Each day leading up to the 32nd annual Minnesota Book Awards Ceremony, we’ll be featuring an exclusive interview with one of our 36 finalists. Learn more about these incredible local writers and gear up to see the winners announced live in person April 28.
Interview with Anne Frasier, author of The Body Keeper, part of the Genre Fiction category, sponsored by Macalester College.
How does it feel to be a Minnesota Book Award finalist?
Amazing. I’m beyond thrilled!
Tell us something about your finalist book that you want readers to know?
The Body Keeper is my ode to a Minnesota winter. LOL. I really wanted to get a brutal and beautiful Minnesota winter on the page.
Share something about your writing process and preferences. For instance, where is your favorite place to write?
I’m someone who needs quiet to write, so I do the bulk of my writing in a church built in the late 1800s. The serenity and space seems to open my mind.
Minnesota has a reputation as a state that values literature and reading. In your experience, what is it about our state that makes it such a welcoming place for writers and book creators?
Twenty years ago when I moved from Iowa to Minnesota I was blown away by the writing community here. I’d never experienced anything like it. So many mystery writers. Support everywhere I looked. Bookstores, libraries, press, the impressive Twin Cities Sisters in Crime. I met some great friends through our local chapter.
Pat Frovarp and Gary Schulze, previous owners of Once Upon a Crime, were so warm and welcoming and such a great example of local support. We lost a real champion when Gary died. The writing scene here was the safe and robust family I didn’t know I needed. And this seems a good place to mention that the Twin Cities will be hosting Bouchercon, one of the biggest mystery conventions, in 2022!
What is something you are good at that few people know about?
I think writing has pushed out everything else. I used to be able to draw. I used to be crafty. I used to play the guitar. I used to have a garden. Oh, I’m fairly decent at keeping houseplants alive. Does that count? And I make lotion bars. Ha.
What do you love about libraries?
The word that comes to mind is magical. When I was a kid growing up in Burlington, Iowa, I practically lived in the library. The dark wood, the glass floor, the space and the sound of that space. It was my safe place, and I went there often enough to know exactly where my favorite books were located so I could read them for the fourth, fifth, maybe even tenth time. Libraries have changed since those days, but they still feel magical to me. That might be why I try to duplicate the feel of that serene space when I write.
Anne Frasier is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author who writes fiction and nonfiction in the genres of suspense, mystery, thriller, romantic suspense, paranormal, and memoir.
See the winners announced live at the Minnesota Book Awards Ceremony! Presented by Education Minnesota; media sponsor: Star Tribune.
