In a state that claims Connie Wanek, Jim Moore, Heid Erdrich and Todd Boss, among so many others, it could be hard to pick just one. But this is Minnesota, and our old man of letters is still our old man of letters. Translator, rabble-rouser, National Book Award winner, essayist, Iron John drummer -- but above all, poet, a man who finds language so goofily appealing that it makes him almost giddy. When he's reading a poem aloud, he almost always reads it twice -- no matter who wrote it. Now in his mid-80s, he still does the occasional reading, usually with sitar and drum -- an event not to be missed.
Runner-up: Joyce Sutphen
