We can't let the Halloween season go without featuring one horror book, and Sarah Gerton of Excelsior Bay Books in Excelsior said her pick is “Between Two Fires” by Christopher Buehlman.

The setting is medieval France: The black plague era. A disgraced ex-knight named Thomas encounters a girl who tells him of her visions of a war between heaven and hell that will be raged over control of Earth. Are her words the ravings of a person gone mad, or is she expressing saintly visions? Thomas himself has lost his faith, but he finds himself accompanying the girl and a priest across France to help her with her quest.

"I would definitely recommend [this novel] for adults with a strong stomach," cautions Gerton. "This a very, very dark book, so all the trigger warnings [apply]."

And yet, this book has garnered a following. It was originally self-published in 2012, and over the years it gained such a devoted social media following that earlier this year, Tor — part of major publisher Macmillan — released a hard cover edition with black sprayed edges.

Gerton said she was struck by the tone, which to her felt epic and “almost biblical,” like the translation of an ancient tale. She'd love to see this story make its way to film.

“Some of the monsters that they encounter are, like, crazy, and like I would love to see this adapted. But at the same time, I don’t know how they could translate some of the battle scenes,” says Gerton.

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Amber Blaeser-Wardzala is Anishinaabe from White Earth Reservation — spending most of her early years on the reservation — and she comes from a long line of storytellers.

“I grew up being surrounded by

Anishinaabe stories, oral stories were some of my favorites as a kid, and they really impacted the way that I tell stories and the way I think about stories,” Blaeser-Wardzala told MPR News.

The narrator in her new book “Another Name for Red” is “Middle Sister.” She's not in a good place after her oldest sister disappears from the community. And in the wake of that tragedy, the whole family has fallen apart. Middle Sister is barely holding on and is consumed with guilt over her last words to her sister, not to mention her rage at the ongoing crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women in the country.

With a father who has checked out in front of the television, a mother who spends her time at marches and protests, and two younger siblings who need support and protection, Middle Sister is determined to find out what, exactly, happened to Oldest Sister. And, while she ultimately does find an answer, it comes with a steep cost.

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There are almost no real names mentioned in the book; Blaeser-Wardzala says that was a deliberate choice on her part to try and connect the story back to the traditions of the Anishinaabe language and culture.

“Another Name for Red” is Amber Blaeser-Wardzala's debut novel. You'll find more of the author's work in a much-lauded compilation from 2023, “Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology.” Blaeser-Wardzala will be at Magers & Quinn Booksellers in Minneapolis on Wednesday and at Content Bookstore in Northfield on Thursday.

Min Jin Lee was disappointed she didn’t get to come to Talking Volumes in 2017 to talk about her novel “Pachinko.” She says that’s probably because it struggled initially. Her editor quit just three months before the book was published. Her husband lost his job the day “Pachinko” was released. And besides The New York Times and USA Today, no media companies would review her book.

But that slow burn eventually ignited into a blazing inferno. The New York Times named it one of the 10 best books of 2017 and, by 2022, it had been made into a TV series by Apple — which propelled another waves of global sales.

So it was with great pleasure that Lee came to Talking Volumes this year, to talk about her new novel, “American Hagwon.”

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During her time on stage at The O'Shaughnessy with host Kerri Miller, Lee talked about her years of researching hagwons — a type of cram school, common in Korea — and how they change education. In particular, she sees an intense global competitiveness in Korean students, which stands in sharp contrast to students in American falling further and further behind.

Talking Volumes: Min Jin Lee

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But Lee and Miller also talked about Lee’s path to becoming a well-known author and how Lee’s own childhood of being an exceptional student who struggled socially influences her work. For one thing: she’s learned to hold her own and fight back, if necessary.

“Asian American women are not considered strong,” she told Miller, “but they're wrong. I mean, if you really just like look at the data, it's like: are you kidding me? Do you know any Asian American women? But I think we're perceived to be weak, and they clearly don't know any history. This doesn’t happen in Asia. But here in the U.S., I've had I've had some people do some very stupid things, and I will do what I need to do.”

It was a dazzling evening, highlighted by musical guest Sophie Hiroko.

There are only two more Talking Volumes shows of the 2026 season: Emily St. John Mandel on Nov. 4, and Colson Whitehead with special guest host Catharine Richert on Nov. 11. Get your tickets online.

