Writer's Block

​Tea Time Book Club to discuss “Station Eleven”

August 26th, 2015

On Monday, Aug. 31, Fargo’s local Tea Time Book Club will be meeting to discuss “Station Eleven” by Emily St. John Mandel. The discussion will take place at the Dr. James Carlson Library on 32nd Avenue S, with tea and desserts provided. No registration is necessary.

“Station Eleven” tells the story of Kirsten Raymonde, a theater-goer who witnesses a famed actor dying of a heart attack during his performance in “King Lear.” Soon after, a flu pandemic wipes out most of North…

Read more...


​Q&A with Juliann Rich

August 5th, 2015

Minneapolis-based author signing books at FM Pride

Juliann Rich is an award-winning Minneapolis-based author. She currently has three novels under her belt: “Caught in the Crossfire,” “Searching for Grace” and “Taking the Stand.” They are a trilogy that chronicles the love of two young boys at Bible camp.

Rich will conduct a meet and greet through the Affirmative Faith Community at this year’s FM Pride in the Park.

HPR: Can you please tell us about the affirmative faith…

Read more...


​‘Beneath the Bonfire’ review

July 9th, 2015

If winter is the season for hibernating and tackling hefty 19th-century Russian novels, then perhaps the short story is the perfect medium for reading during an active summer. And now that we’re on the other side of the Fourth of July mayhem, it’s the perfect time to give the psyche some much-needed rest and relaxation, and switch out the bottle rockets for a good set of short stories.

Nickolas Butler, whose novel “Shotgun Lovesongs” was a standout debut of 2014, has released a…

Read more...


​Let us now praise independent booksellers

April 29th, 2015

Melanie Hoffert

Zandbroz celebrates Independent Bookstore Day

A world in which independent bookstores can still thrive is certainly a good one. Independent bookstores enrich their communities in many ways, partly by connecting people with local authors and fostering a unique sense of place.

This year, these unique shops get a special day in their honor.

Saturday, May 2 marks the first national Independent Bookstore Day, sponsored by the American Booksellers Association and Penguin Random House. More than…

Read more...


​Tales of war and home

April 1st, 2015

In Phil Klay’s short story “War Stories,” a former Marine muses “I’m tired of telling war stories.”

Although said in a numbly serious manner, the statement remains somewhat humorous in light of the fact that it is the very first line of “War Stories,” which also happens to be part of a short story collection comprised solely of – that’s right – war stories.

Klay, a veteran of the Marines who served in Iraq, doesn’t seem to be through with war stories just yet.…

Read more...


The Other Half: The UND Writers Conference brings women to the forefront

March 18th, 2015

The 46th Annual UND Writers Conference, “The Other Half,” will take place March 25-27, 2015 at the Memorial Union on UND’s campus in Grand Forks. The conference will feature only women authors and artists for the first time since 1973, when Gwendolyn Brooks and Mary McCarthy, among others, shared the stage. The conference will feature readings, panel discussions, book signings, workshops and film screenings. All events are free and open to the public. Free parking is available.…

Read more...


​Q&A with Bonnie Jo Campbell

March 18th, 2015

Q&A with Bonnie Jo Campbell

By Sara Dupree

Bonnie Jo Campbell is one of the featured writers at the 2015 University of North Dakota Writers Conference. She is the author of the national bestselling novel “Once Upon a River” and the short fiction collection “American Salvage,” a finalist for the National Book Award. She has been awarded a Pushcart Prize and a Guggenheim Fellowship.

HPR: Animals figure prominently in your writing. Are there particular moments of interacting with…

Read more...


​Full of Faith: Adam Copeland on “Wrestling with Faith and College”

January 28th, 2015

It was two weeks ago today that Adam Copeland, Concordia professor and director of theological inquiry, held a reading at Zandbroz Variety for his book “Kissing in the Chapel, Praying in the Frat House: Wrestling with Faith and College.” This event included free food, coffee and wine, along with copies available for sale.

Copeland’s book, published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers back in December, is a collection of essays written by students in their 20snationwide. For his…

Read more...


