Garrison Keillor, Common Good Books, and the University of Minnesota
I live in Saint Paul, in a building that's on the National Historical Register. The upper four floors are condominiums, the ground floor and basement are commercial space. The big news is that we now have a bookstore in the basement. Not just any bookstore, but one owned by Garrison Keillor. With his usual verbal cleverness, he's named the bookstore "Common Good Books". Good books serving the common good.
That's one connection to the public engagement theme of this blog. The other is that there is a real partnership between the public Keillor and the University of Minnesota. He was an undergraduate here in the 1960s, and edited the student literary paper, then called the Ivory Tower. (He recruited Patricia Hampl to its staff.) In recent years, Keillor has been an important spokesman for the University and for the importance of public higher education. What's not so well known is that Keillor has taught—for free—a creative writing course, "Composition of Comedy" in 2001 and again in 2005 and 2006. The links at the end of this blog point to Minnesota Daily articles about this effort. It's clear from these stories that the benefits are mutual, which is always the desired outcome of a public engagement partnership.
http://www.mndaily.com/articles/2005/11/23/66299
http://www.mndaily.com/articles/2006/01/24/66676