifically about Minneapolis or St. Paul.

I should also note that Baxter had lots of production help from Morning Edition's Curtis Gilbert... who also happens to be her husband.

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MN Book Awards: and the winners are...

Posted at 11:28 PM on April 16, 2011 by Marianne Combs (1 Comments)
Filed under: Books

Laurie Hertzel's memoir "News to Me" took home the Readers' Choice Award at the Minnesota Book Awards

As Pioneer Press Books Editor Mary Ann Grossman said, "isn't this about as much fun as you can have with your clothes on?"

It was, indeed, a very fun night celebrating the Minnesota literary scene. It's not often an event can draw everyone from Mayor Chris Coleman to Dudley Riggs to Venus DeMars (whose coffin-shaped purse was ultra-cool). Hosted by Jeff Kamin (moderator of the "Books and Bars" series), the evening was punctuated with performances by the RockStar Storytellers, as well as a reading by this year's O'Shaughnessy poet Leanne O'Sullivan. Poet Carol Connolly received this year's Kay Sexton Award for her contributions to the literary vibrancy of Minnesota, and book artist Regula Russelle was recognized for her work bringing text and image to life on paper.

Without further ado, here are this year's winners of the Minnesota Book Awards:

Award for Novel and Short Story:
John Reimringer, "Vestments"
It's a bittersweet tale of religion, family and love set in St. Paul. Click on the audio link below to listen to my interview with John Reimringer about his debut novel on Midmorning:

Award for Memoir and Creative Nonfiction:
Bonnie J. Rough, "Carrier: Untangling the Danger in My DNA"
Rough attended the awards with her eight day old baby in tow, having flown into town for the ceremony. A fellow Minnesota traveler, upon hearing that Rough was an award finalist, exclaimed "I have to get your autograph!" "Only in Minnesota," Rough chuckled. She went on to thank all readers who, she said, "give all of the meaning to the work we do."

Award for Minnesota
Mary Lethert Wingerd, "North Country: The Making of Minnesota"
North Country explains how the land the Dakota named Mini Sota Makoce became the State of Minnesota. Wingerd is associate professor of history at St. Cloud State University.

Award for Young People's Literature
Pete Hautman, "Blank Confession"
Hautman is the author of nearly a dozen books, including his young adult book "Godless" which won the National Book Award in 2004. In "Blank Confession"
young Shayne Blank, the new kid in town, walks into the police department to confess to a murder. Click on the link below to listen to his recent interview on Midmorning:

Mayor Chris Coleman presented the Kay Sexton Award to poet Carol Connolly, and in doing so recited a poem a made up that morning. It involved picking up after his dog on the morning walk, only to lean over to read a poem in the sidewalk. Connolly is St. Paul's first poet laureate, and has been an "unrelenting supporter" of the St. Paul Sidewalk Poetry project, according to its creator, Marcus Young.

Rockstar Storyteller (and book artist) Curt Lund gave a rousing performance, noting "it is in an exceptionally nerdy spirit that we gather here tonight; to be any nerdier would require a labcoat." Noting how many people in the audience wore glasses, "a symbol of infinity perched upon our noses," he asked all of us to raise our glasses high, declaring them "not a crutch, but a portal."

Award for Children's Literature:
Michael Hall, "My Heart is Like a Zoo"
Hall described himself "as tongue-tied as two dueling aardvarks" and as "palpitatious as a hummingbird" as he accepted the award.

Award for General Nonfiction
Michael Nordskog and Aaron Hautala: The Opposite of Cold: The Northwoods Finnish Sauna Tradition
Accepting their awards, Nordskog and Hautala wondered if the last minute snow had worked in their favor.

Award for Poetry
Lightsey Darst, "Find the Girl"
Darst came to the podium a bit bewildered, musing "If I thought I was going to win I wouldn't have had so much champagne... and I probably would have worn a longer skirt." She then went on to recite a poem:

Roses are red
Books should be too
If you're a reader
I thank you

Award for Genre Fiction
Wendy Webb, The Tale of Halcyon Crane
In Webb's debut novel, Hallie James discovers that her mother, believed long dead, was actually alive until very recently. That discovery sets off a pursuit of the truth, and the unveiling of dark family secrets.

Last, but by no means least, was the Readers' Choice Award. That prize went to Star Tribune Books Editor Laurie Hertzel for her memoir "News to Me: Adventures of an Accidental Journalist." It recounts Hertzel's stumbling into journalism at the Duluth News Tribune, and portrays an industry in the midst of revolutionary transformation. Click on the link below to listen to my conversation with her on Midmorning about her memoir:

Congratulations to all the winners!

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The book as art form

Posted at 2:06 PM on March 9, 2011 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Craft, Galleries, Sculpture

Erica Spitzer Rasmussen's "Book of Sustenance"

When is a book not a book? And when is something that doesn't appear to look at all like a book, actually a work of "book art?"

These are the questions I keep returning to when I see a show at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts, because - like all good art - the works on display regularly challenge my assumptions about what is, and what could be.

Currently on display in the Center's gallery space is a group show called "Parts of a Whole"; it consists of work by MCBA staff, faculty, co-op members and past artists-in-residence.

MCBA Managing Director Jeff Rathermel says while on the surface many of the works look nothing like books, they share themes of repetition, storytelling, and time.

It's the true power of a book that you have a time element within it, rather than just one snapshot view. Unlike a photograph or a painting, you have more time with the viewer/reader... you repeat ideas to emphasize them, you build upon them. But that's also a real responsibility and a challenge. To do this successfully you need to be a "page-turner" to engage people in the entire process - an artist book has a lot more in common with a film or a musical score than it does with traditional print-making.

Julie Sirek's "A Family Matter"

After perusing the exhibition, I was interested by strong themes that emerged around domesticity and women's work.

One of the most powerful works in the exhibition is Julie Sirek's "A Family Matter." It consists of 30 miniature dresses, made from gampi paper, thread, glass and wire. Sirek made each of these dresses to represent the 30 women from Minnesota who died as a result of domestic violence in 2009. Rathermel says in this work, each dress is in essence a page in a haunting narrative.

The delicateness of those small dresses really works well as a metaphor of vulnerability. And the other thing that I think is really interesting, is that it demands intimacy. Each of those dresses appears relatively similar, but as you start to engage with it you see that each one is unique. By demanding that intimacy you're pulled into a very uncomfortable situation - it's a quiet and powerful conversation.

From a distance, the dresses appear innocent and pretty. But once you move up close you notice subtle differences; one has a tear in the skirt, another a cigarette burn in the chest, a third has wire thorns in the collar. Each of them has been disfigured in some way.

Chandler O'Leary's "Mnemonic Sampler"

On the opposite wall is a piece with a completely different, far more playful, tone. Chandler O'Leary's "Mnemonic Sampler" consists of embroidered letters of the alphabet, alongside images of ordinary objects whose names start with the given letter (N is for needle, O is for oven mitt, etc). Rathermel says Leary is known for exploring what we have traditionally called "women's work."

At one level it's playful and whimsical, with great detail and humor, but I think there's also this addressing of the "art vs craft" hierarchy, and addressing what we've typically thought of as "women's work" in the community. Certainly it's much better now, but we still have these biases... I think Chandler is interested in reclaiming some of these craft traditions, to say that it's more than just women's work, and that anything done at this particular level could be considered art.

Detail of Erica Spitzer Rasmussen's "Book of Sustenance"

Erika Spitzer Rasmussen seeks to raise the life of the working-mother to that of high glamour. Her "Book of Sustenance" is a wearable work - similar to a ruffled collar that Queen Elizabeth might have worn. But this collar consists of a grocery list printed on grocery bags stained in cherry Kool-Aid. The result, Jeff Rathermel says, is both stunning... and unsettling.

She's worked with corsets in the past - this notion of being both decorative and restrictive;To have something this big around your neck...and in this case, blood red. She's talking about sustenance and food, and yet collar appears to restrict your throat.

In her artist statement, Rasmussen referred to the repeated pages on the collar as a sort of "mantra for domestic divadom."

"Parts of a Whole" runs through April 24 at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts.

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Disaster Preparedness: a memoir

Posted at 2:45 PM on February 16, 2011 by Marianne Combs (1 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Criticism

Disaster Preparedness by Heather Havrilesky, published by Riverhead Books

Editor's Note: David Cazares is an editor for MPR News who happens to love both jazz and reading. Earlier this week he gave us his take on the Grammys; today he shares his thoughts on the new memoir by Heather Havrilesky. You can look forward to seeing more of his commentaries on the State of the Arts blog in the weeks and months to come.

We live in a society where having enough is never enough.

David Cazares

At an early age, many of us realize that we're mere mortals, outcasts of an in-crowd with better looks, brains, athletic prowess -- and the functional families and popularity we lack. They live in fancier houses, drive better cars, wear nicer clothes and have better relationships.

Ordinary people have no chance of keeping up with the Joneses. But that doesn't stop them from trying, even if the wasted time and effort makes them walking disasters.

Heather Havrilesky offers us a look at the disappointments of a real life with Disaster Preparedness, a memoir that describes her middle-class childhood in Durham, N.C. during the 1970s and 80s, and her neurotic journey to grown-up status.

Havrilesky, a staff critic at (the iPad newspaper) The Daily and a former television critic for Salon, is well-known for her spot-on deconstructions of the Mad Men television series, in which she takes no prisoners in detailing a character's flaws.

At first glance, her own story might be perceived as an unremarkable and less-biting tale of personal and emotional duress. But a careless reader might miss how Havrilesky's struggles resonate with real people struggling with their own imperfect lives.

In sometimes agonizing detail, she offers readers a window to the numbness of suburban life, her dysfunctional family, her parent's troubled marriage and divorce, and her bumbling but not uncommon journey to find love. She writes with an adult's hindsight but also employs the voice of a child and teenager.

Irreverent, funny, self-deprecating, her stories show how the path to understanding is filled with pitfalls and disasters, often of our own making. We're all screwed up and in need of therapy. But most of us, she writes, haven't worked it out because we're not honest with ourselves.

In describing the pathetic life of Lance, her assistant manager at Barney's Ice Cream, a guy who wanted to be a songwriter but still lived with his parents, she writes, "this was before shows like American Idol brought a teeming universe of deluded, largely untalented wannabes to the public's attention.

"It had never occurred to me that there were scores of people just like Lance, who had big dreams that would never come true, and they didn't even know it."

As an adult, Havrilesky seems to doubt if her own dreams would ever come true, even when - after a series of mostly good-for-nothing boyfriends - she finds true love. Even now, with two children, she sometimes wonders why she can't "be the relaxed, organized career mom instead of some harried, slovenly zombie."

The answer is that she was never intended to be. Angst-ridden and conflicted, she is human, still struggling to keep up with her own life, let alone the Joneses. And that's OK.

These days, it seems that to really be somebody, one has to be -- or at least appear -- larger than ordinary life.

From the celebrities and entertainers the public can't seem to get enough of, to victims of tragedy, politicians, business tycoons, talk show hosts and realty TV participants desperate to show all their warts, the message is clear: only those whose history, antics or misfortune make for a spectacle are worthy of an audience's attention.

Like car wrecks, many of these personalities are just a head-turning mess that we really don't want to see.

But even if they don't say something extraordinary about the times we live in, the stories of real people can be remarkable and worthy when they prompt us to look inward at our own flawed and complicated existence.

- David Cazares is an editor for MPR News.

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Another take on the Twain debate

Posted at 4:11 PM on January 6, 2011 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Writing

A friend brought to my attention this commentary by Boyce Watkins for CNN International. It adds another important voice to our ongoing debate on taking the "N" word out of Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." I won't print the whole commentary here, but I found the second half particularly compelling:

Long before I became a scholar, I was a black teenage boy. At that time, I would never have enjoyed hearing my English teacher repeat the n-word 219 times out loud in front of a class full of white students. I also would have wondered why African-Americans are the only ethnic group forced to read "classic" literature that uses such derogatory language toward us in a disturbingly repetitive way.

One freedom deserves another, so the freedom of the artist to express himself/herself in an offensive way should be supplemented by our right to reject that form of expression within the confines of a public school. By creating an alternative version of this brilliant text, Gribben has opened the door for millions of children to experience the beauty of this book without the much-celebrated racial degradation. Freedom ultimately means having options.

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Mark Twain debate receives international attention

Posted at 11:17 AM on January 6, 2011 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Criticism, Writing

Yesterday the MPR website was host to a dynamic debate over whether or not it's acceptable for Mark Twain's classic "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" to be reprinted with the word "nigger" (as well as the word "injun") removed. While many oppose any changes to the classic, others argue the change would make it more easily accepted in school curricula, and therefor, more widely taught.

