August 16th, 2017
Next Thursday, the Plains Art Museum will host Fargo author Marcie Rendon of the White Earth Anishinaabe Nation for a public discussion of her novel, “Murder on the Red River,” which was published by Cinco Puntos Press back in April.
Rendon’s protagonist, Cash, is a 19-year-old Native American woman who grew up in foster care and makes a living as a farm laborer and pool shark. As a toddler, she was rescued by Sheriff Wheaton, who pulled her from the car wreck that killed her…
August 10th, 2017
“Prairie Silence: A Memoir.” By Melanie Hoffert. Boston: Beacon Press, 2013. 238 pp. $24.95 cloth
From the outside looking in, North Dakota is an exotic locale, never more than when the topic of LGBT arises. It is a black hole of a state, a place from which no trans or gay could ever emerge.
For those of us who live here, the experience is quite variable. If one lives near a university -- and North Dakota is nothing if not a university state -- one may feel as though the subject is…
August 2nd, 2017
Let’s begin with the first sentence of this novel.
“Two dozen bodies lay in duct tape patched nylon sleeping bags atop cardboard folded for padding against the pebbled, cigarette and bottle-cap littered earth.”
Home sweet home. Imagine every liberal’s fears come true. In this dystopian novel, all aspects of life are privatized, including the “police force.” Citizens are crippled by their credit scores, unemployable and hounded by the credit police and the looming debtor’s…
July 19th, 2017
This evening, local fans of Elisa Korenne’s music will get an opportunity to know her as a writer, while those unfamiliar with either will get a chance to see her perform for the first time.
Just last month, North Star Press released her memoir, “Hundred Miles to Nowhere: An Unlikely Love Story,” which is now a finalist for the Next Generation Indie Book Awards. The memoir chronicles her 2006 move from New York to Minnesota, and the culture shock that resulted. Her experiences in…
June 7th, 2017
Last Thursday, Zandbroz Variety hosted a book launch and reading for Amy Thielen’s memoir “Give a Girl a Knife.” Though originally scheduled for May 25th, the event had to be rescheduled due to illness. Nonetheless, the turnout at Zandbroz was substantial, with pastry goods courtesy of Youngblood Coffee.
“Give a Girl a Knife” chronicles her journey as a chef, from her rural upbringing in Minnesota to the elite culinary world of New York, followed by her move back to Park Rapids…
May 17th, 2017
“When I was a little guy, I don’t know that this was so long ago -- we didn’t have all these formal designations for various learning disabilities and whatnot. I was in special classes for various things but I remember being told very specifically that I could do whatever I wanted -- but there was this weird little caveat at the end of that and that’s what the story is about.” says Peter Schultz, author of the children’s book Peter the Slug.
“All of Peter’s friends tell…
May 17th, 2017
By Francese Manya
I was born in Congo in Lumbumbashi. It was kind of good where I was, but we had conflict between two tribes—Kasais and Hancomas. My grandma left us and went to Namibia, and I stayed with my mother, niece, and brothers.
We were sitting in my grandma’s house talking, joking, and playing outside, just when we saw another tribe; they came and attacked us. They were beating my mom and my father and my brothers. We were all crying. They took a stick and they hit my head and…
May 10th, 2017
Three years ago, Minnesota author and former Food Network chef Amy Thielen held a launch party for her cookbook, ‘The New Midwestern Table: 200 Heartland Recipes,’ at Fargo’s Zandbroz Variety. This book was illustrated by North Dakota artist Amber Fletschock and earned the praise of celebrity chefs Andrew Zimmern and Lidia Bastianich.
Next Thursday, Zandbroz will once again host Thielen for a launch party for her new memoir, Give a Girl a Knife, which chronicles her journey from…
May 3rd, 2017
Back in December, journalist and MSUM alum Danielle Nadler released a nonfiction book entitled “Without a Trace: The Life of the Sierra Phantom,” the result of Nadler’s conversations with John P. Glover, a man who lived off the grid in the Sierra Nevada Mountains for 50 years. At the age of 75, Glover settled in a small town in California, once his advanced age made him more vulnerable to hypothermia and frostbite.
On Saturday, May 13, as part of her book tour, Nadler will be back…
April 19th, 2017
This Monday journalist and author Laurie Hertzel will be at MSUM to promote her memoir News to Me: Adventures of an Accidental Journalist published by the University of Minnesota. This book won the Reader’s Choice Award at the Minnesota Book Awards back in 2011.
There will be an informal meet-and-greet at noon, followed by a reading and book signing at 7:30pm. Both events will take place in Room 205 in the Comstock Memorial Union. In between, she will be a guest on KDSU-FM, 91.9 FM,…
By Josette Ciceronunapologeticallyanxiousme@gmail.com What does it mean to truly live in a community —or should I say, among community? It’s a question I have been wrestling with since I moved to Fargo-Moorhead in February 2022.…