MN Reads

Series produced by WDSE

Series image

Author interviews connecting you with the latest books by Minnesota authors.

Find out who's writing in Minnesota on Minnesota Reads. The North 1033 spotlights books by Minnesota authors every week.


402 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
"Wake Up, Island" by Mary Casanova
From: WDSE
Series: MN Reads
Piece image
Mary Casanova on collaboration, breaking the rules, and the power of blueberry pancakes.

  • Added: Jan 28, 2016
  • Length: 08:17
"The Meaning of Wilderness" edited by David Backes
From: WDSE
Series: MN Reads
Piece image
David Backes was a college student on the verge of dropping out until he found the books of Sigurd Olson.

  • Added: Feb 09, 2016
  • Length: 08:45
"Goodbye to the Dead" by Brian Freeman
From: WDSE
Series: MN Reads
Piece image
Author Brian Freeman talks about the challenges of trying to set noir mystery novels in a city that's rapidly becoming known for it's forward think...

  • Added: Feb 12, 2016
  • Length: 08:18
MN Reads: "Portage: A Family, a Canoe, and the Search for the Good Life" by Sue Leaf
From: WDSE
Series: MN Reads
Piece image
MN Reads talks with Sue Leaf, author of Portage: A Family, a Canoe, and the Search for the Good Life, published in 2015 by the University of Minnes...

  • Added: Feb 18, 2016
  • Length: 09:17
"Locally Laid" by Lucie Amundsen
From: WDSE
Series: MN Reads
Piece image
Lucie Amundsen's account of the little-egg-farm-that-could is just like her: funny, vivacious and witty. You can picture her at a dinner table, ...

  • Added: Feb 29, 2016
  • Length: 11:26
"Women of Mayo Clinic: The Founding Generation" by Virginia Wright-Peterson
From: WDSE
Series: MN Reads
Piece image
But what started as research for an in-house Women's History Month game led one Rochester native to a gold mine in the Clinic archives. Even thoug...

  • Added: Mar 11, 2016
  • Length: 09:35
"Down South Justice" by David Cowardin
From: WDSE
Series: MN Reads
Piece image
Duluthians David Cowardin and Joe Olivieri loaded their audio and video equipment into their orange 1984 camper van Lola and headed south to find t...

  • Added: Mar 11, 2016
  • Length: 10:27
"The Memory Jar" by Elissa Janine Hoole
From: WDSE
Series: MN Reads
Piece image
The 8th grade writing club at Duluth Edison Charter School has more than a writing teacher to guide it; it has an author.

Bought by KKWE Niijii Radio


  • Added: Mar 18, 2016
  • Length: 09:08
  • Purchases: 1
"A Good Time for the Truth: Race in Minnesota" edited by Sun Yung Shin
From: WDSE
Series: MN Reads
Piece image
Taiyon Coleman contributed one of the essays in this engrossing, eye-opening view of the state by sixteen non-white writers. Black, Latino, Asian...

  • Added: Apr 08, 2016
  • Length: 15:46
"Warrior Nation" by Anton Treuer
From: WDSE
Series: MN Reads
Piece image
For much of history, its accounts have been written by men - white men - for men. So only one voice was heard and only part of the story was told....

Bought by KKWE Niijii Radio and KOJB 90.1 FM The eagle


  • Added: Apr 08, 2016
  • Length: 12:55
  • Purchases: 2
"A Fireproof Home for the Bride" by Amy Schiebe
From: WDSE
Series: MN Reads
Piece image
"It's in prejudice and hatred that we really discover the humanity in people."

Bought by KKWE Niijii Radio


  • Added: Apr 15, 2016
  • Length: 10:34
  • Purchases: 1
"The Big Marsh" by Cheri Register
From: WDSE
Series: MN Reads
Piece image
Back in 1935, Cheri Register's great-grandfather wrote a scathing article headlined "Connivings of Dishonest Men Cheat Nature as Well As Fellow Bei...

Bought by KKWE Niijii Radio


  • Added: Apr 21, 2016
  • Length: 08:29
  • Purchases: 1
"The King of Skid Row" by James Shiffer
From: WDSE
Series: MN Reads
Piece image
James Shiffer's "The King of Skid Row: John Bachich and the Twilight Years of Old Minneapolis" is a photo-packed expose of a place, a time, and a p...

Bought by KKWE Niijii Radio


  • Added: May 06, 2016
  • Length: 08:19
  • Purchases: 1
"Discover Yourself" by Scott Schwefel
From: WDSE
Series: MN Reads
Piece image
Entrepreneur, speaker and author Scott Schwefel talks about how your voyage of self-discovery ends, not with success or wealth necessarily, but wit...

Bought by KKWE Niijii Radio


  • Added: May 06, 2016
  • Length: 06:54
  • Purchases: 1
"Allie's Adventure on the Wonder" by Erika Adams
From: WDSE
Series: MN Reads
Piece image
If you were a little bewildered trying to follow the action the first time you read Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland ... you're not alone. But ...

Bought by KKWE Niijii Radio


  • Added: May 13, 2016
  • Length: 05:33
  • Purchases: 1
"The Search for the Homestead Treasure" by Ann Treacy
From: WDSE
Series: MN Reads
Piece image
Ann Treacy's new book for "middle grades" sheds light on a perhaps unexpected chapter of Minnesota history: the Romani people in the state around t...

Bought by KKWE Niijii Radio


  • Added: May 20, 2016
  • Length: 06:00
  • Purchases: 1
"ABA Field Guide to Birds of Minnesota" by Laura Erickson (6-2-16)
From: WDSE
Series: MN Reads
Piece image
Just in time for our month-long celebration of 30 years of Laura Erickson's For The Birds -- a long-awaited field guide to the birds she's been tel...

Bought by KKWE Niijii Radio


  • Added: Jun 03, 2016
  • Length: 05:33
  • Purchases: 1
"The Stuntman" by Brian Laidlaw (6-2-16)
From: WDSE
Series: MN Reads
Piece image
For Brian Laidlaw, Bob Dylan wasn't just a role model, he was the role model for the aspiring poet/musician.

Bought by KKWE Niijii Radio


  • Added: Jun 03, 2016
  • Length: 09:06
  • Purchases: 1
"The Ravens" by Vidar Sundstøl (6-9-16)
From: WDSE
Series: MN Reads
Piece image
When Vidar Sundstøl first came to America, he settled with his wife in Lexington, KY. But when her new job took her to Tofte, on Minnesota's Nort...

Bought by KKWE Niijii Radio


  • Added: Jun 10, 2016
  • Length: 10:00
  • Purchases: 1
"The Ramblings of a Revenant" by David Tromblay (6-16-16)
From: WDSE
Series: MN Reads
Piece image
Last week, it was fascinating to discover how well Duluth and the Northland fit into the moody-atmospheric-stark-Scandinavian-crime-fiction genre. ...

Bought by KKWE Niijii Radio


  • Added: Jul 15, 2016
  • Length: 07:42
  • Purchases: 1