Today at noon, the conversation is going global. The BBC's "World Have Your Say" is hosting a conversation about the proposed changes, and MPR is offering it online. Starting at noon click here to go to the audiolink and stream the conversation. I'll be blogging live, updating this post as I go.

11:58 - The BBC story leading up to this conversation? How Romanian witches are threatening to curse the government after being threatened with taxation of their services...

12:00 - Facebook friend Linda Sue, upon hearing of the broadcast, comments:
I love the quandary we are in when we can't say the "n" word aloud or type it when we are talking about how outraged we are that the "n" word has been censored. We live with dissonace - that's just part of being a human being.

12:06 - and they're beginning by getting feedback to yesterday's piece on Pakistan... bear with us.

12:15 Looks like the Twain conversation will start at approximately 12:30. Sorry! But hey, I'm learning a lot about Pakistan...

12:30 - Alright, here we go...

Initial comments are similar to those who wrote in to MPR yesterday - saying we must respect the book.

FYI - "N word" is used approximately 219 times in Twain's book.

12:34 - Kentucky publisher says she's getting a lot of calls in response to the news - she was expecting a "slap" but was surprised at the extent of the response.

12:37 - According to publisher and Twain expert - At K-12 level, teachers are incredibly uncomfortable teaching the text... pre-emptive self-censorship because the literature had become "too difficult to teach"

Guest: Peter Messent joins the conversation, who has already written his thoughts on this debate in the Guardian.

12:40 - It seems that this argument falls into the ideal vs. the pragmatic - i.e. idealists say you should not make any changes, ever, while the pragmatists argue the changes would make the book more accessible and teachable.

Messent argues maybe you should just leave the book to University levels?

Kentucky publisher Suzanne LaRossa (sp?) says this move was in part to draw attention to the "dumbing down of our education system."

Here's the number to call - and BBC will call you back! 011-44-2070-83-72-72

Suzanne departs and now we're joined by Dave Rosenthal at the Baltimore Sun, who has a contrary opinion:

'I'm not big on censorship, but this word is so weighted that it gets in the way of a true discussion of the merits, but any teacher who assigns the new version should be required to explain the self-censorship. That way, at least, the tough prose won't be completely white-washed.'

12:47 Messent says the British audience mustn't forget just how incendiary the "n" word is in the United States. And Twain used the word deliberately to shock his readers into understanding its inhumanity.

Messent falters at stating the title the mystery "Ten Little Injuns" which has since been changed to "And then there were None" - Host agrees that it's appropriate for them to not actually say the word in question!

12:52 - Interesting - host says if you want to learn more about the debate around the "n" word, you can find much more on the BBC news site, but I'm not seeing it...

12:53 - HOWEVER: here's a great commentary on the topic by MPR's own Brandt Williams from back in 2004.

12:54 - Great comment from Matt! He says this topic raises the issue that American teachers are being asked to sanitize issues to the point that they're not even teachable.

12:55 - are there books in South Africa that have become controversial since Apartheid? South African guest says books shouldn't be changed to they can understand the past, no matter what the present.

12:58 - Is it just me, or was that not nearly enough time to have this conversation?

In any case, you can continue the conversation with your thoughts, either here in the comment section, or over at "Today's Question."

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Censorship? Or much needed correction?

Posted at 1:40 PM on January 5, 2011 by Marianne Combs (1 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Criticism, Culture

A Mark Twain scholar plans to release a new edition of "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" without the N word. Today's Question: Should an editor change a classic novel to keep from offending modern readers?

The recent decision to eliminate a certain racist epithet ("nigger") from a new printing of Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" has stoked a heated debate.

According to Publishers' Weekly, Twain scholar Alan Gribben and NewSouth Books plan to release a version of Huckleberry Finn that does away with the "n" word by replacing it with the word "slave."

Gribben was moved to create the new version in response to the classic being banned from many school reading lists, allegedly for its language.

While you can look forward to a story on teh topic from NPR on All Things Considered tonight; it's already the inspiration for a heated debate on our own website, under Today's Question. Here are some excerpts:

"Tim" writes: No. We lose some of the context of the time period when the work was written. the original language may be offensive today but for historical accuracy and insight into the thinking, attitudes and social norms of past eras the works should remain as unchanged as possible.

"MikeK" adds: If the editor changes one word and then releases it that editor should be charged with plagiarism. If Mark Twain were alive today he'd write it the same way. He'd use more of colorful words we have developed over the years since that story was written just to show us how we really act and talk to each other, rub our noses in it.

It's just another sign of the "dumb-ing" of America.

Also in the "No" category is "Steve the Cynic": Mark Twain was an adamant abolitionist whose writings (including Huckleberry Finn) did much to expose the evils of racial prejudice. The fact that we consider the N-word intolerably offensive today is in part due to the influence of Twain's writings. Especially if it's assigned reading in HS literature classes, it should be as Twain wrote it, if only so that students will see how far we've come.

Some suggested the book could be published, but it would have to have a different title; most agreed it shouldn't be published at all. But then there are those who say "not so fast" - check out this remark from "Sue de Nim"

There are middle-class white kids who say defiantly, "Mark Twain used that word," as a way of legitimizing their inappropriate use of it, and there are black kids who can't get past the offensive word to hear the powerful story Mark Twain was trying to tell. The ideal solution would be to have excellent teachers of American literature every high school who could guide thoughtful discussions about these issues and help our kids deal with the matter intelligently. Since we don't pay teachers well enough to attract our best and brightest into that profession and fail to give due respect to those who do, we don't have nearly enough of such excellence to go around. If the only other two options are excising the "N" word from Huckleberry Finn or excising Mark Twain from the curriculum, which would you choose?

To which "BruceJ" adds:

What's striking here is the puritanical dogmatism of many who probably consider themselves liberals or progressives. The facts are that many schools avoid assigning the book for fear of controversy and, in some cases, sensitivity or fear of legitimizing use of the N word. As the article linked to by Nick explains, the new edition substitutes the word 'slave' -- hardly an avoidance of discussion of slavery.
Do you really think that the word is the essence of the text? In any case, it would certainly be possible to argue that the meaning of the word in use has changed since the original publication. So a modification that makes the text accessible to more people is akin to a new translation of Tolstoy or Flaubert. Or do you only read those texts in the original language.

And then there are those who are still undecided. Jennifer writes:

My gut reaction to this question was a resounding "NO!" If we don't learn from the past, we're doomed to repeat it. This learning should include understanding why slurs or other language was 'acceptable' at the time. However, in reading the story, I've reconsidered. If an undisputed literary masterpiece is banned from many schools and public libraries because of the use of a single word, as in this case, wouldn't it be better to make an edit, but also explain the reasoning behind it? If Mr. Gribben (or editors to come) include a foreward or notification as to why language was changed, couldn't more teachers teach this work? Couldn't this open the conversation? I hope so.

So what do you think of the idea? Is it more noble to leave the original as it is, and have fewer school students read it? Or do offer a more "palatable" version, and lose the shock of the original writing?

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John Reimringer's "Vestments"

Posted at 1:40 PM on December 27, 2010 by Marianne Combs (1 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Writing

This morning while sub-hosting on Midmorning I spent an hour in studio with Saint Paul author John Reimringer, and had a delightful conversation with him about writing, capturing the history of Saint Paul, and growing up Catholic. Reimringer set his book in the mid-1990s, despite the fact that he only moved to Minnesota in 2001. He says he immediately connected with the city, which is where his father grew up.

"Vestments" has already drawn some national attention for how it gets into the head of a young priest questioning his career path.

To hear our conversation, and to hear Reimringer read excerpts from the book, click on the audio link below:

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Garrison Keillor trashes Mark Twain autobiography

Posted at 1:22 PM on December 17, 2010 by Marianne Combs (3 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Criticism

America's greatest humorist - and, according to Garrison Keillor, a lousy autobiographer - Mark Twain.

"Rambling"... "excruciating"... "tedious"... "a wonderful fraud"; such descriptions sound like quotes from a publishing house turning down a young author's first draft of a novel.

But in this instance the author is Mark Twain, the book is the first volume of his long-awaited autobiography, and the reviewer is Garrison Keillor. Keillor, in a piece for the New York Times which will be printed this Sunday, pulls no punches.

The reader hikes across the hard, dusty ground of a famous man's reminiscences and is delighted to come across the occasional water hole...Here, sandwiched between a 58-page barrage of an introduction and 180 pages of footnotes, is a ragbag of scraps, some of interest, most of them not: travel notes, the dictated reminiscences of an old man in a dithery voice... various false starts, anecdotes that must have been amusing at one time ...you have to wade through 18 pages of mind-numbing inventory of the Countess Massiglia's Villa di Quarto, which he leased in Florence ("I shall go into the details of this house, not because I imagine it differs much from any other old-time palace or new-time palace on the continent of Europe, but because ­every one of its crazy details interests me, and therefore may be expected to interest others of the human race, particularly women"), the only point of which is that the man can afford to rent a palace that is fancier than anything you'd find in Missouri. His wife is dying, and he compiles an inventory of furniture.

I wonder if this will have any impact on Keillor's chances of winning the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.

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Keith Hollihan's fame spreads in unusual ways

Posted at 3:30 PM on December 8, 2010 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Galleries

It's a big month in the Hollihan/Williams household.

For one thing Keith Hollihan's debut novel "The Four Stages of Cruelty," hits bookstores this week, and he'll do his official book-launch tomorrow at the Loft in Minneapolis.

The novel hits the ground running, having already been named one of the top books of 2010 by Publishers Weekly.

"I hope it gives the book some extra steam," he told me the other day when he came to MPR to talk about the book. "I really, really appreciate the recognition - love to get some more!" he smiled.

The novel is a tense prison tale which swirls around the drama caused by, of all things, a hand-drawn comic book. It goes missing after a prisoner is found hanged in an abandoned part of the building, and everyone has a different theory of its role in the death.

You can hear our interview about how he came to write the novel on ATC tonight, and on the MPRNews page.

However it's not just in the literary world Hollihan is getting exposure. He is married to Rosemary Williams, an artist who attracted some attention for her project to visit every store in the Mall of America, to collect a bag from each one.

Williams latest show "Belongings" opens at the Soap Factory on December 18th.

"Hopefully, we're both having a good December," Hollihan said.

"With this show she literally videotaped herself holding every single object in our house, including every scrap of paper, every toothbrush. It took her a great deal of time, and more computer memory than I think anyone would have expected."

The video images will be displayed on screens around the Soap Factory Gallery. Hollihan says it was a painstaking experience, and one which had an unexpected consequence.

"I think that interestingly that the genesis for that was when her father passed away,' he continued. "And she brought home some of his belongings that seemed so attached to him as a person, as a personality. And when they arrived at our house, they no longer seemed to be attached to him any more."

"It's interesting how that holding up of objects actually detaches it from the emotional sense that this is ours," Hollihan said. "I mean I do recognize, yes, that's my hockey stick, yes, that's a book that I've read, but...." he trailed off.

He says as he wrote "The Four Stages of Cruelty" there were times when he felt he was in prison. When I suggest perhaps the "Belongings" project is a form if imprisonment for Williams, he nods in agreement.

"She has some sort of strange desire to chronicle the infinite," he laughed.

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Lifted from the Page

Posted at 11:30 AM on November 24, 2010 by Luke Taylor (1 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Museums

Bloomington's Nancy Carlson has published more than 60 children's books, including such titles as Harriet and the Roller Coaster, I Like Me and Arnie Goes to Camp. Because she is both author and illustrator, Carlson's books are naturally the medium in which she and her readers are accustomed to viewing the work.

But if your Thanksgiving travel plans happen to involve going to Chicago, you can see Carlson's work in a different way.

At the Art Institute of Chicago, in an exhibition entitled "Everyday Adventures Growing Up: Art from Picture Books," Carlson's work joins that of two other children's book author/illustrators, Timothy Basil Ering of Massachusetts and Peter McCarty of New York. Their original artwork appears in frames in a traditional art museum setting. "Even though this is art from books, it's kind of nice to change how you see it and have it on the wall," Carlson says.

Children's literature often creates allegories to address kids' anxieties, and Carlson's illustrations use anthropomorphic animal characters to convey those emotions, ranging from ebullient joy to gut-wrenching fear. She also establishes each scene with careful detail, sometimes even inserting references to Minnesota places and things. Carlson's vivid color palette is similar to Eric Carle (The Very Hungry Caterpillar), while the expressiveness of her characters is reminiscent of Bill Peet (Big Bad Bruce).

