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Annual Events
Over the last decade, The Friends has developed a number of award-winning annual program series or events. Listed below are our annual events with a brief description. Please check the calendar for the time and location of current and upcoming events.
FRIENDS COORDINATED SERIES
Chicano & Latino Writers Festival
Fireside Literary Readings
Central Library Noon Book
Chats
Untold Stories: Labor History
Is There a Doctor in the Book?
FRIENDS CO-SPONSORED EVENTS
O'Shaughnessy Award for Irish Poetry
Twin Cities Jewish Book Fair
Women’s Human Rights Film Series
FRIENDS COORDINATED SERIES
Chicano & Latino Writers Festival
For 10 years, the Chicano and Latino Writers
Festival featured local and national writers including such luminaries as Isabel Allende, Esmeralda Santiago, Luis Rodriguez
and Juan Felipe Herrera, as well as nationally recognized Minnesota
writers such as Ray Gonzalez, Sandra Benitez and George Rabasa. The
Festival also included a program with high school writers and a Day
of the Dead event.
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Series co-sponsors include the Guadalupe Alternative
Programs (GAP), Neighborhood House, and Adams Spanish Immersion School.
The Festival usually runs from mid-October to mid-November and is
based at the Riverview Branch Library. The Festival has received financial
support from the American Library Association's LIVE! Program, COMPAS,
the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, and the City of Saint Paul's
Cultural STAR program.
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Fireside Literary Readings
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Now in its 15th season, the Fireside Literary Readings Series is one of The Friends' oldest and most popular events. The series annually highlights the work of some of Minnesota's finest writers who have published a new work in the previous year. Past readers have included Heid and Lise Erdrich, Alexs Pate, Faith Sullivan, Lorna Landvik, Carol Bly, Pete Hautman, Mary Logue, John Coy, Jack Weatherford, Ellen Hart and Kate DiCamillo. |
The author readings take place in the cozy atmosphere in front of the hearth at the Hamline Midway Branch Library and include free coffee, cider and cookies. Fireside readings occur from late January through February, on Thursday evenings at 7 p.m. The Friends has previously received support for the Fireside series from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council (MRAC). The Fireside series is co-sponsored by Micawber's Books. Click here to download the 2010 Schedule 2010 Schedule: 2009 Schedule: 2008 Schedule: 2007 Schedule: |
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Untold Stories: A Celebration of Labor History
In celebration of labor history month each May, the Untold Stories series presents programs and talks on both local and national labor history topics. Past programs in the series have featured historian Robin D.G. Kelley, singer Larry Long, author Cheri Register, and walking tours by local historian Dave Riehle. The series received the 2003 John Sessions Memorial Award from the American Library Association for service to the labor community.
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Coordinated by The Friends in association with a community committee, the series is co-sponsored annually by such organizations as follows: the Department of Social Sciences at Metropolitan State University, Macalester College History Department, Minnesota Historical Society and Minnesota Historical Society Press, Ramsey County Historical Society, Saint Paul Labor Speakers Club, Saint Paul Area AFL-CIO Trades and Labor Assembly, Twin Cities Labor History Society, United Auto Workers Local 879, the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees (MAPE), Neighborhood House, and the University of Minnesota Labor Education Service. The series has been presented with the support of an endowment created with grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, The Saint Paul Foundation, and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. |
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Click here for calendar of Untold Stories programs and events.
"Is There a Doctor in the Book? Physicians Write About Their World"
How do doctors think? What happens when a doctor becomes a patient? What happens when a doctor acts against medicine’s highest values? What’s a doctor’s prescription for our ailing health care system? These and other questions are the focus of “Is There a Doctor in the Book? Physicians Write About Their World.” In four very different evenings, using four very different books, we will visit a doctor’s world, with help from guest commentators, themselves physicians. |
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Discussion series moderated by Patricia Ohmans, MPH, of Health Advocates. All programs take place at the St. Anthony Park Branch Library, 2245 Como Avenue, at 7 p.m.
Thursday, October 9, 2008:
The Soul of a Doctor: Harvard Medical Students Face Life and Death (an anthology)
Stories told by 44 doctors-in-training about what they’ve learned—the hard way.
