entertainment

Charles Baxter. Star Tribune file photo by Richard Sennott.

Minneapolis writer Charles Baxter has been awarded the Rea Award for the Short Story, a significant literary prize that has gone previously to John Updike, Ann Beattie, Grace Paley and Richard Ford.

Baxter is the author of five novels, including "The Feast of Love," and six collections of short stories, including the recent "Grphyon: New and Selected." he is the Edelstein-Keller Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Minnesota and also teaches in the MFA program at Warren Wilson College. He was born in Minneapolis and graduated from Macalester College in St. Paul.

The Rea Award carries a $30,000 honorarium and recognizes a living U.S. or Canadian writer who has, in the words of founder Michael M. Rea, "made a significant contribution to the discipline of the short story as an art form." Baxter, the jurors said, is "a writer of elegant sentences, an expert in the mechanics of dramatic narration, and a master of psychological exile."

The award was judged this year by Lorrie Moore, Bill Henderson and Stuart Dybek.

Anne Fadiman.

Daughter of the notable American writer and scholar Clifton Fadiman,writer Anne Fadiman made a name for herself in 1997 with the publication of her remarkable book about the clash of Hmong and American culture, "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down."  It's the nonfiction account of a family of Hmong immigrants who are trying to navigate the American medical system when their three-month-old baby, Lia, is diagnosed with epilepsy. (The book's title comes from the Hmong description of the disease.)

I heard Fadiman speak 10 years ago at a conference at Harvard University; she was eloquent, charming and winsome, those big eyes peering out from under her thick fringe of bangs as she told about how she came to write the book, originally as a piece for the New Yorker. But the research took years and years, and during that time New Yorker editors left, or died, and new ones came, and when she finally had the piece completed, Tina Brown said no thanks, and so, instead, it became a book.

That book is now 15 years old, and out in a new paperback "classic" edition from Farrar Straus & Giroux with a new afterword by Fadiman, bringing us up to date on where all the notable characters are today. (And Lia, the epileptic toddler in the center of the story, is quite remarkably still alive.)

It's a fascinating, well-told book about Hmong culture and immigration and the push-push-push of American doctors. (Now older, and, presumably, wiser, the pediatricians who treated Lia told Fadiman for the afterword, "As pediatricians at the end of our careers instead of at the beginning, we might push a little less on the family. In the end, we think the results would have been the same.")

Fadiman will be in St. Paul next week as part of Club Book. She'll speak at the Highland Park Public Library, 1974 Ford Parkway, St. Paul, at 7 p.m. Monday.

(Note: There's been some mention that she'll be doing a second talk the next day, but that's not correct. See her Monday in St. Paul, or don't see her at all.) (My recommendation: See her.)

We thought you'd get a kick out of these photos, taken by the folks at Magers & Quinn Booksellers in Minneapolis, who looked out the window and saw this patient man waiting for the store to open:

Andy Sturdevant

Some people line up for the "Hunger Games" or "Twilight"; with Andy Sturdevant--artist, writer, arts administrator--it's "The Passage of Power," the latest in the series of Lyndon Johnson biographies by Robert A. Caro.  (You can read our review here.)

"This is my 'Harry Potter' release!" Sturdevant told the folks at Magers and Quinn. Wondering why? Read the AP's Hillel Italie's story on the popularity of the Caro books.

You just don't see pins like that anymore--except on the lapel of Andy Sturdevant.

Fortunately for all concerned, Magers & Quinn did open on time, and the Caro book was in stock. A story with a happy ending.

The old Duluth Transfer Bridge, the precursor to the Aerial Lift Bridge. Ca. 1905.

A long time ago, there was a sweet red lighthouse keeper's cottage at the end of Duluth's Park Point. It had a green roof, and windows with white shutters, if the colorized old postcard can be believed, and it looked like a great wild place to live.

There were log cabins on Park Point then, too, and, a trolley car to take you to them.

Downtown Duluth had grand old theaters (one called the Grand), with balconies and stained-glass windows and fabulous lobbies with ornate ceilings and chandeliers. The Grand was torn down in 1976, and now Duluthians walk past the soulless Holiday Mall and Parking Ramp. Ah, progress.

"Lost Duluth: Landmarks, Industries, Buildings and Homes, and the Neighborhoods in Which They Stood," by Tony Dierckins and Maryanne Norton, is a softcover compendium of Duluth's past. Not every building, of course, and not every house, but a good selection that went up or down between 1856 and 1939. (The reasons for those years are made clear in the introduction.)

Dierckins is a long-time writer and publisher in Duluth; his publishing house, recently renamed Zenith City to reflect its commitment to local history, has already put out books about the Aerial Bridge, and collections of columns by beloved newspaper man Jim Heffernan, and other extremely Duluth-centric books.

Like his other books, "Lost Duluth" is packed with photos and information. (Perhaps a wee bit too packed; my eye craved wider margins, and my hand craved a sturdier cover. But those are minor quibbles.) His co-author on this project, Maryanne Norton, is a longtime Duluth historian and librarian and the author of other books of Duluth history.

"Lost Duluth" will be launched at 7 p.m. May 1 at the Norway Hall in Duluth.

Dierckins will also sign books at 11 a.m. May 12 at the Barnes & Noble at HarMar Mall in Roseville.

Minnesota poet Matt Rasmussen

The American Academy of Poets has honored Minnesota poet Matt Rasmussen with the 2012 Walt Whitman Award, which goes to a poet who has not yet published a book.

The award includes a $5,000 cash prize, a one-month residency at the Vermont Studio Center, and publication. Rasmussen's book, "Black Aperture," will be published next spring by Louisana State University Press.  He will be honored at an awards ceremony in October during the annual Poets Forum.

Rasmussen was born in International Falls and lives in Robbinsdale. He teaches at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter.