Literature
Duluth in the novel ‘The Horn’
John Clellon Holmes’ 1953 beat jazz novel The Horn contains a couple references to Duluth. In the 1988 edition by Thunder’s Mouth Press, the first mention occurs on page 131. I cite it below with a couple paragraphs for context, which make it clear “Duluth” is used synonymously with “some out-of-the-way city on the road.” (more…)
Writing Communities: The Writing Group at Sara’s Table
Calyx Books was a significant creative force in shaping poetic life in Duluth. These two pages, from a Calyx Press book discussed in the Duluth Budgeteer, are a kind of evidence of that impact, creating and manifesting literary community. (more…)
Minnesota Authors: Reading Like a Writer (Margaret D. Kennedy and Winnifred Elliott)
This Fall, I’m teaching Minnesota Authors: Reading Like a Writer (a subtitle I stole from my colleagues at the University of Wisconsin-Superior). The goal of the class is to read like a writer, which is to say to be less interested in “what a text means” (that’s reading like a reader), but instead “how a text works” (that’s reading like a writer).
We also look at the mechanics of writing and publishing. The works of Michael Fedo are a gift in this. He has written extensively about being a writer. (more…)
Reconstructing the Poetry History of the Arrowhead: Meda Casler and Edith Addison Thomas
I am reconstructing the Poetry History of the Arrowhead as I prepare to teach my Minnesota Writers class. Today, I want to ask you whether you know anything about Meda Casler or Edith Addison Thomas. (more…)
What Does William S. Burroughs Owe Djuna Barnes?
A lot of William S. Burroughs kind of sounds like Djuna Barnes. The prime example: Barnes created the character Doctor Matthew O’Connor in her 1936 novel Nightwood, and Dr. O’Connor could easily be confused with the 1938 Burroughs character, Dr. Benway (no first name). Each fictional physician is a comically amoral addict abortionist. I think it’s likely Burroughs created Dr. Benway within a year of reading Nightwood. Burroughs owes Barnes a debt of inspiration, and not just in the creation of Benway — many of his other characters could also be walk-ons in Nightwood, fitting in well among Barnes’ cast of liars, pretenders, and cheats. So it’s safe to say Barnes influenced the characters Burroughs created. I will also show her influence on his voice, style, and themes.
Since the 1980s, a Burroughs blurb appears on the back of every Nightwood edition, saying in its entirety, “I read Nightwood back in the 1930s and was very taken with it. I consider it one of the great books of the twentieth century.” That’s all he ever said about it; it says it all. It is commonly acknowledged that he admired her work, but I think Barnes had a larger influence. I think Burroughs took what he learned from Nightwood and then, in 1959, he wrote the actual number-one greatest book of the twentieth century, Naked Lunch. Barnes’ influence is found there, and throughout Burroughs’ work. (more…)
Literary History of Duluth: Helen Jenswold Dahle
Google tells me John “Jack” Dahle was “born in Duluth, Minnesota, to Minnesota State Senator Clarence Arthur and Helen Jenswold Dahle.” But I have no idea who Helen Jenswold Dahle is. Does anyone else have any ideas? As I build a literary history of Duluth, I am missing information about this author. (more…)
Duluth Literary History
As I prep to teach a Minnesota Writers class again this fall, I am working through little resources and breadcrumb trails.
William A. Sommers has been subject to my writing here before. Here is his page from Minnesota Landscapes. I wonder if anyone has a story to tell? (more…)
Looking for Minnesota Authors: Dorothy Bladin Hill and Ruth Slonim
Minnesota Landscapes, the book published by the League of Minnesota Poets, has a number of Duluth authors I don’t know and want to know more about.
Dorothy Bladin Hill has a vertical file record at the Duluth Public Library — I gotta check that out. Bladin Hill was also an author of the Big Book of Christmas Entertainments. What other stories might anyone share that might ignite my students’ passion? (more…)
‘Minnesota Skyline’ and the history of local literature
The League of Minnesota Poets once published an anthology that was loaded with Twin Ports poets and topics. Minnesota Skyline was printed in twelve editions, 20,000 copies.
I’m curious about the authors within, including Luella Bender Carr. (more…)
Duluth authors Meg Hafdahl and Kelly Florence return to UMD to share insights with students
University of Minnesota Duluth alumni Meg Hafdahl and Kelly Florence spoke to students in the Writing Studies major in April. Hafdahl and Florence offered tips, tricks and profound insights into the publishing process. (more…)
Welcome to the Thirteenth Floor
Local and worldwide authors attended the celebration of the Nemadji Review. The 13th issue is titled “The 13th Floor.”