Thursday, October 16, 2008:
A Second Opinion: Rescuing America’s Health Care by Arnold Relman
A Harvard medical school professor’s take on what’s wrong with American health care, and how to fix it. Guest: Ed Ehlinger, director of the University of Minnesota Health Service and host of “A Public Health Journal”
Thursday, October 23, 2008:
Oath Betrayed: Torture, Medical Complicity, and the War on Terror by Steven Miles. Careful research leads a Minnesota ethicist to insights on how and why doctors, nurses, and medics helped abuse prisoners at Guantanamo. Guest: Steven Miles, writer, ethicist and physician
Thursday, October 30, 2008:
As I Live and Breathe: Notes of a Patient-Doctor by Jamie Weisman. The gripping memoir of a young doctor with a rare disease. Guest: Colleen Cooper, director of clinic services for North Memorial Hospital
FRIENDS CO-SPONSORED EVENTS
Lawrence M. O'Shaughnessy Award for Irish Poetry
The Lawrence M. O'Shaughnessy Award for Poetry is presented annually to a contemporary Irish poet by the Center for Irish Studies at the University of St. Thomas. This internationally noted award is presented in April, and each year for the past eight years, The Friends has proudly co-sponsored a series of public events featuring the O'Shaughnessy Award-winning poets. Most of the readings or other events occur on the St. Paul campus ofthe University of St. Thomas or in one of the branches of the Saint Paul Public Library.
In 2010, Irish poet Theo Dorgan of Dublin received the 14th annual Lawrence O'Shaughnessy Award for Poetry. Theo Dorgan was born in Cork, Ireland, in 1953 and now lives in Dublin. His poetry collections include The Ordinary House of Love (Salmon, 1991); Rosa Mundi (Salmon, 1995); Sappho’s Daughter (Wave Train, 1998); What This Earth Cost Us (Dedalus, 2008); and Greek (Dedalus, 2010). He has had a lengthy career as a broadcaster of literary programs on both radio and television, as a presenter of “Poetry Now” on Irish radio, and as the host of the book program “Imprint” on the Irish national television station.
See and hear Theo Dorgan reading the poem
"Visitors" from Greek.
Bread Dipped in Olive Oil and Salt
Bread dipped in olive oil and salt,
a glass of rough dry white.
A table beside the evening sea
where you sit shelling pistachios,
flicking the next open with the half-
shell of the last, story opening story,
on down to the sandy end of time.
The stars coming out on the life that I call mine
Theo Dorgan
Click here for more information about free public events featuring Theo Dorgan.
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In 2009, Irish poet Mary O'Malley of County Galway received the 13th annual Lawrence O'Shaughnessy Award for Irish Poetry from the University of St. Thomas Center for Irish Studies. O'Malley was born in Connemara and educated at University College, Galway. Her poems have been translated into several languages. She travels and lectures widely in Europe and the U.S., and lives in the Moycullen Gaeltacht, County Galway. 
To celebrate the award, Mary O'Malley read from her work at the John Roach Center for the Liberal Arts on the University of St. Thomas’ Saint Paul campus. The reading capped a week of events, classroom visits and public appearances by the poet, including a public conversation with local poet Margaret Hasse, on the topic "Going Away, Coming Home: Poetry and Displacement" at the Hamline Midway Branch Library. Hasse is the author of three books of poetry: Stars Above, Stars Below (New Rivers, 1984), winner of the Minnesota Voices competition; In a Sheep's Eye, Darling (Milkweed, 1988) and Milk and Tides (Nodin Press, 2008), and was a finalist for the Minnesota Book Award. Both events were co-sponsored by the Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library.