Having her work displayed on a wall is not entirely new to Carlson. She graduated from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design with a degree in printmaking, and she says her focus after graduating was getting her work into gallery shows. "I've never been in a big museum for a show," she says, "but I guess you could say it is getting back to my roots."

Carlson discovered her vocation as a children's book author some years after her graduation from MCAD, but her printmaking background informs her illustrations. Working in colored pencil and technical pen, she initially employed a lot of cross-hatching with color overlays as a way to reflect the intaglio printmaking she had done as a student. Over time, her lines have become bolder and she doesn't use cross-hatching as much.

Carlson's work on display at the Art Institute of Chicago comes from six of her titles, spanning as far back as 1985 (Louanne Pig in the Talent Show) to as recently as 2007 (Loudmouth George Earns His Allowance). Isolated from the text and framed on the wall, Carlson's technique and her artistic evolution are palpable.

Two illustrations from Nancy Carlson's I Like Me, published in 1988. At left, a character in the background reads a newspaper hailing the Minnesota Twins as 1987 World Series champions.

Carlson admits that having her work on display is exciting, but she maintains that creating books for children is her first love. "When you have a show, it's thrilling the entire run of the show, and there's nothing you like more as an artist than seeing your art up on the wall -- but then it's over," she says. "For me, the longevity of published books is very, very fulfilling. Publishing a book and having the art seen by so many more people is a thrill. I go to the library and I see my books, and I'm excited."

The exhibition featuring the work of Nancy Carlson, Timothy Basil Ering and Peter McCarty is in the Art Institute of Chicago's Gallery 10 (lower level) and continues in the Vitale Family Room in the Ryan Education Center (level 1). More information at www.artic.edu/aic.

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National Book Award winners announced

Posted at 11:30 AM on November 18, 2010 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Drawing

Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe: their friendship is the basis for her memoir "Just Kids"

Last night marked the 2010 National Book Award ceremonies
Young People's Literature in Manhatten. No local winners, but I thought you'd be interested in the results.
In the non-fiction category, punk rocker Patti Smith won for her memoir "Just Kids," which recounts her friendship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. The book is published by Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers.

Writer Jaimy Gordon delved the seedy underwold of cheap horse-racing for her book
Lord of Misrule, published by McPherson & Co.

An eleven-year-old girl with Asperger's is the main character of Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine, which took home the award for Young People's Literature. It's published by Philomel Books, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group.

Poet Terrance Hayes received a unanimous endorsement from the NBA judges for his collection of poetry titled Lighthead, published by Penguin Books. On the NBA website the book is described this way:

This innovative collection presents the light- headedness of a mind trying to pull against gravity and time. Fueled by an imagination that enlightens, delights, and ignites, Lighthead leaves us illuminated and scorched.

Click on the titles of the books to find out more about them, their authors, and to read excerpts.

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More literary praise: The Four Stages of Cruelty

Posted at 12:07 PM on November 9, 2010 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Writing

Earlier today I mentioned author John Reimringer's book "Vestments" was named by Publishers Weekly as one of the best books of 2010.

Well, he's not the only St. Paul author on the list.

Keith Hollihan was also called out for his book "The Four Stages of Cruelty."

Set in a maximum security prison in the Midwest, the story revolves around the relationship between a female corrections officer and a young male inmate serving a lengthy sentence for murder.

Publishers Weekly writes "Hollihan combines a labyrinthine plot with a nuanced, character-driven narrative that provides insights into prison life in his impressive debut."

Published by Thomas Dunne Books, Four Stages of Cruelty is due in stores December 7.

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Fierce and True: plays for teens

Posted at 1:24 PM on October 28, 2010 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Education, Theater

Earlier this week a package showed up my desk containing a bright orange book with the bold title "Fierce and True."

To my surprise, it was a collection of plays commissioned by Children's Theatre Company: Lost Boys of Sudan, Anon(ymous), Prom and Five Fingers of Funk.

Huh, I thought, the theatre company is getting in the book business.

To find out more I checked in with CTC Artistic Director Peter Brosius, who edited the book along with Elissa Adams, CTC's director of new play development. Here's what Brosius had to say:


What inspired you to publish Fierce and True?

We have been blessed by working with some of the leading artists in the United States to create new work for this age group. These plays have touched lives, ignited imaginations and started community wide conversations. These artists have set a new standard in theatre for young people in the quality of the writing, the vividness of theatrical imagination, and the profundity of their engagement with contemporary society. We are immensely proud of this work and wanted to share it to have it performed across the country, to inspire others to create work for this age group and to challenge accepted notions of what constitutes theatre for teens.

Theatre companies both professional and community based, schools, colleges, community centers, teachers, camp leaders, academics, youth workers, libraries. People who are curious, people who are interested in new developments in the arts, People who like to read good plays.

Not enough. I think that by showing the quality of this work and the breadth of the artists we can inspire artists and inspire theatres to think about this as an audience of importance and vitality. At the Children's Theatre Company, we have seen firsthand how engaging with this audience feeds the artists, gives them new perspectives, new energy and hope. We have been thrilled to see our theatre filled with teens eager to see new work-coming with their friends, a date, their parents or their school. This audience is optimistic, engaged, extraordinarily savvy and sophisticated. We know that the professional theatre field needs to embrace this next generation and needs to do it now so that we find new ways to be in dialogue and be challenged and transformed by this next generation. This is a critical audience--they are tastemakers, innovators, breaking new ground and moving this culture forward--they are a cultural and political force and play a huge role in defining fashion, music and new media and more.

Funny, you should ask, I am writing an introduction now for the second in this series of new plays to be published by the wonderful University of Minnesota Press, which will look at the work that we have produced that examines the Face of America today. These are plays that we have produced for multi-generational audiences with a focus on 8-12 year olds that explore issues of assimilation and identity by a remarkable collection of playwrights.

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How to spot a Booker Prize winner three years early

Posted at 5:52 PM on October 20, 2010 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books

The 2010 Twin Cities Jewish Book Fair is underway, with a series of readings by a broad range of authors.

Some of them are quite familiar (Rabbi Kushner and Nicole Krause for two,) but others you might know less well.

That was the case for many people when Howard Jacobson rolled through town almost three years ago for the 2007 edition of the Fair. Jacobson is a raconteur and a broadcaster, in addition to his scribbling, and we had a fascinating chat about his book "Kalooki Nights."

He recommended that as a radio person, I should do myself a favor and read Mario Vargas Llosa's "Aunt Julia and the Screenwriter," which I did. And he was right in his recommendation, as Mr Vargas Llosa's recent Nobel Prize for literature would seem to underline.

It came as no real surprise the other day when the Booker Prize Committee awarded Jacobson the 2010 award for his novel "The Finkler Question."

Of course it also makes you scurry back to this year's TC Jewish Book Fair list to see who might be the next winner they're quietly bringing in.

You can hear Jacobson talking about how he began writing "Kalooki Nights" after being challenged by an Orthodox man who recognized him as a writer here, about his characters here and reaction to the book here.

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Twin Cities Book Festival foreshadows industry's future

Posted at 8:51 AM on October 18, 2010 by Luke Taylor (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Events

Attending the Twin Cities Book Festival gives an unobstructed view of an industry undergoing historic changes.

The tenth annual Twin Cities Book Festival, organized by the nonprofit Rain Taxi Review of Books, took place Saturday, Oct. 16, at Minneapolis Community and Technical College.

A standing-room crowd packed the festival's opening panel discussion about the transformations sweeping the publishing world. "Much has changed, but in ways that call upon us as people who love books to be better, to be more innovative, to think quicker and not to be afraid," said panel moderator Kevin Smokler, CEO of BookTour.com and editor of the anthology Bookmark Now: Writing in Unreaderly Times.

The appeal of books -- or good writing, more broadly -- appears as vibrant as ever. In the Twin Cities Book Festival exhibition space, 77 publishers, magazines, booksellers and arts organizations exhibited on tables alongside 36 individual authors with their own displays; cradled within the exhibition space was a massive used-book jumble sale. According to Rain Taxi board member Patrick McAvey, the event has grown steadily, increasing from about 1,000 people in its first year to more than 6,000 in 2009.

So what has changed? The panelists described the rise of independent presses, the decline of traditional gatekeepers such as major publishers and book reviewers, the advent of e-books and even the immense impact of social media such as Facebook and YouTube (because many books now have trailers, just like films).

"Here in the early decades of the 21st century, our collective problem as writers and as readers -- and most of all, as book lovers -- is not that the thing we love is vanishing, going away or becoming less important," Smokler said, "but there is simply too much of it. There is too much of it to decide how to spend one's time as a person who loves books and what to devote one's attention to."

Kevin Smokler

I asked Smokler if publishers are simply publishing too many books. "I don't think they're over-publishing books in aggregate," he said. "I think there are too many books that attention and care and time is not paid to. The system seems to be set up where there's one or two big titles a season that get all the publicity dollars. So it's a completely stacked deck. That seems, from a business standpoint, a silly way to promote books."

Author Tim W. Brown of Chicago said the proper response to the industry's changes is for readers to empower themselves to find good books and for authors to empower themselves to get their books into readers' hands.

Steph Optiz, membership director of the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses in New York, agreed. "I think an exciting change is the ability to self-publicize and market books," she said. "For a lot of authors, that's really important and a great way to get their work out to a wide audience."

Brian Landon is one such author. The murder-mystery writer from Blaine, Minn., says his publisher assists a lot with promotion, but Landon also maintains his own website and blogs through Amazon.com, in addition to attending traditional book-signings and reading events.

Author Brian Landon likes to meet new readers at the Twin Cities Book Festival.

Author Joseph Mbele embraces online technology to self-publish his books and sell them on demand. "Publish-on-demand is a good idea because you don't have 10,000 copies sitting in a warehouse waiting for buyers," he said. "A book is printed only when somebody orders it. This is the future of publishing, there's no doubt."

Loonfeather Press in Bemidji doesn't do print-on-demand, but it does use a digital press to produce smaller runs of books. "You don't have to print 1,000 books right away," said business manager Mary Lou Marchand. "You can try it out, see if it works. If you're starting to sell, then you can get a bigger run going. I think that's a real advantage for small presses."

Larger presses, such as North Star Press of St Cloud, are also minding their inventories. "We're not even printing hardcover right now, we're only doing paperback," explained Seal Dwyer, business manager at North Star. "And all our books are on Nook and Kindle, which is not hurting our book sales, but is adding to our total sales."

Julia Opoti and Leyla Warsame come to the festival to meet authors and to find rare or underappreciated books.

Amidst these various responses to so many industrial changes, author Andrew Ervin (whose debut novel Extraordinary Renditions was recently published by Coffee House Press) pointed out one immutable element. "The biggest challenge is still putting the words together," Ervin said. "That hasn't changed. Actually writing something that's worth reading. Maybe this is old-fashioned, but I think you have to write a good book, too."

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Matt Burgess: Retail's loss is literature's gain

Posted at 11:51 AM on October 15, 2010 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books

Minneapolis-based writer Matt Burgess tells a story which will make him the envy of many aspiring authors. He had just graduated from the University of Minnesota's MFA program, and applied for a retail job to make ends meet. He also sent off the manuscript of his first novel. A week later he got both news that his book was sold, and an interview offer from Target.

"And I was like, 'Forget it Target. I'm an author now,'" he laughs.

The novel, "Dogfight, a love story" tells the story of 19 year old Alfredo Batista, who Burgess describes as the world's worst drug-dealer, as he rarely, if ever, sells anything.

The book follows a chaotic few days in Queens NY as Alfredo and his family await the return of his older brother from prison. The situation is complicated by the fact that Alfredo is now living with Isabel, who was his brother's girlfriend when he was sent away. When Alfredo decides to mark his brother's return with a dogfight, both as a celebration and as a way to make some money, things spin crazily out of control.

The story which is tense, hilarious and poignant has been getting rave reviews.

Burgess is one of the many authors appearing this weekend at the Twin Cities Book Fair. We'll also have him on ATC tonight, and you can hear him read from the opening of the novel here:

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"Sandman Slim" author Richard Kadrey knows his place

Posted at 5:58 PM on October 11, 2010 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Film

Richard Kadrey relaxes at home (Image courtesy HarperCollins)

Richard Kadrey writes what he calls modern urban fantasy novels, so don't go expecting much Tolkeinesque prose in his new book "Kill the Dead." What you'll find is much more Chandler-like.

"Really what the book came out of was American crime fiction, the stuff from the 50's really up to the stuff from the 70's," he says on the phone from San Francisco. "That stripped down writing style, which has nothing to do with what most people think of as fantasy writing."

