Writer's Block

Jacqueline Bussie refuses to let go of love

January 9th, 2019

Next Tuesday, award-winning author, public speaker, and Concordia professor Jacqueline Bussie will be at the Fargo Public Library for a reading and signing of her latest book, “Love Without Limits: Jesus’ Radical Vision for Love With No Exceptions.” This event will be free and open to the public, with copies available for purchase.

“Love Without Limits”—which is part memoir and part theological guide—was written during the contentious 2016 presidential election. In an interview…

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Visiting Bob Anthology Launch

December 5th, 2018

Bob Dylan- by Chris Hakkens

by Nataly Routledge
natalyroutledge@googlemail.com

FARGO—Editors Thom Tammaro and Alan Davis are launching their anthology Visiting Bob: Poems Inspired by the Life and Work by Bob Dylan on December 9th at 2pm. The event will be held at Zandbroz Variety and will incorporate words from the editors, readings from various poets, and live music. Visiting Bob is a collection of 100 poems written by 100 poets based upon the life of artist Bob Dylan.

The anthology, published through New Rivers…

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Tough and humble

November 28th, 2018


Jeff Kolpack - photograph by Alexandra Floersch

When Monday Night Football host Jon Gruden called Carson Wentz “North Dakota Tough” during one fateful Monday night game, it struck a chord within writer Jeff Kolpack.

Though he didn’t come up with the idea for his latest book “North Dakota Tough” that night and he can’t really say exactly when the idea hit, once the idea struck it struck hard.

He said, “At one point I’m just going, you know, he’s onto something here because there are a lot of people here who grew up…

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Best books for giving

November 14th, 2018

Charles Beck - The Nature of an Artist

by Greg Danz
greg@zandbroz.com

Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year for a lot of reasons. One of our favorite reasons is you have more excuses to buy cool books. If you choose carefully, giving a book is the gift that keeps on giving, it will be enjoyed long after the holidays are gone (can you say February). Coincidentally, this is the time of year when publishers present some of their finest works. Here are some of our favorite books for sharing this holiday season.


“The…

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Closing this year’s Community Read

October 31st, 2018


by Nataly Routledge

MOORHEAD-- “I thought I’d read 30 pages of the book in a monotone,” said Penny Duffy in the introduction to the question and answer session for her novel on Thursday. The audience lit up with laughter. Held at the Knutson Center of Concordia college, the event was held as part of this year’s 1 Book, 1 Community read for the Fargo, West-Fargo, and Moorhead communities.

The yearly community read for our region is hosted by the local libraries. This was the 7th…

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Fiction and folklore along the Red River

October 17th, 2018

“My dad would say something when we’d see the river really low. I was raised in Colorado along the South Platte. In German he’d say, ‘The river he is so dry -- he is crying for rain. He is rain poor.’ ‘He’ it wasn’t an ‘it’ and the earth was not an ‘it,’ the earth was ‘die erde’ which is feminine because it was full of life.” said retired NDSU professor and author Dr. Timothy Kloberdanz.

“I’ve always been fascinated by rivers. It’s going to sound like…

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Wild and Rare: Adam Regn Arvidson presents reading

October 3rd, 2018

This Monday, Zandbroz Variety will be hosting Adam Regn Arvidson in a reading of his book of essays, Wild and Rare: Tracking Endangered Species in the Upper Midwest, published by the Minnesota Historical Society Press. This event will be free and open to the public, with copies available for purchase.

Arvidson, a nonfiction writer and landscape architect living in Minneapolis, is also the author of Greening the Landscape: Strategies for Environmentally Sound Practice, published by W.W.…

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​A lasting legacy

September 5th, 2018

Annie KrapuMadeline Luke and Gary Krapu of Valley City and the High Plains Reader are pleased to announce the creation of the Anne Krapu-HPR Journalism Scholarship Foundation. Annually, the Foundation will award financial and mentoring support to one or two young writers who are interested in becoming journalists.

High Plains Reader was founded 24 years ago as a weekly Fargo-Moorhead area newsweekly paper owned by John Strand and Raul Gomez. HPR is an independent voice reporting on the arts,…

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​Harlan Ellison: a big fish in an ever-expanding pond

August 22nd, 2018

Harlan Ellison

by Randy Christianson
randybchrstnsn@hotmail.com

Harlan Ellison always liked rolling a grenade or two into the room before entering. If this were Readers' Digest, I might call him The Most Unforgettable Boy I Ever Met. 'Boy' because, as I saw for myself, he let his inner child come out to play quite frequently. In over six decades of creating--one to put himself on the map and five to maintain his status as a big fish in an ever-expanding pond--he never shed his rep as an enfant…

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​‘Murder on the Red River’

July 25th, 2018

Cover of Last year, regional author Marcie Rendon of the White Earth Anishinaabe Nation hosted a public discussion of her novel, “Murder on the Red River,” at the Plains Art Museum. Wednesday, August 1st, Rendon will be at the Fargo Public Library for a reading, author talk, and book signing. This event will be free and open to the public, with books available for purchase.

“Murder on the Red River” tells the story of a shrewd and resilient Native American woman and former foster child…

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