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MASTER OF CEREMONIES
and master of the political thriller, Vince Flynn
Pulitzer Prize-winning Civil War author
James M. McPherson
International best-selling mystery writer,
Val McDermid
Journalist, documentary filmmaker, and one-half of the Jefferson Bass writing team, Jon Jefferson
Critically acclaimed author of legal thrillers
and comic books, Brad Meltzer |
5th Annual
Opus & Olives
Sunday, October 12, 2008, 5 p.m.
at the Crowne Plaza Hotel
In just five years, Opus & Olives has become one of the premier literary evenings in the Twin Cities. This fun event has already grown in attendance to over 600 community leaders and guests from the business, political and social world. All share a love of reading.
The evening begins with a cocktail reception and social hour, when our authors are available to visit with guests and sign copies of their books (which can be purchased at the event). This is followed by a wonderfully relaxed and entertaining sit-down dinner, when each bestselling author speaks about his or her book, the art of writing, love of reading, or other topics.
The evening ends with another opportunity to interact with
the authors and purchase their books.
Click here for tickets and more information |
Nominations are now open for the 21st annual Minnesota Book Awards, honoring the state’s finest authors and primary artistic creators.
Eight categories recognize and celebrate the best in Minnesota literature: Children’s Literature, General Nonfiction, Genre Fiction, Memoir & Creative Nonfiction, Minnesota, Novel & Short Story, Poetry, and Young People’s Literature.
Click here to read the full story.
Click here for nomination guidelines and forms. |
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Winners of the 20th Annual Minnesota Book Awards Announced
The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library is pleased to announce the winners of the 20th annual Minnesota Book Awards. In addition to winners in eight categories, the Book Awards presented the Readers’ Choice Award, which was selected by over 7,000 voters from across Minnesota. More than 700 people attended the gala award ceremony on Saturday, April 12, hosted by Cathy Wurzer of Minnesota Public Radio and TPT.
Announced at the gala, the winners of the 2008 Minnesota Book Awards are:
Award for Children’s Literature
Sponsored by Xcel Energy:
Lynne Jonell – Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat
Published by Henry Holt and Company
When Emmy discovers that she and her parents are being drugged with rat potions by her horrid nanny, Miss Barmy, she and her animal friends must foil the dastardly plot. Readers will enjoy the clashes between Emmy and the mischievous rat in this whimsical adventure. |
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Award for General Nonfiction
Sponsored by Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle, Ltd.:
Charles Baxter – The Art of Subtext: Beyond Plot
Published by Graywolf Press*
Acclaimed writer and essayist Charles Baxter explores the hidden overtones and undertones in fictional work. As the author explains, “A novel is not a summary of its plot but a collection of instances, of luminous specific details that take us in the direction of the unsaid and the unseen.” Baxter teaches at the University of Minnesota. |
Award for Genre Fiction:
William Kent Krueger – Thunder Bay
Published by Atria Books/Simon & Schuster
The seventh book in the Cork O’Connor series takes the protagonist into Canada where he attempts to locate the son his friend, the Ojibwe healer Henry Meloux, fathered several years ago. Reuniting the two proves more dangerous than anyone predicted. William Kent Krueger, winner of last year’s Genre Fiction Award, lives in St. Paul. |
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Award for Memoir & Creative Nonfiction
Sponsored by Wellington Management, Inc.:
Patricia Hampl – The Florist’s Daughter
Published by Harcourt
In her most personal book to date, St. Paul author Patricia Hampl revisits her childhood as she experiences her mother’s death. Daughter of a Czech father whose floral work gave him entrée to high society, and a distrustful Irishwoman with an uncanny ability to tell a tale, Hampl paints a picture of herself as someone who remained a devoted daughter well into adulthood. |
Award for Minnesota
Sponsored by Marquette Financial Companies:
Doug Hoverson - Land of Amber Waters:
The History of Brewing in Minnesota
Published by the University of Minnesota Press*
Starting with Minnesota’s first brewery in 1849, Doug Hoverson, a certified beer judge and award-winning homebrewer, tells the story of the state’s beer industry from small-town breweries to larger companies such as Schell’s and Grain Belt. The book also highlights the vibrant beer culture of today including a new wave of breweries and brewpubs. |
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Award for Novel & Short Story:
Wang Ping – The Last Communist Virgin
Published by Coffee House Press*
From the restaurants of New York’s Chinatown to the retail emporium of Bergdorf Goodman, and from remote Chinese military outposts to the streets of Beijing, Wang Ping’s stories open a window into the rapid transformations of an ancient culture. Born in Shanghai, the author currently teaches at Macalester College. |
Award for Poetry:
Deborah Keenan – Willow Room, Green Door
Published by Milkweed Editions*
Written over the course of three decades, this collection presents a body of work addressing themes of love and rage; vulnerability and authority; and distraction and focus. In this collection, the reader gets a sense of inhabiting the world with the poet, of walking through time, both historical and personal. |
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Award for Young Adult Literature:
Will Weaver - Defect
Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux
David was born with different features than other people. Some are apparent to others, such as his hearing aids and misshapen face. Others are secret, terrifying to some and magical to others. Will Weaver has written many notable young adult novels as well as the short story on which the movie Sweet Land was based. |
The Readers’ Choice Award sponsored by Pioneer Press and TwinCities.com:
Jill Kalz – Farmer Cap
Published by Picture Window Books*
Eccentric Farmer Cap plants crops like spaghetti and popsicles. The other farmers laugh at him, but a spectacular harvest causes them to rethink their traditional views. This is the 4th book in Kalz’s Pfeffernut County series. The author has written nearly 50 children’s books and lives in New Ulm.
