Writer's Block

​Evansville Arts Coalition celebrates with annual Poetry Night

April 22nd, 2025

By Alicia Underlee Nelson

Evansville Arts Coalition (EAC) will celebrate its birthday with an evening of poetry at Evansville Art Center (111 Main St. in Evansville, Minnesota) on Thursday, April 24 at 7 p.m. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. The event is free and open to all.

The EAC hosted its first Poetry Night in April 1996, shortly after its incorporation as a nonprofit. Except for a pandemic pause in 2020, the event has been held every year since, making it one of longest-running annual…

Read more...


​56th Annual UND Writers Conference: Makers and Machines

February 21st, 2025

In the twenty-first century, the rapid transformation of technology has opened artistry and craftwork to new generations of writers, artists, sculptors, and creators. In the last few decades, the maker movement has modeled this through fairs and makerspaces, which platform working creators, amateurs and hobbyists. YouTube channels and TikTok feeds allow anyone with a smartphone to watch projects unfold. Basements and boardrooms, kitchen tables and community centers — with access to tech…

Read more...


A book review of ‘Dodge County, Inc: Big Ag and the Undoing of Rural America’

February 20th, 2025

By Madeline Luke

mzlnd@yahoo.com

Ferguson Books in downtown Fargo hosted Sonya Trom Eayrs in November for the release of her book about the takeover of rural southern Minnesota by large animal factory farms or CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations). She is a Minneapolis lawyer, but also the farm manager daughter of a third generation farmer, Lowell Trom, who — until he died at the age of 90 — worked his 760-acre legacy farm and fought those who would ruin it saying, “enough is…

Read more...


Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening (a MAGA response)

November 23rd, 2024

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

By Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.

His house is in the village though;

He will not see me stopping here

To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer

To stop without a farmhouse near

Between the woods and frozen lake

The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake

To ask if there is some mistake.

The only other sound’s the sweep

Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and…

Read more...


​New independent bookstores arrive in Fargo-Moorhead

April 18th, 2024

Alicia Underlee Nelson

alicia@hpr1.com

“I think you can tell a lot about a community by the health of its bookstore, because people make a choice,” said Danny Caine, author of “50 Ways to Protect Bookstores” and the co-owner of a bookshop in Kansas. “The people value art, community, they probably value local food and local restaurants. The human booksellers will never be replaced by algorithms or machines.”

If that’s the case, the Fargo-Moorhead community is going strong.…

Read more...


Is There Anybody Out There? ‘The Space Pen Club’ and Beyond

October 2nd, 2023

By Sabrina Hornung

sabrina@hpr1.com

Photo provided by Martin Keller

North Dakota native Martin Keller is no stranger to the pen, in fact, he went from working as a freelance journalist and staff writer and editor, contributing to publications such as City Pages, The Star Tribune, the Mpls-St. Paul Business Journal, Rolling Stone, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Final Frontier, and countless others, to working as a publicist for Dr. Steven Greer, MD, who founded the controversial…

Read more...


​Allowing for Pause and Possibility: Kevin Zepper Discusses His Latest Chapbook

April 23rd, 2023

By Sabrina Hornung

sabrina@hpr1.com

Kevin Zepper is no stranger to the literary scene in North Dakota. An author, poet, MSUM English and humanities professor, photographer, he’s a man of many hats.

He has led memoir workshops with residents at Eventide, he is a 2022-23 visiting Poetry Out Loud poet through the North Dakota Council on the Arts; and be sure to be on the lookout for his photos in the Plains Art Gala this year.

His latest chapbook, “The Shaman Said” is a collection of…

Read more...


​Giving Region a Voice

March 15th, 2023

By Dr. Suzzanne Kelley

https://ndsupress.submittable.com/submit

The Ticket to Our Show Is the Book

In a state vibrant with the arts, North Dakota State University Press is proud to hold up our end when it comes to all things literary. In fact, we operate under the premise that publishing poetry, fiction, and nonfiction is a practice where all the other arts intersect.

We publish books, taking scholarly and literary manuscripts and connecting the public with that art, connecting readers…

Read more...


​The 54th Annual UND Writers Conference: The Healing Arts

March 8th, 2023

There’s been a lot of talk lately about how the body impacts the mind. We hear a lot about getting enough sleep (and “sleep hygiene”) and the “gut biome” and other things. But, we’re told it goes the other way too. Neuroscientists and doctors are learning more all the time about how the mind impacts the body. This is perhaps most prevalent in new fields like epigenetics (“how your behaviors and environment can cause changes that affect the way your genes work”) or…

Read more...