Tina Higgins Wussow, one of many local luminaries, read during the event. (more…)
Northeastern Minnesota Book Award Winners for 2023
An old fire tower in the north woods, a busy Duluth harbor on the day tall ships arrive, and an 1894 murder on Minnesota Point are just some of the settings for books honored in this year’s Northeastern Minnesota Book Awards. (more…)
Literary History: Duluth Manuscript Club
As I’m exhuming? excavating? exploring? the literary history of Duluth (largely by scooping up books from thrift stores and picking up connections with people wherever I can find them) I find the weirdest things, like books published by the Duluth Manuscript Club. (more…)
List of Duluth Authors from Duluth Public Library Vertical File
It used to be, a library committed to local information had to keep it in a “clippings file” or “vertical file.” The local history room at the Duluth Public Library still has one and has a master entry on clippings about authors from/in Duluth. (more…)
Ladies’ Literature Class of Duluth
The Duluth Ladies’ Literature Class leaves few electronic traces outside the local collection at the Duluth Public Library. (more…)
Lester Park Literary Club
In visiting the new local history librarian at the Duluth Public Library, I am uncovering even more gems about the history of writing and literature in Duluth.
One of those gems is the Lester Park Literary Club. (more…)
A novel set in a fictionalized Duluth/Superior
A colleague sent me a link to the novel False Negative by David B. Rusterholz, which is set in a fictional university in Superior/Duluth. The author lives in River Falls, a semi-rural, semi-suburb-of-the-Twin Cities community.
Has anyone read it?
Northeastern Minnesota Book Award Winners for 2022
Ojibwe homesteads, shipwrecks and working class haunts provide just some of the backdrops for works honored by this year’s Northeastern Minnesota Book Awards. (more…)
Northeastern Minnesota Book Awards announce nominees
For the past three decades, the Northeastern Minnesota Book Awards have recognized books that substantially represent the history, culture, heritage and lifestyle of northeastern Minnesota. In 2021, longtime award coordinators at the Kathryn A. Martin Library at the University of Minnesota Duluth announced that due to staffing changes, the university library would no longer organize the awards. In early 2022, Twin Ports-based nonprofit, the Lake Superior Writers, announced that it would be the new NEMBA coordinators. (more…)
Duluth Book Releases in 2022
Zero Waste Kids: Hands-On Projects and Activities to Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle
Written by Rob Greenfield
Illustrated by Alissa Imre Geis
Contributions from April Hepokoski, Zion Lights, Heidi Rose, Alyssa Binns Gunderson and Michelle Cassar
February
Quarry Books
Available at quartoknows.com
The Girl in Duluth
Sigrid Brown
Feb. 2
Available at amazon.com
Be the Change: Rob Greenfield’s Call to Kids―Making a Difference in a Messed-Up World
Rob Greenfield and Antonia Banyard
April 20
Greystone Books
Available at greystonebooks.com
Kekekabic
Eric Chandler
May 20
Finishing Line Press
Available at finishinglinepress.com
Lake Superior Writers taking over NEMBA
The Northeastern Minnesota Book Awards have a new organizing body, Lake Superior Writers. As a fan of NEMBA, the University of Minnesota Duluth and LSW, I think this is good news for all. (more…)
Literary History of Duluth: Duluth Benedictine Books
It looks like (from the Online Computer Library Center records and the books I found at Gabriel’s) Duluth Benedictine Books was a brief experiment in recording the lives and institutions of sisters who live at St. Scholastica. (I just finished a jar of strawberry rhubarb jam I purchased at their most recent jam sale — so yummy.)
I wonder whether this was a project fueled by one of the sisters? By someone determined to write down history or by someone who recognized that telling these stories could also help recruit for the sisterhood (whose numbers are dwindling)? (more…)
“Duluth on Duluth”
Back in 2000 George Killough, then an English professor at the College of St. Scholastica, edited the book “Minnesota Diary, 1942-46” the journal of Sinclair Lewis during the time he lived in Duluth. (more…)
Bits of Bly: August Sun
The five-part series of clips from a 1997 Robert Bly interview from KUMD concludes with the poet reciting his poem “August Sun.”
Bits of Bly: The Time of Grief
In part four of the 1997 Robert Bly interview from KUMD, the poet talks about the future of American poetry.