Kadrey will be in Minneapolis on Wednesday at Uncle Hugo's Science Fiction Bookstore to read from "Kill the Dead," which is a sequel to his earlier novel "Sandman Slim."

"The character named Sandman Slim is actually a man named James Stark who describes himself as a magician, because he refuses to use the words like wizard or warlock, because he thinks those are way too Harry Potter," says Kadrey running through the backstory. "He's very powerful but he has never been to rigorous because magic has always come very naturally to him, so he is very sloppy about it. He's like a lot of young men, he's very arrogant about it."

This arrogance leads him to ruffling the wrong sets of feathers, and Stark finds himself banished to Hell, where he earns a living (if that is the correct term for employment in Hades) as a hitman.

"'Sandman Slim'" the first novel picks up 11 years later with him escaping from Hell, and coming back to find all the people who sent him there, and killed his girlfriend while he was gone," Kadrey continues.

Like he said, not a lot of Harry Potter. And just to end any other Hogwarts thoughts, his tale is set in Los Angeles, a city with which Kadrey admits a real love/hate relationship. .

"I can't think of any other place other than LA and New York where people have such a strong impression without having been there," he says.

"It's fun to play off their assumptions and fun to play off the realities, so walking that weird line between the commentary, the reality and just nonsense you made up."

"Kill the Dead" opens with Stark chasing a Valley Girl vampire through a rundown Los Angeles shopping mall, which turns into a running battle which even the hardened locals can't ignore. As the story unfolds Stark runs into hoards of zombies who are appearing all over the city even as Lucifer is preparing for a biopic he's developing with a top Hollywood producer.

Kadrey has a great talent for taking what might be seen as stock characters by other writers and re-imagining them. He says the secret for him is to take away the characters supernatural elements, and then work out how their personalities fit into the plot.

"Is it going to be a smart vampire, or it is just going to be a dumb guy?" he asks himself, although he admits "It's an odd balancing act."

And like the great crime writers before him, the story examines more than the simple whodunit aspect of his stories.

"There's a lot of commentary about your basic class structure in LA," he says.

There is also a great deal of classical and biblical scholarship behind Kadrey's characters. He says he became interested in the topics as a result of the 2000 election.

"I owe George W.Bush a drink," he laughs. Kadrey says he couldn't understand the world-view of Bush supporters, and the conservative Christian right so he started to do a lot of reading. Beginning with the Bible, then on through the Gnostic Gospels, into Jewish mysticism and beyond.

"It all gets mixed up into the weird brew which really changes how you see, not just the religious part of things, but the society built on top of all those theories has been shaped and changed over time," he says.

But he funneled his new knowledge into novels rather than politics, saying he had a lot of fun playing with the ideas. And when it gets down to it, he wouldn't mind shaking things up a little bit.

"I am a very big believer in the power of trash: trash pop culture, trash literature," Kadrey says. "I really have a lot of affection and belief in that stuff, because art scares people. Trash, pop culture doesn't. You can put in all the subversive crazy stuff you want in trash culture that will change people's perceptions of the world, and they will read it and they will take it in. Whereas in art they are going to run from it. So subvert the world through trash. I'm right there with you on that."

Kadrey describes himself as the classic tale of the overnight success that came after 15 years of work. He's been working as a writer for years, but it's only now he knows his place in the writing firmament. He says he once had dreams of being the next J.G. Ballard, but no longer.

"I much more think of myself as Mickey Spillane than James Joyce," he says. And he uses the Spillane name with pride, saying he was a smart writer who knew his craft.

"One of the best pieces of writing advice you could ever get was this offhand thing he said: 'The first chapter of a book sells the book. The last chapter of the book sells the next book.' That's a little piece of writing advice every young writer needs."

Even as Kadrey pokes fun at Hollywood though the Sandman Slim stories, he's delighted that Dino De Laurentiis has optioned his first novel, and he has hopes it may even make it to the screen someday. He says he's enjoying the process as the producers oversee the creation of the script.

"Even though its really slow - it's glacial - I am really rather fascinated by it," he says.

Richard Kadrey will arrive in Minnesota having just finished the third Sandman Slim novel, which at the moment bears the spritely title "Aloha from Hell."

After that he's got a bunch of ideas, including for more Sandman Slim stories, and a screenplay he's going to try on his own.

Of course that's all after the upcoming book tour, comfortably leading up to, what else, Halloween.

You can hear the first part of our chat, about Sandman Slim and his origins here:

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And then the second part about his classical and biblical studies here:

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5 under 35 honors young literary talent

Posted at 12:51 PM on October 5, 2010 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Writing

Tiphanie Yanique's book "How to Escape from a Leper Colony" gains national recognition

Each year the National Book Foundation presents its National Book Awards. And for the last five years, it has asked the winners and runners-up in the fiction category to select their favorite author under the age of 35. The 5 under 35 awards seek to highlight young authors 'whose work is particularly promising and exciting and is among the best of a new generation of writers.'

This year's awards went to:

Sarah Braunstein for The Sweet Relief of Missing Children

Grace Krilanovich for The Orange Eats Creeps

Téa Obreht for The Tiger's Wife

Paul Yoon for Once the Shore

and

Tiphanie Yanique for How to Escape from a Leper Colony

Yanique's book is published by Graywolf Press here in the Twin Cities. Yanique is from the Hospital Ground neighborhood of St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. She is an assistant professor of Creative Writing and Caribbean Literature at Drew University and an associate editor with Post-No-Ills, and is the winner of a Rona Jaffe Foundation Award. She lives between Brooklyn, New York and St. Thomas.

This is not the first time a Minnesota publisher has had an author recognized in the 5 under 35 awards; in 2007 Kirstin Allio made the short list for her book Garner, published by Coffee House Press.

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"The Book of Night Women" wins literary peace prize

Posted at 3:46 PM on September 22, 2010 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Writing

Macalester College professor and author Marlon James was named the fiction winner today for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize for his book The Book of Night Women.

The Dayton Literary Peace Prize is the only international literary peace prize awarded in the United States. It was founded in 2006 as an outgrowth of the Dayton Peace Prize, which commemorates the 1995 Dayton Peace Accords ending the war in Bosnia.

Winners receive a $10,000 honorarium. Dave Eggers book Zeitoun took the prize for non-fiction.

They will be honored at a ceremony hosted by award-winning journalist Nick Clooney on Sunday, November 7th at the Benjamin and Marian Schuster Performing Arts Center in Dayton, Ohio.

Set during a Jamaican slave revolt at the end of the eighteenth century, The Book of Night Women tells the story of Lilith, a defiant and mysterious woman who pushes at the edges of what is imaginable for the life of a slave. According to a release about the award, "By honestly exploring the cruelty, brutality, and degradation of slavery, James reveals its lasting and devastating impact on mankind."

James' book also took home the Minnesota Book Award for novel and short fiction this past year.

Interested in learning more about James and The Book of Night Women? Check out Euan Kerr's interview here.

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Franzen on fame, Oprah and Minnesota

Posted at 1:55 PM on September 23, 2010 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books, People, Writing

Jonathan Franzen talks with Kerri Miller on the "storied boards" of Fitzgerald Theater.

Attending Jonathan Franzen's talk at the Fitzgerald Theater Tuesday night was surprisingly delightful. But then I didn't go with much more information in my head than "he writes really big books that the critics love, and he dissed Oprah."

So imagine my surprise when Franzen, author of The Corrections, and more recently Freedom took the stage, and what unfolded was a conversation of great honesty, humor and warmth.

If you weren't able to get a ticket to the event (it was sold out quite early on), it was rebroadcast on Midmorning today, and the audio link is above. But for those who don't have an hour to spare, here are a few choice quotes:

1. On Minnesota, that "convivial planet" where his family hails from, where he spent many summers visiting relatives, and where much of Freedom is set:

It's a refreshing thing to come to the Twin Cities because there's... it really is a great cultural center and people take things like books and theater and music and good radio seriously in a way they don't everywhere in the country.

I was thinking about the fact that my parents were not particularly good at culture - they weren't readers, and the Nutcrackers was almost the extreme end of their classical taste - and that's no diss to the nutcracker - but I was thinking that what they had in common was some notion of at least acknowledging the authority of important ideas and of serious, well-made things.

They expressed that in different ways but I think that's money in the bank for somebody growing up who's going to be a writer or actor or something to come from a place were people still at least notionally take things a little seriously.

2. On writing - Franzen said some of the most formative books of his youth were Gone with the Wind and Watership Down, and that he had no desire to write a novel set in Washington D.C. because how could you top the great political drama that is reality?

You really don't have to know that much to write novels - that was the great attraction to me. It's more about creating a vivid and persuasive simulacrum - it's not about having the facts.

3. On fame, and how it inspired him to write a memoir at a relatively young age.

I'd been so exposed; I'd lived in blissful obscurity without realizing it was blissful. It didn't seem very good to me and I was desperately trying to get out of it, but once I was out of it there were some bumps along the way. and just the sensation of being explosed - some in very direct obvious ways - being on tv, being on the radio, seeing my picture in the paper, things like that - especially seeing a particularly bad AP picture over and over... and in a more general way, people say nasty things when you're getting a lot of attention, so I wanted to try to expose myself in a way that would paradoxically restore a bit of privacy - put on a mask, try to make the mask as life like as possible, but knowing it's a mask, would enable me to go on having my life behind it. That was the impulse behind it.

4. Lastly, on Oprah, and how Franzen went from being "uninvited" from her book club back in 2001, to invited once again just last week:

People have been coming up to me at book signings and writing me letters saying "I'm so glad you didn't do that show- I hate that woman!" How many times do I have to say "I don't hate that woman?"She's done wonderful things for books. And her project - which is daring - to try to expand the audience for not-so-easy reading is a noble one.

I actually don't think I was the first writer to be uncomfortable with the special [Oprah] covers that interrupted the design of the jacket, and the B-roll footage of you walking around, looking contemplative in your home town. I was just the first person to talk about how phony it was... I think others writers had been uncomfortable with this and at least one other author got in touch with me to say that she, too, hated it. And Oprah honestly didn't know - and I think she was genuinely apalled.

It will be interesting to see if Oprah gets as interesting and honest a conversation with Franzen when he appears on her show in November.

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The lasting appeal of the Stinky Cheese Man

Posted at 12:24 PM on July 7, 2010 by Marianne Combs (1 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Music, Theater

The cast of the musical "Stinky Cheese Man," which opens Friday at Steppingstone Theatre in St. Paul

When Richard Hitchler read the children's book "The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales" by Jon Scieszka, he knew it had the makings of a great children's theater production.

It's that twisted fairytale kind of story that seemed fun and well suited to a musical production. It's not so different from Into the Woods, but much more comical and upbeat, I think. And the kids all lit up when I mentioned it.

Hitchler says he was particularly drawn to the title:

Stinky anything is funny; the word itself is funny, just like the word "banana." Just like "Captain Underpants" is funny.

The story is a warped remix of the famous fairytale "The Gingerbread Man." In this case the wannabe parents take a large wheel of cheese, give it a strip of bacon for a mouth, two olives for eyes, and bake it in the oven until it's just... ripe.

Hitchler says kids love creating their own warped versions of familiar stories, and so they relate to the adaptation. He got permission from Scieszka to commission a musical version of the story for Steppingstone Theatre, and hired Kent Stephens to write the script and lyrics, and Gary Rue to set it to music.

An illustration by Lane Smith from the children's book "The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales"

What they created is a more upbeat, lighthearted version of the story. What appeared dark and strange on the page is transformed into highjinx and high spirits on the stage, says Rue.

We put a Gilbert and Sullivan, fast-paced spin on the music. It's big, slap stick stuff which forces you to plug in and pay attention, because jokes come fast and furious. There are punch lines within punch lines. When I see those punch lines in the script, I write those punch lines into the music as well.

The Stinky Cheese Man, as illustrated by Lane Smith, and as performed by Ayden McCloskey at Steppingstone Theatre

Steppingstone Theatre is now readying to open its third production of the musical since it commissioned the piece back in 1998. And the production has found legs on stages across the United States over the past decade, including the Dallas Children's Theater, San Diego Junior Theater, and theaters in Boston, Michigan and Washington State. The Dallas Children's Theater took the show on a national tour, and even to Shanghai for an international children's theater festival.

All in all the musical has been staged well over 120 times, and Richard Hitchler says he still gets e-mails inquiring about production rites. Hitchler says one of the joys of producing childrens' theater is that the audience is constantly changing, so staging the same show five years later is no problem. And while Stinky Cheese Man may seem ridiculously odd, he's also a character that kids can relate to.