Artist Sam Zimmerman, who is a descendant of the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, returned to Minnesota's North Shore in 2019 after working out of state for years.

"There's nothing that compares to the North Shore. The beauty of it, the ever-changing landscape. Its spirit and personality is so amazing. Even the air changes from Duluth to Cook County,” Zimmerman said.

After returning to Minnesota, Zimmerman released a series of paintings from his first year back home. His newest collection features more than 80 artworks organized by season, accompanied by stories in English and Ojibwe. It’s called “Walking My Ancestors’ Path.”

"My ancestors have walked this shore for hundreds of years, and so this is me following in their footsteps of being back home in northern Minnesota,” he said.

Zimmerman paints landscapes and animals in bright acrylic colors. He blends styles, including Woodland art, which uses strong outlines, vivid colors and x-ray views of subjects.

"As an Indigenous creator, I use a lot of dots, which isn't unique, but in some ways, they're very abstract,” said Zimmerman.

One painting honors his grandfather. It shows a buck with intricate patterns covering its body.

"It's titled ‘Runs Through the Woods Like Deer’ because that was his Ojibwe name. He was incredibly fast in the woods, and it is a buck running through a winter scene with four pine trees in the background, and those four pine trees represent the number of children that he had. He had four sons. My dad was the youngest,” he said.

The scene also shows a fire tower under a sunset sky filled with oranges and reds. Stars represent the years his grandfather and uncles lived.

Zimmerman said he created the piece to honor the man who taught him the importance of storytelling.

"It allows for traditions and culture and lessons learned to be passed down from elders and others. And so I'm a storyteller using art, and stories are important. They share our history, they share our values,” Zimmerman said.

Those connections to family and community guide his life.

“Having the elders and the community that I have around me, both family and blood and also relationships, has allowed me to walk a path that has helped me grow and learn,” he said.

Zimmerman’s experiences of growth and learning are shared in "Walking My Ancestors' Path."

A book launch event will be held Thursday, Oct. 22 from 6-8 p.m. at Mill City Museum in Minneapolis. The event is free and open to the public.

An accompanying exhibit with paintings featured in Zimmerman’s book will be on display through March 28, 2027, during regular public museum hours.

Chandra Colvin covers Native American communities in Minnesota for MPR News via Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues and communities.  

MN Shortlist is the MPR News weekly roundup of arts and culture recommendations around the region. This week’s picks include a culminating semiquincentennial exhibition at the Duluth Art Institute, the Chamber Music Society of Minnesota’s remembrance for Renee Good and Alex Pretti, a book conversation with Patrick Hicks and more.

Twin Cities Film Fest in St. Louis Park and Edina — Through Oct. 24

The 17th annual festival returns with more than 100 films screened over 10 days at Marcus West End Cinema in St. Louis Park and Edina Mann 4 Theatre. Founder and executive director Jatin Setia says that these include the Midwest premieres of studio and independent films, and that 30 percent of the lineup has a Minnesota connection. Setia said 2026 highlights include a documentary shot over 10 years following the refugee experience of a Syrian child (“One in a Million” screening on Oct. 17) and many Minnesota-centric films, such as “A Month in Minnesota,” a documentary that’s already sold out.

“I think it's going to do very well,” Setia said. ”We had a screening; it sold out. We added a second, sold out. We added a third, and it sold out.” The good news is that the film, like many others, is available to stream for $10 during the festival.

Actress Frances Fisher (“Titanic,” “Unforgiven,” “The Lincoln Lawyer”) will also be in attendance because she is the recipient of the festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award. There will be a conversation with Fisher on Oct. 20, and the Midwest premiere of her 2026 film “Out of the Woods” on Oct. 21.

“As soon as I saw the film, I knew that I had to have Francis here,” Setia said. “She's one of those actresses that always delivers, and she hasn't gotten recognized in the industry as much as I think she deserves.” (Alex V. Cipolle)

‘Swingposium’ by Theater Mu and TaikoArts Midwest at C.S.P.S. Hall in St. Paul — Oct. 16-18

San Jose Taiko’s “Swingposium” tells the story of how young Japanese Americans found hope during their unjust incarceration during WWII. The story is brought to life in an immersive theater production making its Midwest debut this weekend. Co-presented by TaikoArts Midwest and Theater Mu, the show invites audiences to move around and dance.