​“Lines & Notes” event coming up at the HoDo

November 28th, 2014

Kevin Zepper / Photo by J Earl Miller

Music and performance poetry will come together next Wednesday at Stoker’s in the Basement (The Hotel Donaldson), where poet Kevin Zepper and pianist Terrie Manno will put on a show entitled “Lines & Notes.” This collaborative exhibition will be free and open to the public.

This isn’t the first time these two local artists have collaborated. Zepper’s Reverbnation webpage features audio and video clips of his poetry readings, including one for National Poetry Month last April.…

Read more...


​Boose and The Red Bishop

November 25th, 2014

In the early 2000s, High Plains Reader published an article by writer Greg Boose titled “Three Older Women Stand in Line to Yell at the Author James Frey when Malcolm-Jamal Warner Stops By with a Two-Liter of Cherry Coke Under his Arm.”

Years down the road, Boose published the piece on his website and the one-and-only No. 1 bestselling author of “A Million Little Pieces,” James Frey, contacted Boose to say he enjoyed the piece.

Today, this Minnesota State University Moorhead grad…

Read more...


Tracker Pixel for Entry StudioCrawl Tracker Pixel for Entry Seven Tracker Pixel for Entry EmpireAUG2021 Tracker Pixel for Entry Final3 Tracker Pixel for Entry Halloween Tracker Pixel for Entry Bismarck1

Recently in:

By Winona LaDukewinona@winonaladuke.com The business of Indian Hating is a lucrative one. It’s historically been designed to dehumanize Native people so that it’s easier to take their land. ‘Kill the Indian, save the man,”…

By Michael M. Millermichael.miller@ndsu.eduI was pleased to visit with many colleagues and at the Germans from Russia Heritage Society Convention in Mandan in July, and at the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia…

October 4-20, Friday and Saturday, 7:30 p.m., Sundays at 2 p.m.Theatre B, 210 10th St. N in MoorheadThis funny, earnest and hopeful play is a breath of fresh air heading into election season. Playwright Heidi Schreck paid for her…

Happy 30th Birthday HPRBy John Strandjas@hpr1.comThirty years ago some gutsy UND student journalists hanging at Whitey’s in East Grand Forks got enough liquid courage to create their own damn newspaper. Then with drinks raised,…

By Ed Raymondfargogadfly@gmail.comWhere will the homeless go when billionaires go to their bunkers?Icelanders are living almost on top of volcanos but are cooled by ice, snow, and placid attitudes while hiding a keen sense of…

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 In this land of hotdish and ham, the knoephla soup of German-Russian heritage seems to reign supreme. In my opinion though, the French have the superior soup. With a cheesy top layer, toasted baguette…

By John Showalterjohn.d.showalter@gmail.com Like any metropolitan area, Fargo-Moorhead has a plethora of radio stations representing a variety of musical genres and other content. And like any other playing field in the world of…

By Greg Carlsongregcarlson1@gmail.com Writer-director Nicole Riegel’s sophomore feature “Dandelion” is now playing in theaters following a world premiere at South by Southwest in March. The movie stars KiKi Layne as the…

By HPR Contributorssubmit@hpr1.com They are the inventive, passionate, adaptable, resourceful, sometimes over-enthusiastic, wack-tacular people who create art in our community, and they’re opening their studio doors to you for…

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 John Showalter  john.d.showalter@gmail.comThey sell fentanyl test strips and kits to harm-reduction organizations and…

JANUARY 19, 1967– MARCH 8, 2023 Brittney Leigh Goodman, 56, of Fargo, N.D., passed away unexpectedly at her home on March 8, 2023. Brittney was born January 19, 1967, to Ruth Wilson Pollock and Donald Ray Goodman, in Hardinsburg,…

By Jim Fugliejimfuglie920@gmail.com“The first thing we do is, let’s kill all the lawyers.”You might recall that memorable line, uttered by Dick the Butcher, from perhaps the least memorable of Shakespeare’s plays, “Henry…