No It's No Picnic Being Cheese
There's always someone that you're bound to displease
But since this is what I'm meant to be
I don't question why

Some days we all feel like a curd
But life doesn't have to be so absurd
Just look up at that big chedder wheel
As it rolls across the sky

As part of the opening night celebrations, Gary Rue will don a tuxedo and perform tunes from the play and other SteppingStone productions on the piano. And there will be a variety of "stinky" cheese for the audience to sample.

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35 years of literary wisdom

Posted at 1:07 PM on July 12, 2010 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Writing

Open Book cohabitants Milkweed Editions and Loft Literary Center collaborated to produce "Views from the Loft," a distillation of more than three decades of Loft newsletter essays and interviews.

For the past few years Loft Literary Center's Director Jocelyn Hale has wondered how best to celebrate the center's impending 35th anniversary. How to capture the creative writing, teaching and inspiration that happens in its classrooms, lectures and even hallway conversations?

It was while perusing the archives of the Loft's newsletter (titled "A View from the Loft") that she realized the center already had the makings of a great book, comprised of original essays by - and interviews with - some of the state's top writers, offering their thoughts on putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard).

For example, here's an excerpt of Sandra Benítez' essay for "A View from the Loft":

When I write, I touch the core of the girl I've always been, and with this heart I try to access mythic stories. When I write, I allow my mind to travel. Crossing time and space, I stand once again on the threshold of a Salvadoran hut. In my stories, I do not hold back. I step inside a simple hut and am surprised by tesoros [treasures]. ...Writing stories is the mirror that tells me who I am.

Hale approached her colleague - and Open Book cohabitant - Daniel Slager, Editor-in-Chief of Milkweed Editions about the idea of publishing an anthology. Slager immediately saw the appeal. On August 5th, Milkweed Editions will release the product of their collaboration, Views from the Loft: A Portable Writer's Workshop.

Hale says the book is for anyone who loves to read and aspires to write:

Many of the essays are very funny and so many musings about the writing process are applicable to all creative processes and life in general.

While Hale was not involved in the selection process (a diplomatic gesture), she admits she was particularly pleased to see the anthology starts off with Kate DiCamillos' "Comes a Pony" and includes Lewis Hyde's "A Tall White Pine: Thinking About Prophecy." There are also words of wisdom from Lorna Landvik, Pete Hautmann and J. Otis Powell! (FYI: the exclamation point is part of his name, not my personal commentary).

Hale says the book also marks a turning point in the life of the Loft's newsletter - one from physical to digital. The Loft continues to produce essays and articles in the View and on the Loft's Writers' Block blog on its website. But Hale admits to a sense of loss since ceasing to provide the View in print. She says the printed anthology is a book many in the literary community will treasure for years.

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Library books you don't have to return

Posted at 1:44 PM on July 1, 2010 by Marianne Combs (1 Comments)
Filed under: Books

Starting July 19, the Hennepin County Library is offering e-books for download on its website.

To start, approximately 700 titles will be available for download to portable eBook readers or other electronic device. Those titles include nine of the top 10 titles on the New York Times hardcover fiction bestseller list, Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight" books, and children's books by Kate DiCamillo.

According to Chair of the Hennepin County Board of Commissioners Mike Opat, providing library books in a new format will encourage more kids and familis to read. It's also being done in response to customer requests.

While the "eBooks" can be downloaded byt he Sony Reader and the Barnes and Nobles' Nook, they are not compatible with either the Amazon Kindle or the Apple iPad.

People interested in downloading eBooks will need to provide their library card barcode number. Due to restrictions on the number of portable devices that can be supported by each computer, eBooks cannot be downloaded at a Hennepin County Library computer. Hennepin County Library is the first public library in the Twin Cities metro area to offer the format.

According to senior librarian Vicky Helgeson, the default loan period is 21 days, but patrons have the option of selecting a seven or 14-day loan period. Patrons also have the option of renewing their eBook loan. After the loan period expires, the patron will no longer be able to view the eBook content but will still need to delete the file from his or her computer.

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McCall Smith eager to make it back to Minnesota

Posted at 11:01 AM on June 4, 2010 by Euan Kerr (1 Comments)
Filed under: Books

A lot of people were disappointed when the Icelandic volcano put the kybosh on Alexander McCall Smith's visit to the Twin Cities recently - including the author himself.

"Vulcan, who is the god of volcanos, and who is actually in charge of these matters, was very inconsiderate," he told me recently. We were sitting in the book lined study in Edinburgh Scotland where he writes his very popular "No 1 Ladies Detective Agency" novels - and four other series as well.

"It's bad enough to have unsettled economic circumstances, when you become geologically unsettled, that's piling...."

He then laughs and makes a reference to a geological phenomenon which this writer still trying to decipher.

It's a typical exchange with McCall Smith, who blends a gentle way with a story with deep erudition born of his past career as a Professor of medical law at Edinburgh University. He's set that aside now to focus full time on his writing.

"I'm told that I am breaking all known rules of publishing," he says. "I'm told that the general rule in publishing is that you write one book a year, and no more than that. Well we are breaking that I am afraid in that I am writing either four or five a year."

Along the way his books have gathered legions of fans, including the hundreds of people who bought tickets to hear him speak at the State Theater in Minneapolis in April. McCall Smith admits people get very attached to his books, and get worried by the thought that his output will dwindle or end.

"People write to me and they are quite direct. And they say: "Please don't die soon." That's a very nice sort of letter to get," he laughs.

There are plans to reschedule the cancelled tour, perhaps in September. although no details are available as yet, including whether there will be a Twin Cities date. McCall Smith says it's all up to his publicists in the US, but he like Minnesota, to the point that there is a character in the latest "No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency" book "The Double Comfort Safari Club" who is from St Paul.

You can hear more of our discussion on MPR's All Things Considered this evening.

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A Voice from the Mountains

Posted at 1:06 PM on May 31, 2010 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books

The cover of Anthony Caponi's memoir "Voice from the mountains"

89 year-old sculptor Anthony Caponi, the founder of Caponi Art Park, has lived a life rich in both art and experience. Born in an Italian mountain village, Caponi immigrated as a teenager with his family to the United States, where he suffered all the struggle and wonder involved in making a new home. But just as soon as he started to feel at ease, he was enlisted in the army to fight in World War II, and was sent back to Italy, this time as "the enemy."

Caponi's memoir, "Voice from the Mountains" - reprinted this month in paperback - reads like a lyric poem, starting with his childhood in which he describes how it was the surrounding mountains that carved him into the man he has become, and continuing on to describe how he was torn by his love for two countries:

My home, on two continents,
My soul, tossing in mid-ocean,
My body, carried by the tides,
Landed ashore on the native soil.
On a ledge between two worlds,
Where plants lose their roots,
Where the sea discards its dead,
I stood on no-man's land
Between my double sorrows
Of leaving an dreturning.
A son, I departed,
Tripping sideways with each "Addio."
A soldier, I returned,
Transformed and reassembled
Into an army of thousands,
As an interchangeable segment
Of an armored millipede walking on many legs.

Caponi's memoir is remarkable on several fronts. First, in that it gives readers a window into the heart of a new immigrant, his love of "America" mixed in with all the frustrations and judgement he endured. Secondly, it lends both an artistic and philosophical voice to the horror of war, as experienced by a soldier. Finally, to read Caponi's account of his experience in war-time, both witnessing and suffering atrocities of all sorts, makes his life's work after the war that much more impressive.

Returning to the United States, Caponi came to Minnesota in 1946 to study at the Walker Art Center School and later at the University of Minnesota where he earned his Masters in Education. In 1949 he settled in Eagan, and worked for more than fourty years to realize his dream: a large outdoor sculpture park where anyone could walk and reflect on the natural beauty of the world alongside the art it inspires. Creative expression, Caponi believes, is an integral part of the well-being of both the individual and the community. Caponi writes:

My work with stone is not so much a choice as it is a realization of what I am, philosophically and physically. In this age of planned obsolescence, fickle ideals and cellophane expressions, I find it most appropriate that my sculptures should be of durable, resisting, elemental materials, as stone and steel. I want to wrestle with my work and caress it into its final form. I want to release my pent-up energy through hammer and chisel and the sweat of my body, until my spirit finds its calm, my mind its order and the work will have recorded in tangible forms the process of transforming frustration into a wholesome, satisfying expression.

Anthony Caponi's 60-acre art park, located in Eagan, is open to the public for visits May through October, six days a week. It is home also to theater and music performances. Caponi's memoir "Voice from the Mountains" was reprinted by Nodin Press. The memoir was originally published in 2002.

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Open Book turns 10

Posted at 4:25 PM on May 6, 2010 by Marianne Combs (1 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Craft, Education, Printmaking, Storytelling, Writing

Open Book is the home of the Loft Literary Center, Milkweed Editions and the Minnesota Center for Book Arts.

This Saturday Open Book is celebrating its ten year anniversary as a center for the literary and book arts.

After watching the center grow and thrive over the past decade, the biggest surprise is that Open Book remains unique in the country for what it offers.

There are centers for the literary arts (that focus on reading and writing), and there are centers for the book arts (that teach printing and book-binding). And in the years since Open Book opened, its three tenants - Milkweed Editions, the Loft Literary Centery, and the Minnesota Center for Book Arts - have fielded numerous inquiries from organizations seeking to bring the literary and book arts together under one roof in their own communities. Yet nothing has emerged from those initial conversations.

So what makes Open Book such a singular entity?

Milkweed Editions Editor Daniel Slager points to the then directors of the three non-profits who, more than a decade ago, realized together they could become something greater than the sum of their parts.

I think it's really a Minnesota story, in terms of the level of cooperation between the three organizations. I got a whiff of that when I first arrived [in 2005], but didn't really get it until a few years later. I feel such admiration for the visionaries who put this together in the first place.

Those three founders were Emilie Buchwald (Milkweed), Linda Myers (Loft) and Peggy Korsmo-Kennon (MCBA). While their vision was in part aspirational, it was also practical; they were facing increasing rents in their respective buildings, and wanted a permanent, sustainable home. Thus Open Book was born, located on a strip of Washington Avenue in Minneapolis that was known best for metrodome parking and the Liquor Depot.

Since the spring of 2000 a lot has changed both inside and outside the building.

Open Book is looked upon as a pioneer settler in what is now a cultural corridor, featuring the Guthrie Theater, the MacPhail Center for Music, the Mill City Museum, a farmers' market, several restaurants and upscale condominiums.

Open Book Board Chair Moira Turner says the vibrancy of the community is feeding right back into the health of Open Book:

The building is buzzing; ten thousand people a month come through the doors. I'm just amazed.

None of the three original founders remain, but the legacy of their work is evident. Loft Director Jocelyn Hale says what once seemed like an excessive amount of classroom space is now almost at capacity.

Working in this building is an absolute pleasure. And all the run-ins, the coincidences that happen because there's so much activity in this building - it's really enhanced our work.

Hale recently ran into Milkweed Editor Dan Slager in the hall, and started talking about the Loft's newsletter, which has been offering insights on the writing process for 35 years. Fast forward several months, and Milkweed is now working on publishing an anthology of "A View from the Loft."

Jeff Rathermel, Artistic Director of the Minnesota Center for Book Arts, says he's enjoyed having the freedom of letting his shows bleed out into communal spaces:

Something that I've been able to do over the past six years, is look at the building itself as an exhibition space - moving it out into the building in general - lobby, literary commons, there are many more opportunities for artists to present their work.

Rathermel says he's also thrilled to see other organizations adopt Open Book as their home base for meetings and events.

As for Milkweed's Dan Slager, he says by being based in Open Book, Mildweed Editions is able to have a direct relationship with the community and many of its readers - something few publishers have.

Yet for all its success, one key component has yet to fall into place for the center: a bookstore.

Over the years the space next to the coffee shop has been occupied by Rosalux Gallery and Ruminator Books, but nothing lasted. Daniel Slager says he's eager to see a place on the first floor where people can buy Milkweed's work. While past efforts have failed, Slager thinks now may be the time to try again:

My own take is that the book store was a little ahead of its time with the neighborhood. Our area has changed, we've changed. We have a new opportunity to engage with a growing community here, and to establish not just a traditional bookstore, but books in all sorts of formats. It would have to be something beautiful, in line with the aethetics of the three organizations, but also innovate and forward looking.

A bookstore was just one of the ideas discussed as part of a recently developed five year strategic plan to further "open" Open Book. Other plans debated - and approved - include removing a wall on the first floor so that the MCBA's gallery is visible as soon as a patron walks in the door, and installing more outlets to accomodate all the laptops people bring with them. And this fall the Loft Literary Center will offer its first online writing class, for people who can't afford to commute into the Twin Cities week after week.