Performances are 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 16, and Oct. 17-18 at 2 and 7 p.m. Advance tickets are $35, or $25 for ages 17 and younger. Tickets at the door are $40. (Annie Russell)

‘Walker Design Triennial: Beyond Materialism’ at Walker Art Center in Minneapolis — Oct. 17-Feb. 14, 2027

MPR News got a sneak peek of Walker's first design triennial “Beyond Materialism” and it’s one hell of a show. There are almost 100 large-scale design objects by designers, architects, artists and artisans from around the world, and each one seems to challenge the quotidian purposes of furniture and other items — a chair on fire, a surrealist seesaw, a fountain about guilt.

“The one thing that unites all of the pieces in this exhibition is that none of them are useful in a conventional sense,” said curator Joseph Grima, who is in town from Milan. “They're not useful in the sense of giving you a place to sit down and eat your dinner, but they are useful because they address existential questions of our time.”

The Walker hosts a free opening day panel (registration required) with Grima and designers at 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 17. (Alex V. Cipolle)

Bloodcurdling Book Bash in Bloomington — Oct. 17

Trying to get into the spooky mood? The Bloodcurdling Book Bash is sure to help. Horror and thriller authors as well as gothic crafts, tarot readers and themed drinks will all be present. As locals know, Minnesota is not shy when it comes to book events. Rachel Silberman from Adventure Awaits Events is one of the lead curators.

Silberman is also the creator behind the Fables & Flames Romantasy Gala, Rewind Book Fair and the founder of the Book Fair for Grown-Ups (which she no longer organizes). She said her goal with the events is to support smaller businesses that may get overlooked in the mainstream.

“That’s what this is all about. Horror authors kind of get the short end of the stick. Romance is huge, but other genres kind of get forgotten,” Silberman said. “I’m really all about community, that is the biggest thing I want out of this.”

Ghoulish Books, a small local press that focuses on “transgressive spookiness,” will be tabling at the bash. Publisher and editor Max Booth recently relocated the business from Texas to Minneapolis. The bash will be their first event since moving to Minnesota.

“They can find the type of stuff that they might not have a good time finding at the typical Barnes & Noble,” Booth said of what’s available from the press. “Some really niche stuff that they might not even know is a thing.”

The event runs from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the DoubleTree in Bloomington. Tickets can be bought ahead of time online or at the door for $5. (Sam Stroozas)

‘Concert for Peace’ at Sundin Hall in St. Paul— Oct. 18

The Chamber Music Society of Minnesota is opening its season this weekend with performances both in a formal setting and on the streets of Minneapolis. The full “Concert for Peace” will be held at Sundin Hall at 4 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 18. Among the peace-themed musical selections will be the world premieres of two new chamber works by Minnesota composer Steve Heitzeg. His works, “Variations on Peace” (for clarinet, strings and violin) and “Lament for the Martyrs of ICE Violence” (for strings) respond to the federal immigration enforcement surge last winter. Heitzeg said in a press release that he “wanted to pay tribute to the brave upstanders bearing witness to these injustices and to anyone traumatized by ICE.”

This Saturday, Oct. 17, musicians will perform a preview of Heitzeg’s “Lament for the Martyrs of ICE Violence” at the memorial sites of Renee Good at 4 p.m. and Alex Pretti at 4:30 p.m. (Emily Bright)

‘Truths of Self and Materials’ at the Duluth Art Institute — Oct. 19-Dec. 21

At the beginning of 2026, the Duluth Art Institute kicked off “We Hold These Truths,” a yearlong series of quarterly exhibitions marking the nation’s 250th anniversary.

Christina Woods, the DAI executive director (and the institute’s first Anishinaabe leader), said the DAI team wanted people to grapple with what makes something American art, and settled on a theme that “enables artists to express their truths and give opportunity for community members to come in and talk about their truth as citizens of the United States.”

The final installment, “Truths of Self and Materials,” features the work of woodworker Andrew Webster, painter Robb Quisling and textile artist Lauren Faherty.

