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.
Photo from Console Room.
Duluthian Gaelynn Lea was recently celebrated as a Guest at Console Room, the Minnesota Doctor Who convention. The music performed was sublime, the programming inflected by music in ways that the convention rarely experiences. All weekend long, I felt her impact on the convention, just as, in Duluth, I regularly feel the impact on our community.
I love talking about the literary writing world here, but I rarely talk about academic writing. I’d like to, this time, because I just finished c0-editing a freshly published book with articles by some of your neighbors. They were intentionally written to be accessible to a broad readership.
The University of Minnesota Extension Regional Sustainable Development Partnerships are seeking proposals for projects related to sustainable agriculture and food systems, clean energy, natural resources and resilient communities.
I’m on the board for these proposals, and many of your neighbors throughout the region are, too. You don’t need to be a nonprofit — local businesses with community impact and individual citizens can apply, too!
Last semester, I taught a class in the writing major at the University of Minnesota Duluth called Minnesota Writers. It was a survey of a few “greatest hits” (Laura Ingalls Wilder and Wanda Gag; Upton Sinclair and F. Scott Fitzgerald; Tim O’Brien), but mostly, it was a tour through some of the writers alive and well and shaping Minnesota culture (Margi Preus, Chris Monroe, Julie Gard, Emily August, Michael Fedo, Lucie Amundsen, Kelly Florence, Meg Hafdahl, and contributors to the Pride Zine).
The Vintage Duluth Blog at the Duluth Public Library is back.
Art by Nelle Rhicard at reframeideas.com.
A group of University of Minnesota Duluth faculty, students, and community artists came together to explore strategies to communicate the stories of frontline workers in housing and food insecurity.
I snagged a ton of cassettes at Gabriel’s Used Bookstore. I wanted them because they were uniform in their design. They were, in other words, a “collection,” and I love being able to look over a collection.
If you have lived in Duluth a long time, you know (and maybe miss) the voice of Naomi Yeager. Naomi was an editor of the now-defunct Duluth Hillsider and also led the Budgeteer. It was under Naomi’s editorship that I got a lot of my non-PDD writing lessons — she was a great editor.
Naomi now maintains a SubStack. Link below if you want to hear her unique voice again.