Looking ahead to the next ten years, Slager thinks Open Book should work on raising its profile. While the individual non-profits have varying national reputations, the Open Book building does not. Considering its enduring singularity, and the community destination Open Book has created for book-lovers, it's time to spread the word.

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Getting boys to read

Posted at 2:38 PM on April 23, 2010 by Marianne Combs (5 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Education

A recent report from the Center on Education Policy shows that boys across the nation lag behind girls when it comes to their reading skills. Over the years, that gap spreads, and many education researchers believe it's in direct corrolation to the declining numbers of boys enrolling in college.

So why aren't boys reading? And how do you inspire them to pick up a book?

That was the focus of this morning's conversation on Midmorning, which I had the pleasure of hosting (Kerri Miller had the day off). Teen lit author John Coy joined me in studio, while Professor John Chec, of the University of Florida, joined us by phone. Chec teaches children's literature, and has also served as the president of the Children's Literature Association. Coy has written several books aimed at young boys, including "Eyes on the Goal," "Crackback" and "Box Out."

One of the first revelations of the conversation was how the publishing industry helps perpetuate the problem by offering next to nothing for boys to read. The bookshelves for teens are dominate with fiction and fantasy aimed at girls. Girls (and women) are far more likely to spend their money on books, and so they get the bulk of the attention.

Secondly, boys are often embarassed to read aloud or discuss books in mixed company. Much success has been had with segregating reading groups by gender, so that boys can choose more action-oriented novels, and not fear what the girls will think when they speak up.

Also, there aren't many role models out there for male readers. Being bookish is for nerds, not the cool guys. The best inspiration for a young boy is a father or other male mentor who models reading as a cool thing to do. One caller said his father, whose eyesight was so poor he couldn't read, sat with him and they listened to audio books together, which then inspired the caller to check out books on his own.

For school teachers, there is the challenge of getting a boy interested in reading without getting in trouble with parents for recommending violent or "edgy" work. Professor Chec says edgy work is often the most compelling work, and no single book is going to destroy a boy's upbringing, so it's worth taking the risk. But still, librarians and school teachers may feel compelled to recommend the "safe" book in order to avoid controversy.

Finally both John Coy and Professor Chec agreed that there needs to be a broader definition of what qualifies as "reading." Families and teachers often place higher value on novels than they do on, say, a magazine about cars. But both are types of reading, and if the magazine inspires a boy to spend more time with the written word, it should be viewed as a valuable resource. As the boy grows up, it's likely his interests will expand, and the magazine will be replace by a manual, a biography or a novel.

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2010 Minnesota Book Award Winners

Posted at 10:46 PM on April 17, 2010 by Marianne Combs (1 Comments)
Filed under: Books

Tonight marked the 22nd Annual Minnesota Book Awards. I just got back from the event, and thought you'd want to know the winners:

The Kay Sexton Award is bestowed on an individual or organization involved in fostering books, reading, and literary activity and for outstanding contributions to Minnesota's literary community. This year's winner is Carolyn Holbrook, a long-time advocate of arts in education. She founded the Whittier Writers' Workshop in 1981, was Program Director of the Loft Literary Center from 1989-1993 and founded SASE: The Write Place in 1993. Her work has been strongly focused on keeping the arts accessible and establishing links between various communities.

The award for "genre fiction" - given for crime, science fiction and other specific writing genres - went to David Housewright for his book Jelly's Gold, which follows a hunt for gold treasure that turns deadly.

Concordia College professor Joy K. Lintelman won the Minnesota Book Award for general nonfiction with her book I Go to America: Swedish American Women and the Life of Mina Anderson.

Kate DiCamillo was awarded the Young People's Lit prize for The Magician's Elephant which follows a young boys search for his sister, and a mysterious elephant's imagical arrival in town.

Joyce Sidman's Red Sings from Treetops: A Year in Colors won the Children's Lit prize. This book describes the changing colors of the seasons with poems and vivid illustrations.Sidman says she thinks it might be Minnesota's long winters which make her appreciate colors all the more.

The award for poetry went to Jude Nutter for I Wish I Had a Heart Like Yours, Walt Whitman in which Nutter revises Whitman's civil war poems using contemporary and female perspectives.

Wilber "Chip" Schilling, proprietor of Indulgence Press, received the Book Artist Award. The award recognizes a Minnesota book artist for excellence throughout a body of work, as well as significant contributions to Minnesota's book arts community.

Cary J. Griffith's account of Goliath's Cave in southeastern Minnesota, titled Opening Goliath: Danger and Discovery in Caving won the book award for work specific to the state of Minnesota.

The Wolf at Twilight: An Indian Elder's Journey through a Land of Ghosts and Shadows by Kent Nerburn won in the category of memoir and creative non-fiction. It's the story of his journey to help an elderly Native American man discover what happened to his long lost sister. Nerburn brings light to the complicated friendship between a white American and a Lakota Indian, and a glimpse into the life and wisdom of a tribal elder.

The award for novel and short story went to Marlon James for The Book of Night Women. Set in James' native Jamaica, the book tells the story of Lilith, a slave on a Jamaican sugar plantation who possesses a dark power, and the group of women who hope to use it to fuel a slave revolt

And the Readers' Choice Award, voted on by Pioneer Press readers, went to Honor Bright: A Century of Scouting in Northern Star Council by Dave Kenney. The book covers a century of Boy Scout history in central Minnesota and western Wisconsin.

In addition, the evening featured a talk and reading by Irish poet Theo Dorgan, who is in town to receive this year's O'Shaughnessy award from the University of St. Thomas.

Those gathered at the awards also paid tribute to Will Powers, the design and production manager at the Minnesota Historical Society Press, who died in August after devoting 50 years of his life to books.

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Great local authors coming to a library near you

Posted at 1:05 PM on March 31, 2010 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books

If you live in the Twin Cities, a famous author could be coming to your neighborhood this summer.

Club Book, a new series funded by money from the Legacy Amendment, will bring the likes of Garrison Keillor, Neil Gaiman, Patricia Hampl and Kate DiCamillo to libraries in Chaska, Blaine, Stillwater and Apple Valley. The initial series of readings/discussions will take place from April to August. You can see the full list of authors here.

Club Book is part of the Metropolitan Library Services Agency and coordinated by the Library Foundation of Hennepin County.

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Replacement Press releases its first book

Posted at 3:14 PM on March 18, 2010 by Marianne Combs (1 Comments)
Filed under: Books

"If you lived here... " is a collection of short stories published by "Replacement Press," a husband-wife publishing team based in St. Paul.

This is a big weekend for Andrew De Young. On Friday his publishing house "Replacement Press" launches its first book. And on Sunday, De Young turns 27.

De Young and his wife Sarah make up the entire staff of their publishing house, or should I say 'publishing apartment' since the entire operation is housed in their Highland neighborhood rental. De Young says his desire to start publishing grew out of his own concern for the industry.

You hear in the industry a lot of speculation: "Gen Y is not going to read." I felt personally about it because those are my people, and I'm invested in the future of books. But at the same time, I was realizing some things make the future brighter. There have been advances in technology - e-books, printing on demand - that make it easier for a diversity of voices to get into print. Now it's a possibility for a couple like my wife and I with a little bit of know-how to start a publishing company of our own.

By day De Young works as a project manager at Augsburg Fortress Publishers and his wife is a graphic designer at Riley Hayes Advertising. He works with text, while she works with layout and images (including their website).

It's pretty gutsy for a young couple to start up a new literary press in the same town that is home to Coffee House Press, Milkweed Editions and Graywolf Press, three of the nations top five independent literary presses. But De Young looks to the publishing scenes on the east and west coasts, where little independent presses are popping up all the time.

It's daunting for us to be taking our place next to these three - and in some respects we'd never put our names next to theirs. It's humbling - we have nothing but love for them. We just want to do something that we're passionate about.

De Young says he and his wife are not trying to fill a void in the Twin Cities publishing scene. Instead they see themselves as 'the next guard,' forging a new literary culture that will eventually "replace" (hence the name) the writers and readers that keep the scene thriving today.

In that vein, John Jodzio is actually a little bit on the outside of the age range (read that "older") De Young was initially aiming for in his writers. But De Young says Jodzio is an emerging writer, and the book captures the voice of the audience he's trying to reach.

What speaks most to me is the characters' sense of disappointment - they're not where they expected to be. They're disappointed with the world as they find it. And I think that speaks to a lot of people right now. The voice is perfect, hardnosed, but with humor.

De Young doesn't really know who his audience will be - he just started selling books on Monday - so he's excited to see who will turn up at Friday's release at Magers and Quinn. De Young says his biggest fear is that the initial attention the press is getting will fade, and with it, so will book sales for Jodzio.

John is a really excellent writer and he took a risk on us. He didn't know if we were going to do right by him, and I think as far as the book is concerned, we did. But I really want to do right by him in terms of generating a lot of sales, support and exposure. I really want to launch his career.

As a young publisher, De Young does have a few things in his favor. Things like facebook and twitter are second nature to him, whereas they might seem like an added communications burden to folks who've already been in the business awhile. And financially Replacement Press can be pretty nimble.

We don't have to have a warehouse, spend as much on shipping, or deal with returns from bookstores. So while we're financing it out of our personal savings, we're not starving.

As such, De Young, says they're more likely to take chances on someone unknown who deserves to be discovered. He says ultimately he hopes to publish three or four books a year, but it will take some time for Replacement Press to build its capacity.

You can read an excerpt from John Jodzio's "If you lived here you'd already be home" at the Replacement Press website.

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Literary Twin Cities: so much to celebrate

Posted at 8:25 AM on January 27, 2010 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Events, Writing

Last night I had the honor of hosting "Literary Twin Cities," an event marking the milestone anniversaries of three local non-profit presses (Milkweed Editions, Graywolf and Coffee House Press) as well as the Loft Literary Center.

It's an occasion worth celebrating: those presses I mentioned make up three of the top five independent literary presses in the nation. Minneapolis and the Twin Cities as a whole have on multiple instances been cited as literary hubs in the country. Open Book, the home to both Milkweed and The Loft, was the first cultural institution to move into a previously downtrodden neighborhood, one that has since become a cultural corridor featuring the Guthrie Theater, MacPhail Center for Music and the Mill City Museum. As a center for the literary arts, it's the first of its kind.

Milkweed, Graywolf, Coffee House and The Loft are all just a part of a multi-layered dynamic literary scene that includes (but is not limited to) several fiercely independent bookstores (Macawbers, Magers and Quinn, Birch Bark Books and Common Good Books), SASE, the Minnesota Center for Book Arts, Rain Taxi Review and the Playwrights' Center. Then there's the number of writers and poets based here, as well as a strong network of public libraries.

Over the course of an hour we discussed not only what drew some publishers to move to the Twin Cities, but what it is about our local culture that has allowed the literary scene to thrive as well as it does. Is it the winters? The foundation support? Our level of education?

Coffee House Press founder Allan Kornblum said he was drawn to Minnesota by the "community spirit" (an early invitation to a Twin Cities book fair said "couches will be found for visiting publishers to sleep on" and proffered a celebratory dinner afterward).

Others agreed that community spirit, combined with strong education, philanthropic support and a cultural dedication to service all work together to create a dynamic literary scene.

But what about the future of publishing? All three literary presses are publishing e-books, which they say actually saves them money, and creates less "waste" (i.e. books that have no buyers). Their greatest concern is developping a generation of new young readers who enjoy not just pulp fiction, but literature.

Milkweed Editions is one of just two non-profit presses in the nation that publishes books for young readers, in part to provide an alternative to the mass-marketed fare that dominates bookstore shelves. CEO and Publisher Daniel Slager says that's in part to help develop young readers appetites for good quality literature.

What drives these non-profit presses is a desire to bring more diverse literature to the fore. The larger for-profit presses are motivated by the bottom line, which means they publish only those authors who have mass appeal. Non-profit presses nurture new voices, and translate foreign works we might never otherwise get to read.

Graywolf's Fiona McCrae said she's excited by some of the changes on the horizon of the publishing world. Already she's experienced how technology can help level the playing field between large and small presses. McCrae sees a new generation of young publishers getting in the business, and that's inspiring her to stay on top of her game.

Jocelyn Hale sees The Loft Literary Center as a bridge between the community and its non-profit presses. She said the mission of The Loft is to to support the development of writers, to foster a writing community, and to build an audience for literature. All of that in turn creates both a pool of potential authors for these presses, as well as informed and appreciative readership.

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Maaza Mengiste learns the need for a desk

Posted at 8:47 AM on January 26, 2010 by Euan Kerr (2 Comments)
Filed under: Books

Author Maaza Mengiste left Ethiopia when she was about 4 years old.

