Literary Events in America’s Most Literate Town
Wilson Peden, Managing Editor
In case you missed the news, a study conducted at Connecticut State University named Minneapolis the most literate city in the United States (okay, technically we tied for 1st with Seattle, but if you look at the findings online, you’ll see that Minneapolis is listed first). St. Paul, our neighbor across the river, comes in at #4, making the Twin Cities one of the most literate—and, arguably, literary—metropolitan areas in the country.
These findings are certainly a point of pride for those of us who call Minneapolis home, but they’re hardly a surprise. The calendar of literary events in the Twin Cities is always full, and March has some particularly choice offerings. For starters, there’s Pulitzer Prize-winner and former U.S. Poet Laureate Louise Gluck, who visits the University of Minnesota on Wednesday, March 4. Gluck is the latest Freier Endowed Lecturer in Literature. Gluck will be speaking and reading about her work at the Coffman Theater, Minneapolis Campus. Event starts at 7:30 pm and is free and open to the public.
If you’re looking for something closer to Uptown, you might check out C.A. Conrad, Aaron Kunin, and Magdalena Zurawski at Magers and Quinn Booksellers. This should be a fun group: Conrad is a sound poet, Zurawski is a Ph.D. candidate at Duke, and Kunin author of “a collection of small poems about shame.” The reading takes place Sunday, March 8 at Magers and Quinn, 8pm. For more information about all these writers, check out Zurawski’s blog. Event is free and open to the public.
And if you lean more towards interactive events, check out this bookmaking workshop at Open Book on March 14. Visiting artists Peter and Donna Thomas will teach you how to make books out of found objects, including ukuleles, apparently. Anyway, ukuleles are involved in some manner, as well as cameras and accordions. The workshop requires prior registration. There’s a hefty materials fee for this workshop, but honestly, who wouldn’t fork out some cash to learn how to turn a ukulele into a book?