No More Shall We Die: A Slum in South America

February 12th, 2023

By Corey Eno Ruffin

submit@hpr1.com

Hi, I’m Corey. I'm a traveling artist and performer who’s in Colombia for an extended South American walkabout.

I’m at a hostel in Bogota. Not doing much research into location, only knowing that I wanted to be in the historical part because I like history, I ended up in a bit of a crime-plagued area. This district, La Candelaria, is boho enough for my hipster sensibilities, having the adequate coffee, pastries, and tattooed ‘crypsters’ (look…

Read more...


Tracker Pixel for Entry Hjemkomst Tracker Pixel for Entry Aquarium Tracker Pixel for Entry NewSalem2B Tracker Pixel for Entry NewSalem2C Tracker Pixel for Entry NewSalem1 Tracker Pixel for Entry Bismarck1

Recently in:

By Alicia Underlee NelsonMore than 1,000 pro-worker events are planned for Thursday, May 1 across the country, including rallies in Fargo-Moorhead, Grand Forks, Minot and Jamestown. East Grand Forks and Bismarck will host protests…

By Prairie Rose Seminolems.prairierose@gmail.com I was a child who walked behind my parents into classrooms and kitchens, spaces of song and prayer, where teachings lived in the air and settled on my shoulders. I didn’t yet have…

Saturday, May 3, 7 p.m.-MidnightPlains Art Museum, 704 1st Ave. N., FargoDon’t miss the art party of the year! What goes on at the gala? There’s a silent art auction with music by Low Standards and DJ Star IV, hors d’oeuvres…

By Sabrina Hornungsabrina@hpr1.comIt’s no secret that there are folks among us who make our communities a more vibrant place through both their actions and means of creative expression. Heck, you could be one of them yourself.…

By Ed Raymondfargogadfly@gmail.comThere is a big difference between ears and legsOur English language adds words to dictionaries every year because there are more than 6,000 languages on earth and we do communicate with friends and…

By Rick Gionrickgion@gmail.com Holiday wine shopping shouldn’t have to be complicated. But unfortunately it can cause unneeded anxiety due to an overabundance of choices. Don’t fret my friends, we once again have you covered…

By Rick Gionrickgion@gmail.com After a very inspiring conversation with Kayla Houchin of Sonder Bakehouse a few weeks ago, I decided that it’s an appropriate time to write a column about some of the sweet people who are involved…

Mooncats and Pert Near Sandstone play Empire TheatreBy Sabrina Hornungsabrina@hpr1.comThe MoonCats describe themselves as “Americonscious Campfire Folk.” They have a clear acoustic folk sound with a sense of whimsy — think…

By Greg Carlsongregcarlson1@gmail.com Toronto-based filmmaker Alison Duke shines a light on a pioneering Jamaican recording artist and her most famous and durable song in the documentary feature “Bam Bam: The Sister Nancy…

By Raul Gomez Modern Man was a gentle soul. If you were down or just wanted a friend, he’d be there for you. I remember the first day I met Modern Man. It was Jeremiah Fuglseth and me. He wanted to write about this legendary…

By John Showalterjohn.d.showalter@gmail.comHigh Plains Reader had the opportunity to interview two mysterious new game show hosts named Milt and Bradley Barker about an upcoming event they will be putting on at Brewhalla. What…

By Annie Prafckeannieprafcke@gmail.com AUSTIN, Texas – As a Chinese-American, connecting to my culture through food is essential, and no dish brings me back to my mother’s kitchen quite like hotdish. Yes, you heard me right –…

By Sabrina Hornungsabrina@hpr1.comNew Jamestown Brewery Serves up Local FlavorThere’s something delicious brewing out here on the prairie and it just so happens to be the newest brewery west of the Red River and east of the…

By Ellie Liveranieli.liverani.ra@gmail.com I remember when I was young, probably 11 years ago. One morning I was not feeling well because of my period. After I got ready to go to school, I went back to bed and it was hard to get up…

By Alicia Underlee NelsonProtests against President Trump’s policies and the cuts made by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are planned across North Dakota and western Minnesota Friday, April 4 and…

By Vern Thompsonvern.thompson.nd7@gmail.com Our trucking business has me driving almost daily from gas plants in western North Dakota's oil patch to Canada. I haul natural gas liquids (NGLs) products we used to see flared off at…