Swati Avasthi is the co-curator (along with Heather Bouwman) of The Second Story Reading Series. This bi-monthly series features young adult and middle grade authors, pairing an emerging author with an established one. Swati is also the author of the just-released Split a young adult novel about a sixteen-year-old boy running from his abusive father. [...]

Interview, MN Authors Emily Bronte, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Graham Greene, Harper Lee, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Lynne Jonell, S.E. Hinton, Swati Avasthi, Toni Morrison

I’m only 50 or so pages into Remedies by Kate Ledger so I can’t talk about how awesome the book is (yet). However, it does come with high praise from Dale, my writing teacher, which is a pretty strong endorsement. The last book he recommended to me was so good it made me cry and [...]

Interview, MN Authors Alice Munro, E.B. White, Emily Bronte, Jane Austen, Kate Ledger, Tom Perrota, Toni Morrison, Voltaire

This week we are celebrating Milkweed Editions’ publication of Fiction on a Stick, an anthology of stories by Minnesota writers, by featuring some of the contributors. Today we’ve got Kaethe Schwehn, who earned a B.A. from Gustavus Adolphus College and an M.F.A. from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Her work has appeared in jubilat, Flim [...]

Interview, MN Authors Fiction on a Stick, James Joyce, Kaethe Schwehn, Maurice Sendak, Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, Toni Morrison, William Shakespeare

Girl Detective reviews Will by Christopher Rush a novel about William Shakespeare (or as I call him in my head Willy Shakes) on his deathbed dictating his will to his lawyer.
Over at Cracking Spines, Max Ross interviews Dave Gibbons who collaborated with Alan Moore on Watchmen.
How to Edit by James R. Norton, esq. [...]

Book News Jay Parini, Neil Gaiman, Stephen King, Toni Morrison, William Shakespeare

I know, I know, it’s interview Tuesday and you’re stuck with book links. What a rip off. But thing might be a bit hinky here on MN Reads for the next week or so. I started a new job and I need to figure out a new routine.
P.S. Don’t forget Amy Bloom is [...]

Book News David Gilmour, John Updike, Jonathan Lethem, Neil Gaiman, Robert Hahn, Roberto Bolano, Toni Morrison

Holy cannoli! The Guardian has new short story by Lorrie Moore called “Foes” that you can read right online. [via]
MNSpeak’s bookclub has chosen Charles Schulz books for their December discussion. Personally, I recommend David Michaelis’ biography Schulz and Peanuts (which is out in paperback now). It spends a lot of time on Schulz’s life here [...]

Book News Andrew Davidson, Dave Eggers, Jim Harrison, Lorrie Moore, Toni Morrison

The other day Mighty Girl, Maggie Mason wrote about the eight books that changed her. Since I read the post I’ve been thinking about what books have changed me, the ones that shook my foundation or rocked my world.
It’s a tough question and I’ve been pondering it for a few days. My go to [...]

Book News Chip Kidd, John Irving, Judy Blume, Maggie Mason, Toni Morrison