This collection encompasses 50-plus years of interviews, readings, speeches, and reports on the vibrant literary scene in Minnesota. Not only home to giants F. Scott Fitzgerald and Sinclair Lewis, our state has an array of incredible contemporary poets, novelists and playwrights. Their words make up majority of this collection.
Repeatedly being named the “Most Literate City in the United States,” the Twin Cities has played host to numerous visiting national writers via book tours, festivals, and lectures. Many recordings of these are also included.
This project was funded by the National Historical Publications & Records Commission.
November 21, 1979 - MPR’s Nancy Fushan interviews writer Meridel Le Sueur and choreographer Margaret Fargnoli about dance interpretation of Le Sueur’s poetry.
November 21, 1979 -
November 28, 1979 -
November 30, 1979 -
December 1, 1979 - On this Weekend program, Joe and Nancy Paddock speak on farm life and read poetry at the Farmers Union Convention.
December 5, 1979 -
December 7, 1979 -
December 12, 1979 -
December 12, 1979 - MPR’s Nancy Fushan interviews Grace Paley, writer and activist, who reads from her short stories and talks about her life, writing, and political involvement.
December 12, 1979 - Terry Lappin, a local playwright who recently appealed a Minnesota State Arts Board denial of a grant to him, and Jim Olsen, member of the Minnesota State Arts Board, talk with MPR’s Mary Stucky. They discuss Lappin's case and the procedure of granting funding to artists and writers.