Poets from Minnesota in ‘Black Flag’ — but were any of them from Duluth?
At the Duluth Public Library sale, it seems that the Minnesota Poetry collection was weeded, deaccessioned.
I think that’s a loss.
At the Duluth Public Library sale, it seems that the Minnesota Poetry collection was weeded, deaccessioned.
I think that’s a loss.
In “Minnesota Writers Spotlight on Colleen Baldrica,” Kaelyn Hvidsten writes about discovering Baldrica’s Tree Spirited Woman tucked away in a Canal Park art shop.
Calyx Books was a significant creative force in shaping poetic life in Duluth. These two pages, from a Calyx Press book discussed in the Duluth Budgeteer, are a kind of evidence of that impact, creating and manifesting literary community.
Readers of Perfect Duluth Day know I am enchanted with International Falls and the Icebox Radio Theater. I write about it for the Duluth News Tribune too. For more than a decade, the Icebox Radio Theater has focused on the theater experience. The audio dramas developed under Jeffrey Adams’ artistic direction have been funny, moving, and technically well-executed. Some have won awards, including the Ambie Awards for Excellence in Audio. But, in many ways, as a podcast, the Icebox has focused on the theater and missed out on the charm of radio.
This Fall, I’m teaching Minnesota Authors: Reading Like a Writer (a subtitle I stole from my colleagues at the University of Wisconsin-Superior). The goal of the class is to read like a writer, which is to say to be less interested in “what a text means” (that’s reading like a reader), but instead “how a text works” (that’s reading like a writer).
We also look at the mechanics of writing and publishing. The works of Michael Fedo are a gift in this. He has written extensively about being a writer.
I am reconstructing the Poetry History of the Arrowhead as I prepare to teach my Minnesota Writers class. Today, I want to ask you whether you know anything about Meda Casler or Edith Addison Thomas.
Elvira T. Johnson was a leader among poets. As I reconstruct the history of the Arrowhead in poets, she seems to be a voice I need to reconstruct.
Google tells me John “Jack” Dahle was “born in Duluth, Minnesota, to Minnesota State Senator Clarence Arthur and Helen Jenswold Dahle.” But I have no idea who Helen Jenswold Dahle is. Does anyone else have any ideas? As I build a literary history of Duluth, I am missing information about this author.
As I prep to teach a Minnesota Writers class again this fall, I am working through little resources and breadcrumb trails.
William A. Sommers has been subject to my writing here before. Here is his page from Minnesota Landscapes. I wonder if anyone has a story to tell?
Minnesota Landscapes, the book published by the League of Minnesota Poets, has a number of Duluth authors I don’t know and want to know more about.
Dorothy Bladin Hill has a vertical file record at the Duluth Public Library — I gotta check that out. Bladin Hill was also an author of the Big Book of Christmas Entertainments. What other stories might anyone share that might ignite my students’ passion?
The League of Minnesota Poets once published an anthology that was loaded with Twin Ports poets and topics. Minnesota Skyline was printed in twelve editions, 20,000 copies.
I’m curious about the authors within, including Luella Bender Carr.
Too often, the frontline workers in housing and food insecurity go unnoticed in our region. Some of my students (and students of Adam Pine) interviewed some of these unsung heroes. Then, local artists Nelle Rhicard and Maryam Khaleghi Yazdi turned their insights into art — transformed, really, their insights into art.
March 11 is Wanda Gág’s birthday. After Charles Schulz and F. Scott Fitzgerald, Wanda Gag is my favorite Minnesota author.
I enjoyed the Rhizomes at Northern Waters Smokehaus last night. Every concert should start before 6 p.m.
NorthWords, the monthly publication of Lake Superior Writers, features a link to Joseph Bussey’s profile of local author Amy Jo Swing.
