Books
MN VOICES | From Korea to Minnesota and back: Kelly Fern shares her remarkable double-adoption story
The more you learn about Kelly Fern, the more you want to know. Not only does she tell a moving personal story of being adopted from Korea at age five, she reveals that on the flight to America, her identity was accidentally switched with that of another young adoptee—a circumstance that ultimately resulted in her family adopting three Korean girls, not just the two sisters they'd expected. Further, Fern herself had a child who she gave up for adoption. In the space of less than a year, Fern recently reconnected with both her biological family in Korea and her biological daughter in Minnesota. By this point, you may be thinking Fern should write a book—and, in fact, she has.MORE »
Off to AWP: Tips from The Loft for managing the madness
It’s February. Do you know what that means? The Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) conference is right around the corner! That’s right, four whole days and nights of passing out your business card to people you hope won’t be offended if you consider them your peers, and Googling images of your favorite writers to make sure that yes, that’s them at that booth over there!MORE »
TUESDAY PICK | This Valentine's Day, try Erotica Slam
Poetry SlamMN's Erotica Slam is in its 17th year of unholy matrimony, and this year comes with a bonus night on Valentine's Day at Kieran's. The featured poet of the evening is Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz, but audience members are encouraged to bring their own three-minute poem to compete as well. The night is promised to be filled with "poetry that will make you squirm, squish, and simmer" in case you weren't already hot and bothered enough already.MORE »
MONDAY PICK | What is Black Art Jeopardy! registration deadline?
Answer: The mandatory to-do before competing in historical trivia pertaining to artists and cultural icons recognized in the second month of the year. Black History Month meets the sport of trivia in Black Art Jeopardy! at the Hosmer Public Library. The categories are a potpourri of Black Poets, African American Novels, Black Playwrights, Black Muralists, Black Women Visual Artists, and Black Photographers. The registration deadline is Wednesday, Feb. 15 and the event is Thursday, Feb. 23. Now that you have the topics, it's time to hit the Google searches.MORE »
Building community, one little library at a time
Two new libraries have quietly opened in the Como Park and St. Anthony Park neighborhoods since November. They are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and you don’t need a library card to check out a book.MORE »
TUESDAY PICK | Curl up with Tate Hallaway's Vampire Princess of St. Paul
"Considering that I, Anastasija Ramses Parker, am the vampire princess of St. Paul, you'd think a title like that would come with some supercute servant boys waving fans over my body and feeding me ice-cold bonbons." No such luck for Ana, who's gone through three books' worth of drama courtesy of Tate Hallaway, author of the "Vampire Princess Novels." The books read like they were written by someone who grew up on Sweet Valley High, learned the lessons of Harry Potter, and landed a contract with a publisher who's hoping for the next Twilight—in other words, they're pretty pedestrian. But the local interest alone (Hallaway lives in the Capital City) makes the books worth considering for someone looking to celebrate this unseasonally balmy weather with a quick beach read. Almost Everything, the third book in the series, hits shelves February 7.
Sierra DeMulder, Riot Act Reading Series, and the Bad Cartoonist Night: An action-packed week in Minneapolis
I’ve been to three events in the past two days, and while they’ve left me a little short on cash for the rest of the week, they’ve given me a lot to think about. Sunday night met me with Sierra DeMulder’s book launch at Honey, followed by the Riot Act Reading Series at Nick and Eddie, and Monday night riled me up with some doodling and comic trivia at the Bad Waitress. Each room—packed with fans, freaks, and friends—had such different vibes and contained such different worlds that it’s hard to believe that I didn’t travel any further than three miles among them.MORE »
Poet to Poet: Sharon Chmielarz
Often, as poets, when we do interviews we approach them in a journalistic fashion, even as Ezra Pound reminds us, "poetry is news that stays news." Over the next few months, I wanted to see what would happen if Minnesota poets were interviewed as poet to poet, through the forms we work in the most.MORE »
SUNDAY PICK | Sierra DeMulder's "New Shoes on a Dead Horse" book release party at Honey
Acclaimed slam poet Sierra DeMulder's got a new book of poems: New Shoes on a Dead Horse (Write Bloody Publishing, 2012).MORE »
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