Tracker Pixel for Entry

​Madelon Sprengnether at MSUM

Writer's Block | March 29th, 2017

Next Wednesday the poet, memoirist, and literary critic Madelon Sprengnether will be at Minnesota State University Moorhead as part of the Clarence Glasrud Lecture Series. She will give a lecture at 4pm, followed by a reading at 7:30, both at the Livingston Lord Library Porch.

For her work, Sprengnether has received awards from the Loft Literary Center, the Bush Foundation, and The National Endowment for the Arts. Her essays have appeared in many books of literary criticism, including The (M)other Tongue: Essays in Feminist Psychoanalytic Criticism (1985), The Spectral Mother: Freud, Feminism, and Psychoanalysis (1990), and Shakespearean Tragedy and Gender (1996). She currently teaches literature and creative writing at the University of Minnesota.

While her work in literary criticism focuses on psychology and feminism, her creative work often features themes of grief, spirituality, and personal tragedy.

Sprengnether got her writing career started with help from New Rivers Press. Her first book of poetry, The Normal Heart (1981), and her first memoir, Rivers, Stories, Houses, Dreams (1996), were published as part of the Minnesota Writing Project.

These were followed by Angel of Duluth (2006), a poetry collection published by White Pine Press, and two chapbooks: “La Belle et la Bête,” winner of the 1999 Edda Poetry Chapbook Contest, and “Near Solstice,” winner of the West Town Chapbook Poetry Contest in 2008. Famed poet Edward Hirsch has said, “Madelon Sprengnether's short prose poems surprise us with their quick turns and telegraphic insights, their physical bearing… and spiritual poise.”

Sprengnether’s second memoir, Crying at the Movies (2002), delves into the loss of her father when she was nine and how she spent years repressing her grief until movies provided a means of catharsis. In the memoir she admits, “When bad things happened to me in real life, I didn't react… Yet in the dark and relative safety of the movie theater, I would weep over fictional tragedies, over someone else's tragedy.”

Her third memoir, Great River Road (2015), chronicles her spiritual journey in coming to terms with death, divorce, illness, and traumatic memories. Sybil Houlding, a faculty member at Western New England Institute for Psychoanalysis, has described it as “Wise, intimate, profound… Through the lens of her daughter's wedding, her visit to Tintern Abbey, and her long journey to the place where her father died, we are privileged to share in her reflections both spiritual and quotidian.”

Both the lecture and the reading will be free and open to the public.

IF YOU GO

Madelon Sprengnether

Wednesday, April 5, 4pm lecture, 7:30pm reading

Livingston Lord Library Porch, MSUM

Recently in:

By Alicia Underlee Nelsonalicia@hpr1.com Ten North Dakota communities will participate in the nationwide No Kings Day of Peaceful Action on October 18. The grassroots movement is a nonviolent protest against President Trump’s…

By Kooper Shagenakoopershagena@gmail.com One night, Jane Linde Capistran, associate conductor of the Fargo-Moorhead Symphony Orchestra, sat and drank wine with her friends: “Jennifer Tackling, the associate concertmaster, and…

Friday, October 31, 5-9 p.m.Ziti’s Italian American Restaurant, 3150 Sheyenne St., Suite 170, West FargoSavor a delectable five course meal with beverage pairings. (Nonalcoholic beverages are available upon request, but must be…

By Sabrina Hornungsabrina@hpr1.com At the end of September, downtown Fargo said goodbye to another old friend; the Spirit Room closed its doors, marking the end of an era. The Spirit Room room has been a fixture downtown for the…

By Ed Raymondfargogadfly@gmail.comWill we be banging or whimpering at the end of the American empire?T.S. Eliot’s poem “The Hollow Men” accurately portrays the end of most empires in his first lines: “We are the hollow men/…

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 Gion and Nichole Hensenrickgion@gmail.com The wait is finally over. Those who have visited Nichole’s Fine Pastry & Cafe lately know about the recent major additions and renovations that have taken place over the past…

By Sabrina Hornungsabrina@hpr1.com Dakotah Faye is a hip-hop artist from Minot, North Dakota, and he’s had a busy year. He’s released two albums. This summer he opened for Tech N9ne in Sturgis and will be opening for Bone…

By Greg Carlsongregcarlson1@gmail.com Dream-factory documentarian Alexandre O. Philippe connects with a Hollywood legend in “Kim Novak’s Vertigo,” the latest in a series of features exploring the filmmaker’s many…

By HPR staffsubmit@hpr1.com Mark the first weekend of October on your calendar. It’s the weekend of the Studio Crawl, which takes us all on a wonderful, metro-wide tour of our talented (and often wacky) arts community. On October…

Press release“Shakespeare with a sharpened edge.” To launch its 2025 – 2026 season, Theatre NDSU is thrilled to team up with Moorhead-based organization Theatre B to perform a co-production of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and…

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 When we are sick, all we want is a cure. You go to the doctor, they give you a pill, you take it for a bit, then you are cured. It happens. But unfortunately, it is not always the case. …

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@rocketmail.comMoral accountability and the crisis of leadership  As a recovering person living one day at a time for the last 35 years, I have learned not to judge others because I have not walked in…