The Thread® - Books and Literary News

The Thread® is your source for book recommendations and other literary news.

Sign Up for The Thread® Newsletter

Sign up for The Thread newsletter to get reading recommendations from Kerri Miller and other bookworms around the MPR newsroom. Sam Stroozas rounds up local events and Minnesota book news you may have missed.

Ask a Bookseller

Ask a Bookseller is a weekly series where host Emily Bright checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. Listen to Ask a Bookseller to find your next favorite book.

Big Books and Bold Ideas

Big Books and Bold Ideas is a weekly series hosted by Kerri Miller and produced by Kelly Gordon every Friday at 11 a.m., featuring conversations about books and other literary ideas. Listen to Big Books and Bold Ideas here.

Talking Volumes

Talking Volumes is an annual event series featuring notable authors in conversation about their new books. Presented by MPR News and The Minnesota Star Tribune.

Prize-winning Irish poet inspired by native seacoast
Poet Mary O'Malley comes from Connemara, a craggy, windswept area of the West of Ireland. It's where the rocks meet the sea, and life moves to the rhythm of the ancient Irish language. And she brings that sensibility, and that place, to her poetry.
Conference celebrates poet Robert Bly
Tonight the University of Minnesota is launching a three-day, international conference celebrating the work of Minnesota poet Robert Bly. The 82-year-old's legacy includes not just his poetry, but his work as a translator, an editor, and the leader of the men's movement.
Reflections on life in Iran
As the friends and family await the sentencing of radio reporter and Fargo native Roxana Saberi, one friend reflects on the constraints of Iranian life. Journalist Azadeh Moaveni's new book centers on peaks and valleys of trying to marry and raise a family in the Islamic Republic.
Walter Mosley and his mysteries
Mystery author Walter Mosley introduces a new detective with a complicated past. Mosley's previous detective novels starred "Easy" Rawlins in popular books like "Devil in a Blue Dress." Mosley talks about how a new character and a new city energizes his work.
Joseph Boyden writes about native dichotomy
Joseph Boyden just won Canada's top literary prize for his book "Through Black Spruce." It's the story of a Cree family in Northern Ontario, but it demonstrates how modern native life includes many worlds.
T. C. Boyle on Frank Lloyd Wright's hidden life
Most people know Frank Lloyd Wright from his buildings. But his personal life was a story unto itself. Novelist T.C. Boyle's latest work examines Wright's life and work from the viewpoint of the four principal women in his life.
Local hip hop artist Dessa combines the dry wit of Dorothy Parker with the beat of Mos Def. Dessa speaks and sings of her family ties and the pressures of modern life.
In Minneota, an empty chair for Bill Holm
The funeral service in the southwest Minnesota town of Minneota brought together hundreds of people to say goodbye to author, musician and teacher Bill Holm.
Talking Volumes: Michael Greenberg
Michael Greenberg's teenaged daughter was overcome by a sudden psychosis. Greenberg chronicles her arduous treatment in a critcally-acclaimed memoir. The conversation was recorded before an audience at the UBS Forum on February 24.
Remembering Bill Holm
Essayist and poet Bill Holm, who was nationally known for his distinctly Minnesotan writing, died this week at age 65.