“They're each sharing their unique lived experience with how objects hold memory,” Woods said. “A scrap of wood can hold an entire history of a building” and “a quilt can hold generations of knowledge.” (Alex V. Cipolle)

Annual Book Conversation Series featuring Patrick Hicks, University of Minnesota Crookston — Oct. 19

This year marks the fifth annual book conversation held on the University of Minnesota-Crookston campus. Patrick Hicks is an English professor and writer-in-residence at Augustana University in Sioux Falls, and his latest book, “Greater Minnesota: Exploring the Land of Sky-Blue Waters,” is a travelogue love letter to his home state. Describing the book for Art Hounds last year, author Chris Vondracek said, “I came away from it feeling just this absolute sense of how large and how boisterous and how impossibly contradictory sometimes Minnesota can be.”

The conversation, hosted by Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Rosemary Johnson, will be held at 4 p.m. at the Bede Ballroom on campus, with a Q&A, refreshments and book signing to follow. The event is free and open to the public. (Emily Bright)

A new film by a California-based filmmaker chronicles the actions of Minnesota neighbors and immigrants who faced Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents last winter.

Patrice O’Neill is the filmmaker and activist behind the film, “Minnesota Neighbors.” It’s part of a decadeslong movement spurred from a PBS documentary she created in 1995 called “Not in Our Town” about neighbors standing up to a series of hate crimes in Billings, Mont.

O’Neill said her latest documentary mirrored that piece.

“It resonated so deeply with me as I was looking at what was happening in Minnesota. It was again a community saying we cannot allow our town to be taken over.”

The film premieres at 7 p.m. at the Riverview Theater in Minneapolis.

Listen to the conversation by clicking the player above

From MPR News, Art Hounds are members of the Minnesota arts community who look beyond their own work to highlight what’s exciting in local art.

Want to be an Art Hound? Submit here.

Dreamlike landscapes in clay

Annie Dugan teaches art at the University of Wisconsin-Superior, where she also runs the Kruk Gallery. She wants people to know about a retrospective of Jim Grittner's ceramic work at Duluth Pottery that opens this weekend and runs through November. There's an artist reception Sunday, Oct. 18 from 2-4 p.m.

Grittner spent 47 years teaching at the University Wisconsin-Superior. "He taught artists that are now teaching the next generation," says Dugan.

Now 92, Grittner's recent work is his strongest yet, says Dugan:

"He works in this specific technique called terra sigillata. It's from Roman times. He's doing these abstract landscapes on these vertical pots or vases. They have this sort of ethereal quality, like landscapes from your memory or landscapes from your dreams. There's just this quiet power to his work that I think is really wonderful to see."

Explore studios and galleries at the St. Paul Art Crawl

Andy Lehner of St. Paul recommends that fellow arts appreciators check out the St. Paul Art Crawl this weekend. The event runs Friday, Oct. 16, through Sunday, Oct. 18, at 31 venues across the city, including studios, galleries and other art-centered spaces. Find a map of locations here.

People who want to contribute to the event — and to St. Paul's Halloween spirit — can enter their carved jack-o'-lanterns in a competition at Mears Park. Jack-o'-lanterns can be dropped off between 10:30 a.m. and noon on Saturday, and visitors can vote on their favorites through 5 p.m. that day.

If you’ve never been to an art crawl, Lehner says it’s an easy, drop-in event that lets you choose how much or how little you want to do:

“It really is eclectic. You can choose something in your neighborhood because it's all throughout St. Paul. You can take in as much or as little as you like!”

A documentary traces Minnesota’s mental health reforms

Bill Adams of Fergus Falls is looking forward to attending a world premiere screening of the new Pioneer PBS documentary “Lost Souls: Reforming Minnesota’s Mental Health Institutions.” The screening is Thursday, Oct. 15, at 7 p.m. at the Fergus Falls Center for the Arts. Following the screening, there will be a Q&A with Susan Bartlett, author of “The Crusade for Forgotten Souls: Reforming Minnesota’s Mental Institutions, 1946-1954,” on which the documentary was based; the Pioneer PBS producers behind the film; and Chris Schulke, retired director of the Otter Tail County Historical Society.

Adams offers a bit of background:

“The reason that it's happening in Fergus Falls is because one of the people whose story is told in the book is Anders Schey, and 100 years ago, he became a resident at the state hospital in Fergus. His daughter, Engla Schey, began working in state hospitals — not in Fergus Falls, but in other communities in Minnesota — and she saw things that needed reforming.”

The film follows the work of Engla and others who pushed for fair treatment of institutionalized patients in Minnesota and beyond.

Minnesota has a rich choral music tradition, with composers and ensembles creating new works all the time. But how does that music find its way from a composer’s desk to a choir director looking for something new to perform?

