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Welcome to Minnesota: A Conversation about Immigration and Human Rights

May

25

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Courtney Algeo

About me

Courtney Algeo is a freelance writer living in Minneapolis. You can follow her on Twitter @icecrmsocialite, and see more of her work over at Paper Darts, where she is managing editor.

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Local comic finds at SpringCon

By Courtney Algeo, Lit Lyfe

This past weekend I had the distinct pleasure of tabling at SpringCon for The Loft Literary Center (where I work as marketing coordinator). SpringCon is one of two annual comic book expos that the Midwest Comic Book Association (the other MCBA) plans and holds at the State Fairgrounds in St. Paul. Each year, more than a thousand comics fans flock to the State Fairgrounds to meet artists, look for rare issues, and sell their own art. This coming FallCon—the other yearly comic celebration (a.k.a. the One Day Wonder)—will mark the 25th anniversary of these events. Full of regional comic book dealers, artists, organizations, novelties, guest creator panels, and props, SpringCon is two full days of book hunting and people watching.MORE »

Talking with poet and naturalist John Caddy, winner of the 2012 McKnight Distinguished Artist Award

By Courtney Algeo, Lit Lyfe

One thing about Minnesota that’s so amazing is that, without much effort or thought, one’s time can be split evenly between a creative urban environment and a wondrous wilderness. It’s also the kind of place where someone like me, who hasn’t even been camping since I was a teenager, has the opportunity to talk to one of the most talented and passionate contemporary nature writers.MORE »

Luke Marcott's "Filmpocalypse," a.k.a. "Filmzilla: The Novella"

By Courtney Algeo, Lit Lyfe

I recently received a lovely thing in the mail—the first book from Cloud City Press. As the editorial director of Paper Darts I get to read a whole lot of work from young, up-and-coming writers. Generally, though pleasurable, this type of reading is not for pleasure; I’m reading it to decide whether or not it should be published with Paper Darts. It was nice, for a change, to sit back and read the early work of a writer just for kicks, and not have to make any decisions about it’s merit in terms of whether or not I believe it to be “ready” for publication, because the author made that decision already and published it himself. Boom.MORE »

Dave Enyeart of Common Good Books: "The experience of reading is always enriched by being shared"

By Courtney Algeo, Lit Lyfe

To celebrate the reopening of Common Good Books at its new location right on the doorstep of Macalester College, Dave Enyeart and crew have planned a three-day-long series of events to kick off the many successful, page-turning, book-loving, reading aloud to a captivated audience years ahead.MORE »

2012 Minnesota Book Awards: Local literary luminaries lionized

By Courtney Algeo, Lit Lyfe

On April 14, Meghan Murphy (editor-in-chief of Paper Darts) and I were delighted to attend the 24th annual Minnesota Book Awards, at the Crowne Plaza St. Paul Riverfront Hotel. The event is presented each year through a partnership between the Friends of the St. Paul Public Library, the St. Paul Public Library itself, and the city of St. Paul. The gala celebration this year comprised three parts: a reception where guests were invited to mingle, order drinks from the cash bar, and buy books for the finalists autograph; the awards ceremony itself; and a post-gala party. Of all three, the post-gala party was by far my favorite in terms of socializing and people-watching—by the time we left some teens and parents were grooving heartily to music by the Endband (a trio with members from Cloud Cult and Seymore Saves the World), who were really bringing the noise in the best way possible.MORE »

Cloud City Press: You don't need a deal with the Empire to become a literary publisher

By Courtney Algeo, Lit Lyfe

In the world of literature, there is inevitably always something new happening. The newest new in Minneapolis is a project called Cloud City Press, co-founded by Macalester students Oliver St. John and Luke Marcott, and run with the help of a small (mostly Macalester) staff along with three faculty advisors. Though Cloud City only came into being about five weeks ago, its first chapbook will launch into this word-friendly world of ours on Friday, April 13 at the new Common Good Books, which is now located adjacent to Macalester’s campus.MORE »

Twin Cities present and future: Arab-American literature and a "Cifiscape"

By Courtney Algeo, Lit Lyfe

Truth be told, not all literary events are great. (Don’t tell anyone I said that, okay?) The Twin Cities are awash in more literary events than types of hotdish. And like those neighbor-brought delicacies, not all of them go down smooth. It is for this reason that I feel extremely lucky to have attended not one, but two excellent shindigs this past weekend, and I was able to show off to an out-of-town friend how awesome our fair city is. Saturday night was an amazing night for neighbor-cooked literary casseroles.MORE »

MOVIE REVIEW | "Wrath of the Titans": A sequel of meh-pic proportions

By Courtney Algeo, TC Daily Planet

I’ve heard that judging a movie by its trailer is just as bad as judging a book by its cover, which is fine. Never in my life have I been upset with a cover for making a book look cool, and not once have I ever, under the good-cover-bad-book circumstance, thought to myself “That was a terrible book, but damn if that cover wasn’t fantastic.” In terms of great trailers, Wrath of the Titans is up there with the greats: Pineapple Express, Cloverfield, Terminator Salvation, and The Strangers. And like most of those movies, it fails to live up to the expectation it set for itself.MORE »

Mizna: Minneapolis organization shares Arab literature with the world

By Courtney Algeo, Lit Lyfe

Since October, when I first heard about Mizna, an organization that, among other cultural and artistic endeavors, publishes the country’s only Arab-American literature journal, I have not been able to get it out of my mind. Coming from Philadelphia, I can definitely acknowledge a certain stereotypical view of the Midwest as being an excessively homogenous place greatly lacking in diversity. Having lived here now for three years, I can return to Philly proudly with the news that the coasts don’t really know what they’re talking about, at least when it comes to the Twin Cities—the fertile, amazing land of the nonprofit.MORE »

Cartoonist Zak Sally: From the band Low to "Sammy the Mouse"

By Courtney Algeo, Lit Lyfe

I remember working at a tiny, slummy little record store in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania located across the street from the Kunzler hot dog factory, listening to Low’s The Curtain Hits the Cast, never once, not even for a second, thinking I’d ever meet anyone in that band. And now here’s an interview I conducted with former Low bassist, current comic book author, illustrator, publisher—and now friend to my little family, Zak Sally. (Sally was my husband’s mentor while my husband was getting his MFA from MCAD.) The world moves us in strange ways.MORE »