New books from Minnesota authors

New books from Minnesota authors

"Stardust and Fate: The Blueroad Reader," edited by John Gaterud and Abbey Gaterud (Blueroad Press, $20).

Inspired by the ghost of Jack Kerouac, the father-daughter team from Janesville, Minn., captures the spirit of the modern pilgrim in this anthology of new essays, poems and stories -- the first of what the Gateruds hope will be many Blueroad Readers. Many Minnesota favorites are among the book's 38 contributors, including Bill Holm, John Rezmerski, Phil Bryant, Freya Manfred and Joyce Sutphen. They bring us the news from New Orleans, Iceland, Mexico, England; from nursing homes, cemeteries and cornfields; from inside their imaginations -- wherever the road has taken them. All are enhanced by handsome etchings and woodblock illustrations and graced with a striking cover photo, "Ice on Judd Creek," by Jim Brandenburg. A perfect companion for both the restless and the road-weary.

Event: Contributors will read 2 p.m. today, Common Good Books, Swedenborgian Church, 170 Virginia St., St. Paul.

"Farming Words: The Harvest

of Literature at a Prairie College," edited by Bill Holm (Southwest Minnesota State University).

Good luck getting your hands on a copy of this anthology of the illustrious parade of gifted faculty, visitors and mentors at Southwest Minnesota State University -- skimmed right from the Marshall topsoil on which the university sits. There's no price, bar code or ISBN number on the book; you can't find it on amazon.com, and all the rights and permissions were granted for free. This is not some nostalgic compilation of nice works; in fact, it contains all the awesome power of the "weather systems" with which we are so recently familiar. I dare you to read it -- to feel the prick of conscience in Carol Bly's tribute to Paul Gruchow's psychologically painful work, to rise to the moral challenges posed in Fred Manfred's tribute to Sinclair Lewis, to let your heart be cleaved by Holm's homage to his friend and colleague Alec Bond: "Who do the dead think they are!/ ... How dare they sit in the front seat of my car,/ invisible, not wearing their seat belts,/ not holding up their end of the conversation."

Full disclosure: The Books editor's spouse is included in the anthology, but doesn't stand to make a dime.

"Grace Flandrau: Voice Interrupted," by Georgia Ray (Edinborough Press, $34.95).

"History is harsh in its judgments," Garrison Keillor told the assembled at the 2007 American Library Association conference in Washington, D.C. He was lamenting the relative obscurity of Grace Flandrau, a St. Paul contemporary of F. Scott Fitzgerald, whose satirical novels, short stories and other writings did not enjoy the same shelf life as other literary lights of her day. Ray, a historian and former executive director of Minnesota Landmarks, seeks to redress that problem by plunging into Flandrau's never-before-told story -- her difficult childhood, thwarted ambitions and the ways in which she may have contributed to her fall from grace. Her writer's arrow, writes Ray, seemed aimed at the "hard-hearted complacency of many powerful people," a proclivity for which she apparently paid dearly. That alone might inspire you to run right out for copies of "Being Respectable" and "Entranced" -- satires set in St. Paul.

And watch for these upcoming titles, from Minnesota writers and former Star Tribune staffers:

"The View From Mount Joy," by Lorna Landvik (Ballantine, $24.95, Sept. 4).

"Pontoon: A Novel of Lake Wobegon," by Garrison Keillor (Viking, $25.95, Sept. 11).

"Home on the Road: Further Dispatches from the Ends of the Earth," by Catherine Watson (Syren, $14.95, Sept. 15).

"The Florist's Daughter," a memoir by Patricia Hampl (Harcourt, $24, Oct. 1).

"The Dog Says How," humor/essays by Kevin Kling (Borealis, $22.95, Oct. 1).

"Great Joy," by Kate DiCamillo with illustrations by Bagram Ibatoulline (Candlewick, $16.99, Oct. 9).

"Pieces of My Heart: Everyone has an Everest" by Jim Klobuchar (Nodin, $25, Oct. 15).

"Against the Grain: The Literary Life of a Poet," a memoir by Reed Whittemore (Dryad, $26.95, Oct. 22).

"Uncle Al's Geezer Salad," by Al Sicherman (Syren, $14.95, Oct. 13).

SARAH T. WILLIAMS