Twenty years ago, Twin Cities composers Tim Takach and Jocelyn Hagen set out to help answer that question. They started Graphite Publishing, a company that gives composers a way to distribute their sheet music while retaining a bigger share of the royalties.

Today, the business represents composers from Minnesota and around the world, while Takach and Hagen continue to write music themselves. They joined MPR News host Nina Moini to talk about their work.

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.

Subscribe to the Minnesota Now podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

We attempt to make transcripts for Minnesota Now available the next business day after a broadcast. When ready they will appear here.

Editor's note: This story contains explicit language.

Michael Che loves Minnesota.

“I love that it’s cold. I love everything about it,” the comedian, “Saturday Night Live” writer and “Weekend Update" anchor told MPR News. “It's such a dope spot to do shows. They receive everything well, and I just think with the political climate of the past five years, so many things happening there that they would probably appreciate it.”

Che released his third Netflix special, “Michael Che: Shot in Minnesota,” Tuesday. It was filmed in August over four shows at First Avenue in Minneapolis. The title is tongue-in-cheek, Che said.

“It is kind of hinting at the subject matter,” Che said. “It felt inclusive. It felt like whether it happens in Minnesota or Missouri or New York or any place that we've been seeing a lot of violence and seeing a lot of tragic sort of rebellions — it could happen to any of us. It could be anybody. It could be me.”

The special opens with black-and-white footage of downtown Minneapolis and the exterior of First Avenue with its wall of painted stars. Over 59 minutes, Che spends about 60 seconds discussing Minnesota.

After an extended opening bit about the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, the mental capacity of President Trump and his continued use of a slur for people with intellectual disabilities, Che mentioned the state for the first time.

“You know what I’m talking about, ‘cause every time I turn on the news, Minnesota is fighting some group of retards,” Che said to cheers from the crowd. “Meaning regressive. Bunch of motherfuckers trying to take all our rights away.”

Many in Minnesota may think a comedy special titled “Shot in Minnesota” would cover the police killings of Daunte Wright and Philando Castile, or the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents earlier this year during Operation Metro Surge.

Che said the title is meant to be taken more universally.

“It's not necessarily about those people individually,” Che said. “You have to be very careful, and making jokes about things like that, and keeping the mood up for a special — you know, it is a comedy special — I didn't want to invoke those names in a joking way and sort of kill what we were trying to do. But it's really more about the frustration of what's happening, as opposed to the nuts and bolts of everything that's ever happened.”

In the special, Che made another Minnesota reference.

“I also do a lot of business in Minnesota. Y’all don’t know this, but I own like three daycares,” Che said, pausing for cheers. “Say what you will, it’s a great no-show job, I promise you.”

The joke referred to allegations of fraud against the childcare centers run by Somali people in the Twin Cities, but Che told MPR News it was more of “a wink at the people in the crowd.”

While the special is meant for the world at large, Che said he wanted to let people know “I am paying attention and I do know where I am, and something to catch them off guard.”

Minneapolis comedian Comrade Tripp watched the special and noted the joke seemed like a throwaway line.

“I’d love more than a wink. A wink is a dog whistle that even less people can understand,” Tripp said. “That stigma of corruption and fraud — propagating that is not helpful.”

Tripp said he views the special as more narrow, an exploration of Che’s own celebrity identity and relationships.

“Any reference to Minnesota is limited. It's more of a personal comedy special. It's not an hourlong ‘Weekend Update’ segment,” Tripp said.

Tripp said he’s also seen how Che has formed a personal connection to Minnesota.

“Whenever he is in town, he does support the local, independently run comedy venues,” said Tripp, pointing to Che’s past stops at Sisyphus Brewing and The Comedy Corner Underground in Minneapolis. “The same can't be said for any other comedian of that caliber.”

Che recalled the time he came to Minnesota in 2022 to do a “college gig” at Winona State University and stayed in Minneapolis, dropping in at local comedy clubs and bar shows.

“It was a really good time. It was sort of the start of this material, a lot of the bones,” Che said. “Feels good to have that full circle.”

Author Jack el-Hai is a master at identifying lost historical moments and turning them into fascinating nonfiction books.

The Minneapolis-based author did it with "The Psychiatrist and the Nazi," which was adapted into the film "Nuremberg,” which starred Russell Crowe as Hermann Göring and Rami Malek as the psychiatrist sent to evaluate whether high-ranking Nazi war criminals were mentally competent to stand trial.

