The 2011 MN Book Awards

by Heidi Holtan
The 2011 MN Book Awards are coming up on Saturday April 16th at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Downtown St. Paul.

Minnesota is a state that I'm proud to live in for many reasons - least of which is it's dedication to literature and books. Minnesota has many great independent publishers and one our greatest resources is its writers. Many of this year's nominees were guests this year on Realgoodwords and other KAXE programming.

During the month of March you can still vote for your favorite in the Minnesota Reader's Choice award here.

This week I feature my conversations with William Kent Krueger and David Housewright. They are both up for the award in the genre fiction category.

You can listen to the interviews I and other KAXE staff did with all of the authors I interviewed who are nominated for a MN Book Award this year:
-William Kent Krueger and "Vermilion Drift"
-David Housewright and "The Taking of Libbie SD"
-Julie Kramer and "Silencing Sam"
-Wendy Webb and "The Tales of Halycon Crane"

-Bonnie Rough and "The Carrier"
-Laurie Hertzel and "News to Me: Adventures of An Accidental Journalist"
-Chris Niskanen and Doug Ohman's "Prairie, Lake, Forest: Minnesota's State Parks" (you can hear the 2 hour Between You and Me on State Parks that includes an interview/conversation with Doug Ohman)
-Jay Weiner and "This is Not Florida: How Al Franken Won the MN Recount" (listen to Scott Hall's interview on the ampers.org site here)
-Michael Nordskog & Aaron Hautala's "Opposite of Cold: The Northwoods Finnish Sauna Tradition" You can see Aaron's essay and photos on the KAXE blog here....
-Anton Treur's "The Assassination of Hole-In-The-Day"

I'm so EXCITED!

by Heidi Holtan

I really don't want to quote the Pointer Sisters. I mean really don't want to. As a geeky reader type who lives in Minnesota, this week is one of my favorites. But seriously, I AM so excited for this week's episode of Realgoodwords.

Kate DiCamillo and Alison McGhee are writers from Minneapolis/St. Paul that are known nationwide. Kate for her books and movies like "Because of Winn-Dixie" and "The Tale of Despereaux" and Alison is a Pulitzer Prize nominee and a #1 New York Times bestselling author. Both of them are nominated for the MN Book Awards happening this weekend in St. Paul.

Even though both of these authors write for kids, I love reading their books and talking with them. They both seem almost magical to me, and I know that sounds silly, but here's what I mean.

*When I talked with Kate she is so quick to point out, even with all her success, that she knows she's lucky she get to do what she gets to do (write books and talk to readers!). She readily admits how HARD it is for her to write, but lucky for me and for her readers, she still abides by her own rule of writing 2 pages everyday. Not at least 2 pages, but 2 pages only! Telling me that makes me think anything is possible.

*When I talked to Alison McGhee about her latest picture book "Song of Middle C" that is about a little girl about to perform at her piano recital, she reminded me that we occasionally need to do things in our lives (adults I'm talking to you!) that we aren't good at. Things we can't POSSIBLY ever be that good at. Like taking up the piano. How liberating, to not expect perfection but only practice.

Hope you get a chance to hear the program this week - Wednesdays from 6-7pm and Sunday mornings from 9-10. You can check the archive later in the week as well....