It was two years after the revolution which brought down Emperor Hailie Selassie, who many Ethiopians believed was a direct descendant of King Solomon.

The Derg, the military junta which rose to power ruled ruthlessly, killing countless people along the way.

Such was the trauma of those days, and the change in her life when she arrived in the USA soon after, Mengiste remembers parts of her life in Ethiopia quite vividly. Those memories stayed with her as she grew older, and eventually she realized she needed to find out more if only to put them in some sort of context.

In time she began to write a novel about those troubled times. She began about five years ago when she was a graduate student. Not having a proper place to write, she set herself up in that great haven of writers everywhere, the local coffee shop.

"They were great," she laughs, "They used to give me free coffee."

Yet Mengiste soon ran into a problem. As she began writing about the violence which rained down on Ethiopians during and after the revolution she found it hard to handle. Several times she bust into tears as she sat tapping words into her laptop.

"People thought I was crazy," she says. She eventually realized she couldn't keep writing the way she was going, and invested in a desk she could use at home.

This solved the problem of disturbing the coffee drinkers, but it didn't make writing some of the story any easier. Her finished novel, "Beneath the Lion's Gaze" tells the story of a family living through the revolution, and some of the people around them. Several of them have very close encounters with the brutal agents of the new regime.

She says after writing some of those passages she had to set them aside and not get back to them for weeks because she found the stories so traumatic even though they were fiction.

The novel is now out to critical acclaim, and it has been warmly received in the Ethiopian community. She says that has been a humbling experience, but she feels honored that many people who lived through those dark days have greeted her book so warmly.

She says she hopes it comes through as a tribute to the power of the human spirit just to continue in the face of overwhelming horror.

You can hear an interview with Maaza Mengiste this evening on the local segments of All Things Considered, with a reading and a longer excerpt online too

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A longitudinal book list makes interesting reading

Posted at 11:19 AM on December 23, 2009 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books

With all the end of the decade lists going around (even if it isn't really the end of the decade) one list that caught my eye is in the Guardian newspaper in the UK about the top selling authors of the last 10 years.

These are British sales of course, and so bear the strange quirks and biases of my homeland, but there are some interesting things to be gleaned.

Not surprisingly J.K. Rowling came in far and away the top earner, selling double the number of copies of her nearest challenger. However that challenger was not some high-brow member of the literati, but Roger Hargreaves, who writes extremely the popular "Mr Men" books, aimed at pre-kindergarteners. Indeed many of the top sellers write for children, or wrote as Enid Blyton, who was a top seller when I was devouring her books as a lad, has been dead for 40 years. Shakespeare makes the list too, although way down at 45, 10 below Lemony Snicket. (A.A. Milne, Charles Dickens and Tolkien, make the top 100.)

Surprising entries near the top (although not when you think about it) are the cooks: Jamie Oliver, Delia Smith, Nigella Lawson. and Gordon Ramsey.

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How books come alive in New Zealand

Posted at 5:06 PM on November 30, 2009 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Animation, Books

The New Zealand Book Council clearly has no interest in those who claim the days of the book are numbered. The council is going to the mat with this TV spot. (Click on the box to the right of the volume control at the bottom to make it full-screen.)

While there is always danger in doing what amounts to readers work for them, this packs a punch.

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Creating and celebrating a child's world

Posted at 5:31 PM on November 13, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books

Illustration by Barbara Knutson from "Love and Roast Chicken"

The University of Minnesota is celebrating 60th anniversary of it's collection of children's books with an exhibition. The Kerlan Collection contains more than 100,000 children's books as well as original manuscripts and artwork for an additional 12,000 children's books.

Gustaf Tenggren illustration for "Saggy Baggy Elephant"

The Kerlan Collection was established in the 1940's by University of Minnesota alumnus Dr. Irvin Kerlan (1912-1963). Dr. Kerlan was a researcher for the U.S. FDA who collected rare books as a hobby. Soon his interest focused on children's books.

Dr. Kerlan organized exhibitions and shipped them to libraries and art galleries in North America, Europe, and the Far East. In 1949, he made arrangements with the University of Minnesota, his Alma Mater, to provide a permanent home for his collection. Since then, the University of Minnesota libraries have supervised the collection's development.

Tomie dePaola's illustration for "Shhh! We're Writing the Constitution!"

The University is marking the exhibition's opening with a talk Sunday afternoon by Children's literature critic Leonard S. Marcus. The talk is free and open to the public.

Featured in the exhibit will be materials from notable children's and young adult literature authors and illustrators, including "Goodnight Moon" illustrator Clement Hurd; National Book Award finalist Walter Dean Myers; Newbery Medal winners Kate DiCamillo, Katherine Paterson, and Lois Lowry; and Caldecott Medal winners Stephen Gammell and Chris Van Allsburg.

The exhibit will be open to the public through Thursday, Dec. 31; exhibit hours and directions to Andersen Library can be found here.
Wanda Gag's illustration for "Frog Prince"

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Independent publishing in the modern age

Posted at 8:24 PM on October 28, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books

In the fast moving world of publishing, Coffee House Press has adapted to the digital age while still remaining true to its original artistic vision.

Coffee House Press is on the eve ofcelebrating its 25th anniversary as an independent publishing house. Just making it this far is quite an accomplishment; senior editor Chris Fischbach can count on his hand the number of other independent presses that have lasted this long (two of the other top independent literary presses in the nation are based in Minnesota - more on that in a bit). But Coffee House Press has not just survived - it's doing well.

Fischbach credits CHP's success in part to technology:

The internet has allowed us to reach more people and tell them about our books. In some ways the internet levels the playing field. Our books are on Amazon in the same way more or less that a big house's books are.

While the financial crash that occurred in the wake of 9/11 has had a lasting effect on publishing houses, CHP has managed to end the last few years in the black, and in this past year has been able to erase its deficit, thanks to a bestseller (Sam Savage's book "Firmin").

Fischbach says the press is poised to get even stronger in the coming years. It's just received a Bush Foundation grant which will allow it to both revamp its website and work with a distributor to release its books as "e-books" available for download.

Coffee House Press associate publisher Chris Fischbach

Fischbach says the key to Coffee House Press' long term success has been a combination of staying true to its vision (strong design, new voices and compelling stories) while remaining nimble when it comes to new means of doing business.

Our primary focus now and in the foreseeable future is the printed book, and the other things are extra experiences around the book, such as author interviews on the website, podcasts,etc.

Coffee House Press founder and publisher Allan Kornblum has been both savvy and pragmatic in his running of his company. While he still prints broadsides (limited edition prints that usually draw from CHP authors or poets), he was quick to embrace computers. And now he's gradually transferring the running of the press to Fischbach.

Coffee House Press publisher Allan Kornblum stands next to a Gem paper cutter, a stack of broadsides in his arms.

Fischbach says while he doesn't expect e-books to be a significant part of CHP's revenue for years to come, he does imagine that changing reader habits will force the literary industry to evolve. He imagines in decades to come the printed book will become more rare, and as a result, more precious:

Publishers like us have an opportunity to further establish [printed books] as objects of worth. We're showing the work respect, by giving it a design that's worthy of the content. And that's what we want to do going forward, wherever the book goes.

Coffee House Press is not the only Minnesota publishing house to celebrate a major anniversary this year. Milkweed Editions turns 30, and Graywolf Press turns 35. The three are co-celebrating their anniversaries with a literary scavenger hunt.

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Wizards and witches vs vampires and werewolves: who wins?

Posted at 1:36 PM on October 15, 2009 by Marianne Combs (1 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Film, Writing

Okay, the comparative literature geek in me thinks this is just brilliant. This month the Hennepin County Library is hosting two "literary smackdowns" in which teams of teenagers will debate and defend their favorite fantasy series/publishing & film phenoms -- Harry Potter or Twilight. The audiences will pick the winning team. And of course, teens are encouraged to wear costumes supporting their favorite characters. The public debates take place on October 20 at Central Library and October 27 at Ridgedale Library in Minnetonka.

Either way, Robert Pattinson wins, doesn't he?

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Twin Cities Book Festival tomorrow

Posted at 9:46 AM on October 9, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Events

Just a reminder - the Twin Cities Book Festival takes place tomorrow at Minneapolis Community & Technical College from 10am - 5pm. If you're at all bookish, this event is for you, featuring author talks, a storytelling circle for kids, and lots of books and literary magazines for sale. For more information on the featured authors, see my previous write-up here.

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The danger in believing the stories we're told

Posted at 11:20 AM on October 7, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Culture

Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie recounts her own experience growing up with "single stories" - in other words believing there is one truth, instead of many truths. The daughter of college educated parents, she grew up reading American and European novels. The result? When she started writing her own stories, they featured characters with white skin and blue eyes who ate apples and played in the snow. Adichie didn't know her own story was a valid one to tell.

In the United States, Adichie encounters people who have their own "single stories" when it comes to life on the African continent. How does she know how to speak English so well? One student, after having read one of Adichie's novels, expresses sadness that African fathers are so abusive to their children. Adichie retorts that she just finished reading "American Psycho" and isn't it a shame all young men are mass murderers?

The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete...The consequence of the single story is this - it robs people of dignity. It makes our recognition of our equal humanity difficult. It emphasizes how we are different rather than how we are similar.

Adichie argues eloquently for the importance of having a diversity of stories, and for readers to never assume that the story they read is the "single story."

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Historical novel "Wolf Hall" wins Booker Prize

Posted at 6:11 PM on October 6, 2009 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books

"Wolf Hall" which was the hot favorite to win this years Booker Prize took the prestigious award in London this evening.

Hilary Mantel's novel of Tudor intrigue doesn't go on sale in the US until October 13th, but winning the Booker all but guarantees major sales here, and across the world.

"Wolf Hall" beat novels from double Booker winner J.M. Coetzee, past winner A.S. Byatt, and bestseller Sarah Waters.

Being the favorite has been an impediment for some books in the past, as the decision is made just hours before the announcement, and some judges have apparently not taken kindly to the odds being placed at the bookies. (Turf accountants as they are known in the UK don't limit betting to the horses, and are willing to take bets on just about anything.)

As in years past the Guardian newspaper has provided excellent coverage of the final decisions which you can read here. And if you don't have time to read all the books the Guardian also provides a tongue-in-cheek digest of all the finalists here.

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What's on your bookshelf?

Posted at 11:02 AM on September 17, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Technology

A friend of mine recently convinced me to check out Shelfari, the website for book lovers. Shelfari was inspired by the simple pleasure of perusing your friends' bookshelves. The website allows you to do this virtually, so you're not limited to what they own. You can see what they've read, what they're currently reading, and what's on their "to read" list.

The site is also incredibly useful to people who want to chart their progress on their own reading lists, or who are interested in seeing just how well-read they are. Readers can post reviews about a book, or partake in an online discussion.

There are a couple of downsides to the site: there are many different listings for the same title - one for each edition. This can make navigating what you have and haven't read tedious (I know I've already clicked on Wuthering Heights three times!). The site also requires a pretty steep initial time investment, as you try to remember just how many of those classics you read in high school and college.

Have you tried Shelfari out? If so, what do you think? Any tricks or features I should know about?

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The simple inspiration behind Pete Hautman's new novel

Posted at 6:04 PM on September 8, 2009 by Euan Kerr (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books

The simple story behind National Book Award-winner Pete Hautman's new novel is a teenage girl just told him what she wanted to read.

He was with a group of teens, trying to divine their reading tastes.

"And there were all kinds of different answers: 'I like to read girlie books,' or 'I like books about dragons,' or about vampires or whatever," Hautman says.

However he says he was stopped short by a young woman who made a simple statement.

"She said, 'I'm 14 and my life is really boring and I just want to read about a girl like me who goes out and steals a car.' And there was like a flash in my head," Hautman says. "This is bringing the teen reading experience down to its most basic element. They want to know what it is like. They want to know know what everything is like, even things they never expect to do or hope never to do. They want to know what it is like to battle a dragon. And reading brings this to them. So I wanted to write a book that was about that."

And that's how "How to Steal a Car" came to be.

Of course Hautman's tale about Kelleigh, a 15 year old Twin Cities girl is a lot more complicated than a single car boosting.

He has spent a great deal of time thinking and writing about the teen experience, and fan reaction to hs many books including "Sweetblood" and "Godless" which won the National Book Award.

Hautman takes Kelleigh through a series of adventures over the course of a summer. She learns a lot about car theft, but she also learns a great deal about friends and friendship.

