Minnesota Reads

Sometimes I am lazy and copy an author’s bio right from their about page: “John Jodzio is a winner of the Loft-McKnight Fellowship. His stories have appeared in One Story, Opium, The Florida Review and Rake Magazine and a number of other places, both print and online. He's won a Minnesota Magazine fiction prize and [...]

Everybody welcome Casey, our newest MN Reads reviewer! Casey has decided to join our ranks even though I referred to him as Corey in our first email exchange. That shows determination and moxie, and we like that. Casey lives in St. Paul, is an MFA student at Hamline, and, from what I’ve seen, has pretty [...]

We have Christa to thank for sending Will our way, you’ve probably seen his reviews already. We like a reviewer whose eager to get started. And, even though he claims to have enjoyed Things I’ve Learned from the Women Who’ve Dumped Me, we’re happy to have him here reviewing books even if we question his [...]

Tralfamadorians can, of course, see in four dimensions. They view time � all the moments that comprise all of eternity � as we might view the Rocky Mountains: for them time is solid and permanent, and the Tralfamadorians may enter whatever moment might interest them at any time. “It is just an illusion we have [...]

I met Jodie, aka FFJ [Fabulous Friend Jodie], in a short story writing class at The Loft back in 2003. And even though I totally rolled my eyes when she said her favorite author was Shakespeare, we still became friends. After the bookclub we joined fizzled into oblivious we started a sort-of-monthly book podcast called [...]

I have to admit, I have a bit of the fangirl aura about me this week. I’m an avid MPR listener so I’m super pumped to present this week’s interviewee. Anyone who listens to MPR on their drive to work in the mornings is probably familiar with Cathy Wurzer (or at least her voice) the [...]

Yeah, I cannot deny that I’m pretty excited to have Jake Mohan writing for MN Reads. I first discovered Jake’s writing years ago on his personal blog The Dependent Clause. His writing is so good that I cyberstalked him at Reveille and Utne. But now, I won’t have to look too far to find his [...]

Here’s a dirty family secret for you: the women in my family have a thing for weathermen. Dave Dahl, Paul Douglas, Kenny Barlow, even Sven the pocket meteorologist. For a long time I didn’t get it. Then I discovered Dude Weather and the clouds parted and the sun began to shine. Jimmy “Dutch” Gaines is [...]

Max Ross is a local writer whose work has appeared in Reveille and The Rake. He’s also writes short stories, the kind of stories that are so original teachers at The Loft talk about how original they are even when he’s not in the class. You can read Max all the time over at the [...]

The ever-awesome Girl Detective points out F. Scott Fitzgerald’s story “A Night at the Fair” a story about the great Minnesota State Fair. “Tall Tales from the Mekong Delta” by Kate Braverman is one of those stories where you think you know what’s going on and then WHOA something totally different is going on. It’s [...]