* Indicates a Minnesota-based publisher
At the Book Awards gala on April 12, Don Leeper received the previously announced Kay Sexton Award, for his lifelong contributions to Minnesota’s literary community. Founder and president of BookMobile (formerly Stanton Publications Services), Leeper has fostered the literary community for over 25 years with his design and production service, visionary capability and relationships with local and national publishers. The Award is sponsored by Barnes & Noble Booksellers.
Also presented was the first annual Book Artist Award, co-sponsored by Minnesota Center for Book Arts (MCBA). The award, presented to Jody Williams, recognizes a Minnesota book artist for excellence throughout a body of work, as well as significant contributions to Minnesota’s book arts community. Williams’ work is currently being shown at St. Paul’s Central Library, 90 W. 4th St., through April 20.
Librarians in our nation’s 123,000 libraries make a difference in the lives of millions of Americans every day.
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Now is your chance to tell us why we should shine the spotlight on a librarian at your public library. Nominate your librarian for the Carnegie Corporation of New York/New York Times I Love My Librarian Award! Up to ten librarians will be honored. Each will receive $5,000 and be recognized at an awards ceremony hosted by The New York Times at The Times Center in December 2008.
Click here to nominate a librarian who works in a Saint Paul Public Library! Nominations open August 15 and must be completed by October 1. Click on the title at left for more information about the awards program. |
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Last Updated 8/25/2008
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The Political Scenes Free Outdoor Film Series
presented as part of Saint Paulitics
Join us at Central Library,
90 West Fourth Street, in the Kellogg Boulevard Courtyard, for four weeks of politically themed-films.
The free movies will be shown at dusk, and will be cancelled in case of rain. Don't forget your bug spray! |
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Friday, August 22, dusk:
"The War Room"
Flash back to 1992 for this Oscar-nominated documentary about Bill Clinton's presidential campaign and the organization that runs it. The film focuses on the campaign's lead strategist, James Carville, and the communications director George Stephanopoulos. Campaign manager David Wilhelm refused to participate. Famous moments from the campaign are seen in their formative stages, such as the commercial making use of George H. W. Bush's "read my lips: no new taxes" broken promise and the creation of the line, "It's the economy, stupid"
Click here for a full listing of films scheduled.
Now through August 19:
Let's Talk About It: Modern Marvels is a series of discussions on graphic novels by Jewish artists, moderated by Professor Judith Katz.
A program of Nextbook and the American Library Association, presented by the University of Minnesota Libraries, the Center for Jewish Studies, and The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library.
August 19 : Joann Sfar's The Rabbi's Cat
After eating a parrot, an aged Algerian rabbi's cat develops the ability to speak and quickly declares his desire not only to be Jewish, but to have a bar mitzvah. The rabbi engages his pet in a spiraling debate, touching on topics such as spelling, parental love, and the very nature of Jewish identity.
This preeminent work, by one of France's most celebrated young comic artists, tells the wholly unique story of a rabbi, his beautiful daughter, and their talking cat - a philosopher brimming with scathing humor and surprising tenderness. Rich with the colors, textures, and flavors of Algeria's 1930s Jewish community, the book brings a lost world vibrantly to life - a time and place where Jews and Arabs coexisted - and peoples it with endearing and thoroughly human characters, and one truly unforgettable cat.
Click here for more information.
Saint Paul Public Library's Summer Reading Program!
Help your children and teens sign up for the Summer Reading rewards program
at your library. You'll get a reading record to keep
track of your time spent reading this summer.
Read for 10 hours and earn a free book!
Read for 20 hours and earn a second free book! Sounds like a lot of reading?
Over the 12 weeks of the Summer Reading Program,
that's just 15 minutes a day! You can do that! Sign up now and get reading!
Click here to check out the schedule of Summer Reading Program events
happening at
Saint Paul Public Library! |
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Now Available...
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A Noble Task:
The Saint Paul Public Library Celebrates 125!
by Biloine W. Young, Foreword by Patricia Hampl
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The Story of Saint Paul’s Public Library, from its founding in 1882 by a determined band of public-spirited citizens, to its exuberant presence today, is a roller-coaster account of both public enhancement and public neglect. The Saint Paul Public Library survived and prospered largely because the institution was blessed with the dedication of a cadre of extraordinary librarians.
A trail 125 years long, a trail marked by drama and striving, with many heroes and only a few villains, has brought us to this birthday of an institution uniquely beloved by the citizens of Saint Paul—its public library system.
Click here to purchase or for additional information.
Responding to a growing need for highly qualified consultants, The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library launched Library Strategies, a new library consulting group, in 2007. Coordinated by the staff of the nationally recognized Friends organization, the Library Strategies group includes more than 35 prominent consultants from around the country who specialize in a broad range of services.
With a mix of leading librarians and other well-known consultants, Library Strategies offers a wide array of enhanced services and skills to libraries, library foundations, and Friends organizations.
Library Strategies services include:
- fundraising;
- managing foundations and Friends organizations;
- technology and strategic planning;
- advocacy training;
- leadership development and workshops; and
- coaching and keynote speeches on related topics.
Library Cheer:
25 years ago, when the Saint Paul Public Library was celebrating its 100th anniversary, our friends from Lake Wobegone joined the fun by presenting this SUPER library cheer that's still funny and works for us today, in 2007.
"F-R-I-E-N-D-S! Are we gonna be one?
Yes! Yes! Yes!"
Click on the PHC logo above to listen to the 2:26 minute, MP3 file. (1.3 MB)
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The Friends is proud
to be a member of the
Saint Paul Arts and
Culture Partnership.
"See Art. Feel Awesome." |
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