"Friendships that are made in childhood don't need to be based on anything other than proximity," says Hautman. "But as we grow older and a person develops more interests, the interests diverge and it tears friendships apart. And that's part of what Kelleigh is experiencing. She's entering a larger world, but she hasn't found it yet."

Now it's "How to Steal A Car" which is entering a larger world. Hautman says most of the reviews he's seen so far are from adults, as they are the people who get advance copies. Now he's waiting to see what his teen readers will say.

He has a couple of readings coming up, which may attract different readerships. He's be at the Red Balloon bookshop in St Paul on Friday September 18th, and then at "Once Upon a Crime" in Minneapolis on Saturday September 26th.

We'll have him on the air at MPR early next week.

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Can a literary trend do harm?

Posted at 8:18 AM on August 28, 2009 by Marianne Combs (1 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Culture

When it comes to the "going green" movement, Elizabeth Kolbert thinks so, and she writes about it in the New Yorker.

Kolbert takes issue with the spate of books in which people document their attempts at voluntary simplicity. A few examples from the genre:

In "No Impact Man," author Colin Beavan lives with out electricity, a car, and even toilet paper in New York City, as he seeks to reduce his carbon footrpint over the course of a year.

In "Farm City" Novella Carpenter documents her attempts at keeping a farm in the middle of downtown Oakland and ultimately attempts to survive eating only from her urban lot for a month.

And in "Plenty: Eating Locally on the 100 mile diet," Alisa Smith and James MacKinnon attempt to source everything they eat within 100 miles of their Vancouver home.

So what's wrong with inspiring others through example? Kolbert argues that these are merely stunts. She says they are the modern equivalent of Henry David Thoreau's time on Walden Pond, aimed, just like Thoreau's, at selling books.

The nouveau Thoreauvians have picked up from "Walden" its dramaturgy of austerity. Their schemes require them to renounce (if only temporarily) various material comforts--cars, elevators, Starbucks--that their neighbors take for granted. Renunciation sets them apart and organizes their lives in the name of some higher purpose. The trouble--or, at least, a trouble--is that it's hard to say exactly what that purpose is.

Kolbert goes on to say that each of these books comes with a structure it must adhere to - a month or a year of making no carbon impact, eating from your yard, or eating locally. The problem is that these conceits drive the authors to do things that make no sense. The authors of "Plenty" end up making a 12 hour journey to the sea to harvest their own salt. Colin Beavan turns off his radiators, and lives off the residual warmth from his neighbors' apartments. What's the point? According to Elizabeth Kolbert, "The real work of "saving the world" goes way beyond the sorts of action that "No Impact Man" is all about."

What's required is perhaps a sequel. In one chapter, Beavan could take the elevator to visit other families in his apartment building. He could talk to them about how they all need to work together to install a more efficient heating system. In another, he could ride the subway to Penn Station and then get on a train to Albany. Once there, he could lobby state lawmakers for better mass transit. In a third chapter, Beavan could devote his blog to pushing for a carbon tax. Here's a possible title for the book: "Impact Man."

However what Kaiser fails to address is the impact of each of these authors' books. While standards are being put in place for the energy efficiency of buildings, and the fuel efficiency of cars, it's much more difficult to legislate an individual's consumption. No one likes being told what they can and cannot do. So if one person's actions manage to inspire 500 or 1000 or maybe even 10000 others to take steps to consume less, who's to say they didn't make a difference?

The other frustration in all these attempts to "go green" is the math. People are constantly trying to calculate their impact, but it's almost impossible to do.

For instance, these environmental authors, for all their good intentions, are sending millions of people to websites, selling hundreds of thousands of books, and are each engaged in national book tours involving numerous plane flights and time on the road. How can they possible figure out whether they've done more good than harm?

How can any of us, really?

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A new literary press opens its doors in Minnesota

Posted at 8:48 AM on August 26, 2009 by Marianne Combs (1 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Writing

It's called Replacement Press and its goal is to publish "culturally engaged fiction by new and emerging writers."

Replacement Press is out to discover the "voices of a new generation" but is not giving that generation any age limits. Instead the founders, Andrew and Sarah De Young, say it's about a fresh voice and a new perspective.

What we're looking for are stories that place their characters in a dynamic social setting. Make connections between the personal and the communal, find that place where individual lives collide with the wider world around them, and then live in that space.

Currently, Replacement Press is accepting submissions and plans to release its first book in Winter 2009. In the meantime, the De Youngs say they want to start a conversation on the future of literary publishing. That shouldn't be a problem, since the Twin Cities are already home to several nationally recognized literary presses: Graywolf, Milkweed Editions, and CoffeeHouse Press.

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Twin Cities Book Festival announces featured authors

Posted at 7:49 AM on August 19, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Events

Each year the Rain Taxi Review of Books organizes the Twin Cities Book Festival. This year the festival takes place on October 10 from 10am-5pm on the campus of the Minneapolis Community and Technical College in downtown Minneapolis.

The day long event features, amongst many other things, readings and talks by acclaimed authors. This year ten authors will talk about their most recent works, covering not just fiction and poetry, but pop culture, nature and food.

Here's the complete list, from the press release:

Award-winning novelists who inspire, challenge, and entertain:

NICHOLSON BAKER is the author of a dozen works of fiction and nonfiction, including the novels The Mezzanine and Vox. He has loudly campaigned against the destruction of printed matter in the digital age, and won the National Book Critics Circle Award for his book on the topic, Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper. His new novel, The Anthologist, is narrated by a little-known poet; in this and throughout his work, Baker is a champion of things otherwise unsung, like elevators and the word "lumber."

ROBERT OLEN BUTLER is the author of sixteen novels and short story collections, a book on the creative process, and several plays and screenplays. His work has been honored with Pulitzer Prize, among many other accolades. He has, at various points, worked as a translator, counter-intelligence officer, editor, and professor. His newest novel, Hell, allows the ever-inventive Butler to cast many surprising historical and contemporary characters down into the underworld.

LORRIE MOORE is the author of three short story collections and three novels, the recipient of fellowships from the NEA and the Guggenheim, Lannan, and Rockefeller Foundations, and the winner of the Rae Award for the Short Story and the Irish Times International Fiction Prize. A Gate at the Stairs, her newest novel and her first book since 1998's acclaimed Birds of America, is an ambitious and visceral examination of racism, war, young love, and employment as a part-time nanny.

Celebrated poets from different countries and different aesthetics:

Acclaimed poet, novelist, and essayist ADAM ZAGAJEWSKI is one of Poland's most famous literary figures, and his talent has influenced many English-speaking poets as well. In addition to such acclaimed poetry volumes such as World Without End, Mysticism for Beginners, and Canvas, he has also published the memoir Another Beauty and two prose collections. His newest volume of verse, Eternal Enemies, came out earlier this year.

The sound poet CHRISTIAN BÖK can read very fast. He can willingly enslave himself to the tyranny of a single vowel. He can build books out of toys. He can create and translate alien languages, having worked as a xenolinguist for Gene Roddenberry and Peter Benchley. And his Eunoia--the single bestselling Canadian poetry book of all time--won the Griffin Poetry Prize and is newly released here in the states. Listen carefully...

Acclaimed writers on the art and beauty of the everyday:

DIANE ACKERMAN is a poet, essayist, naturalist, and the author of two dozen works of nonfiction and poetry. She is the recipient of the Orion Book Award, the John Burroughs Nature Award, the Lavan Poetry Prize, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. (Fun fact: the molecule dianeackerone, a sex pheromone in crocodilians, is named after her.) Her most recent work of literary naturalism, Dawn Light, explores what life is up to when the sun comes up.

RUTH REICHL has been writing about food since the book Mmmmmmmm: A Feastiary in 1972. Her acclaimed food memoirs now include Tender at the Bone, Comfort Me With Apples, and Garlic and Sapphires. The recipient of numerous awards, she was the restaurant critic for the New York Times and is now Editor in Chief of Gourmet Magazine; her books for them include The Gourmet Cookbook and the newly released Gourmet Today.

Wildlife artist DAVID ALLEN SIBLEY started birding at the age of seven. He is now the author and illustrator of more than a dozen acclaimed books and field guides on American avian life, including the fastest selling bird book of all time, The Sibley Guide to Birds. Lightning is bound to strike twice with the soon-to-be-released Sibley Guide to Trees. Mr. Sibley will give a visual presentation on how he researches and illustrates these amazing books.

And pop culture experts on comics and geekdom:

GABRIELLE BELL was born in England, raised in California, and currently resides in Brooklyn. Not ten years ago she was self-publishing her own mini-comics; since the turn of the century she has published the acclaimed autobiographical work Lucky, placed her work twice in the Best American Comics series, and appeared in the prestigious Yale Anthology of Graphic Fiction. Her newest collection, Cecil and Jordan in New York, includes a story that Bell and noted film director Michel Gondry adapted for Gondry's latest film, Tokyo!

ETHAN GILSDORF's book Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks is a travel-memoir quest that explains and celebrates fantasy and gaming subcultures, whether inspired by fictions like The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, or by role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons and World of Warcraft. Gilsdorf will introduce some of the characters he encountered in his journeys across this world and other worlds; he will then invite audience members to share their "geekiest moment" onstage. PS: the audience is also encouraged to attend in costume--prizes will be awarded!

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Kate DiCamillo's latest: The Magician's Elephant

Posted at 12:29 PM on July 21, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books

One of the great joys of being an arts reporter is the occasional surprise package that shows up in the mailbox. Often it contains stuff not worth a mention, but today I opened one up to find an uncorrected proof of "The Magician's Elephant," Kate DiCamillo's latest work. It's the story of an orphan boy in search of his sister, and a strange fortune that sends him on an even stranger journey.

Flipping through, I found this lovely bit of prose, which I thought you might like:

She dreamed that she was flying high over the world, her habit spread out on either side of her like dark wings.

She was terribly pleased because she had always, secretly, deep within her heart, believed that she could fly. And now here she was, doing what she had long suspected she could do, and she could not deny that it was gratifying in the extreme.

Sister Marie looked down at the world below her and saw millions and millions of stars and thought, I am not flying over the earth at all. Why, I am flying higher than that. I am flying over the tops of the stars. I am looking down at the sky.

And then she realized that no, no, it was the earth that she was flying over, and that she was looking not at the stars but at the creatures of the world, and that they were all, they were each - beggars, dogs, orphans, kings, elephants, soldiers - emitting pulses of light.

The whole of creation glowed.

The Magician's Elephant is published by Candlewick Press and appears on bookshelves this September.

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Sense and Sensibility...and Sea Monsters

Posted at 11:26 AM on July 16, 2009 by Marianne Combs (1 Comments)
Filed under: Books

The conversion of Jane Austen's romances into horrorific tales more worthy of Mary Shelley continues. From the creators of "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" comes "Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters." Here's their video trailer for the new book:

Evidently Quirk Books is also at work on "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter."

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Summer Reading

Posted at 7:47 PM on June 29, 2009 by Marianne Combs (3 Comments)
Filed under: Books

It's the time of year when Minnesotans love to sit outdoors and enjoy the great weather, and many of us prefer to do it with a book in hand, whether it's on the deck or by the lake.

Today on Midmorning, Kerri Miller discussed the best bets for summer reads with Washington Post book editor Ron Charles and Los Angeles Times book reviewer Sarah Weinman. Their conversation resulted in a list of books they (and Midmorning callers) think would make for time well spent.

So what are you paging through this summer? And what would you vote for as the perfect summer read? (My choice? Anything by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.)

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Neil Gaiman: Author turned interviewer

Posted at 3:04 PM on June 23, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books, People

Neil Gaiman, author of Coraline, Anansi Boys, The Sandman and so many other wonderfully creepy tales, is sitting in one of the MPR News studios at this moment. Except he's not here to be interviewed. Instead he's interviewing British character actor Martin Jarvis about the art of voicing audiobooks. Word has it he's doing a series of interviews for National Public Radio, which should air on Morning Edition in the next few weeks.

Gaiman actually lives not far outside the Twin Cities. MPR's Euan Kerr interviewed him earlier this year when Gaiman won the Newbery honor with his work "The Graveyard Book."

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Vatican's ties to Minnesota grow ever stronger

Posted at 12:31 PM on June 17, 2009 by Marianne Combs (0 Comments)
Filed under: Books, Culture

Minnesota author (and former MPR reporter) Leif Enger was interviewed in yesterday's edition of the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano. Enger is the author of two acclaimed books, "Peace Like a River" and more recently "So Brave, Young, and Handsome," the latter of which has just been published in Italian. Seeking atonement for one's sins is a major theme in the novel.

This on the heels of the announcement that the Vatican has declared the Cathedral of St. Paul a national shrine.

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