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| The winner of the 12th annual award, Pat Boran is a poet, fiction writer, publisher and radio broadcaster. He was born in Portlaoise in 1963 and currently lives in Dublin. He has published four collections of poetry: The Unwound Clock (1990), which won the Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award, Familiar Things (1993), The Shape of Water (1996) and As the Hand, the Glove (2001). His New and Selected Poems was first published by Salt Publishing, UK, in 2005 and reissued by Dedalus in 2007. In addition to poetry, he has published a collection of short stories, Strange Bedfellows (1991) and a fiction title for children, All the Way from China (1999) which was shortlisted for the Bisto Book of the Year Award. His non-fiction works include the popular writers' handbook The Portable Creative Writing Workshop (1999), reissued in a revised and expanded edition in 2005, and A Short History of Dublin (2000). |
For many years he was the Program Director of the Dublin Writers Festival, and he has held writer-in-residence posts with Dublin Corporation, Dublin City Libraries and Dublin City University. In 2005 he took over the running of the Dedalus Press, one of Ireland’s longest-standing literary imprints, specializing in contemporary poetry from Ireland and poetry from around the world in English translation. In 2006, he edited the anthology Wingspan: A Dedalus Sampler.
A selection from Boran's 1996 collection, The Shape of Water:
Answering Machine
A flashing light will mean I'm not alone.
A moment later maybe I'll hear your voice,
or that of a stranger, or the sound
of someone somewhere having second thoughts,
and hanging up. But at least I'll know it means
that someone thinks about me, now and then,
and whoever they prove or do not prove to be,
at least there is a sort of consolation
in the fact that they send a gift of light,
a sign to welcome me on my return.
You are not alone, it will say, first thing,
the green light of the answering machine.
Or else: how desperate you've become
for love, the glimmer of surprise,
alone there in the doorway of your room
like a man before an endless, starless sky.
Previous winners of the O'Shaughnessy Award are Eavan Boland, John F. Deane, Peter Sirr, Louis de Paor, Moya Cannon, Frank Orsmby, Thomas McCarthy, Michael Coady, Kerry Hardie and Dennis O'Driscoll.
Twin Cities Jewish Book Fair
Each fall, the Jewish Community Center of the Greater St. Paul Area (JCC) presents an extensive festival featuring nationally renowned books and authors. The Twin Cities Jewish Book Fair is co-sponsored by a number of other community groups, including The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library. The majority of the Festival events occur at the JCC, but for a number of years, one or more of the programs have also been featured at the Saint Paul Public Library, usually at the Highland Park Branch Library. Visit the JCC website's book fair page for more information about the three-weeks-long festival.
Women’s Human Rights Film Series
Free and open to the public. All films begin at 7 p.m. and take place in St. Paul.
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Since 2004, The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library, in partnership with The Advocates for Human Rights, has presented a Women's Human Rights Film Series. Documentaries on a wide range of women's rights issues are screened, followed by discussions led by The Advocates' staff and guests. The screenings take place at Saint Paul Public Library branches and are free and open to the public. |
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Films screened in the 2009-2010 series:
Dishonored
A Walk to Beautiful*
La Americana
Frontrunner
Rough Aunties
Sentencing the Victim
Mrs. Goundo's Daughter
Women of Tibet: A Quiet Revolution
Films screened in 2008-2009 series:
The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo*
Finding Dawn*
Iron Ladies of Liberia*
Maquilapolis: City of Factories*
SASA! A Film about Women, Violence and HIV/AIDS*
To See If I’m Smiling*
Women on the Frontline
Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai*
Films screened in 2007-2008 series:
Enemies of Happiness*
Journey to Safety*
Killer’s Paradise*
Crimes of Honour
Not For Sale*
So Deep a Violence*
View From a Grain of Sand*
Films screened in 2006-2007 series:
Bride Kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan
Love, Honour and Disobey**
Love, Labor, Loss
Señorita Extraviada, Missing Young Woman*
Women of the Holy Kingdom
Border Echoes: The Truth Behind the Juarez Murders
Films screened in 2005-2006 series:
The Vienna Tribunal
Operation Fine Girl
¡Basta! Women Say No to Violence
Peace by Peace: Women on the Frontlines
No More Tears Sister: Anatomy of Hope and Betrayal*
Afghanistan Unveiled*
God Sleeps in Rwanda*
* Catalogued in the Saint Paul Public Library system
**Available at the Ramsey County Bridges to Safety/Domestic Abuse Service Center
Sign language interpretation and other accommodations are available with advance notice. To request this service, contact The Friends at 651-222-3242 or friends@thefriends.org.
For more information, contact Mary Hunt, The Advocates Program Associate, at 612-341-3302, ext. 107, or email her at mhunt@advrights.org.