Now, el-Hai is back with another true story centered around a high-profile relationship. "The Case of the Autographed Corpse" follows an Apache spiritual leader who was convicted in 1933 of killing his wife. Silas John Edwards insisted from the beginning he was wrongfully convicted. But it wasn't until he reached out to mystery writer Earl Stanley Gardner that his case got attention.

Gardner is best known as the creator of Perry Mason, the fictional detective at the center of scores of books and a hit TV series. He was also deeply committed to investigating possible cases of wrongful convictions. In the 1940s, he started an organization called the Court of Last Resort, similar to today's Innocence Project.

When Gardner got a letter from Edwards pleading for help, he was struck by the confidence of the Apache man and agreed to take the case.

Known for his meticulous research, el-Hai was able to trace Gardner’s path as he traversed Arizona to find witnesses and clues. In the end, he was able to get Edwards freed. But his work also revealed the racial tensions inherent in Edwards’ wrongful conviction.

"Silas John was proud of the Apaches' history and spiritual past, and he wanted them to be able to determine their own lives and fates while living on these Apache reservations of Arizona, and it was very difficult for them to do so,“ said el-Hai. “Gardner, in the same vein, was exceptionally proud of the American system of justice and, as a result, determined to identify its flaws and fix them. So [pride is] really the common denominator between these men. And I think pride is something we all feel, and that I hope will will resonate with readers today."

To mark the launch of "The Case of the Autographed Corpse," Magers and Quinn Booksellers is hosting a conversation Thursday night, Oct. 15, between el-Hai and James Mayer, the legal director of the Great North Innocence Project. The event is free, but registration is recommended.

A library in Minneapolis is celebrating 40 years of collecting and lending LGBTQ+ books, movies and other materials.

Quatrefoil Library started in 1986 as a personal collection shared among friends. Today, it has more than 25,000 items and more than 11,000 library card holders. And the library says that number doubled just in 2026.

Iggy Gehlen is the board vice president and programming chair at Quatrefoil. He talked with MPR News host Nina Moini about the importance of the library and its recent enormous growth in members.

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.

Subscribe to the Minnesota Now podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

We attempt to make transcripts for Minnesota Now available the next business day after a broadcast. When ready they will appear here.

Generations of children have run and climbed their way through the Minnesota Children’s Museum.

They've shopped for plastic food at the pretend farmers' market, launched ping-pong balls, whooshed down the giant spiral slide and blown bubbles at the wacky car wash.

MPR News host Angela Davis talks with the museum’s president Dianne Krizan about how the museum is doing following its post-COVID attendance slump, why play is so important for kids and how the museum is trying to help address anxiety in young children.

Guest:

• Dianne Krizan is the president of the Minnesota Children's Museum and a champion for children's wellbeing and play. The museum announced earlier this fall that she'll be retiring in June 2027 after leading the St. Paul institution for more than 17 years.

Subscribe to the MPR News with Angela Davis podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify or RSS.

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.    

Amy Erickson of Bluebird Books in Detroit Lakes loved the novel “Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt” by Ben Reeves, but it’s a difficult one to describe. The book is about a man named Travis, who lives in a normal apartment with a cat and has a job he takes seriously: he is literally Death.

“Please don't let that put you off, because it is actually really fascinating,” says Erickson.

Giving Death a name is not a punchline, nor is it morbid. Travis visits people in their final moments, offers comfort, and delivers them to where they go next (which is not specified in the book). Because Travis is constantly aware of everyone, everywhere, the novel is filled with vignettes and snippets of the lives of ordinary people in a way that reminded Erickson of Allen Levi’s blockbuster novel, “Theo of Golden.”

Travis does not intervene with a person’s fate. He avoids making friends with the living until he is drawn into the lives of the woman and her two daughters living across the hall, who invite him to take part in the precious moments of everyday life.

“It is so well written. I just fell in love with this book,” says Erickson.

Subscribe to the Thread newsletter for the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.

Giant pumpkin growers and their massive gourds will converge on Monday in Northern California for an annual pumpkin-weighing contest, competing for the top prize and a chance to challenge the world record set just last week in England.

At least 30 growers of giant pumpkins have signed up for the 53rd World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon Bay, south of San Francisco, said event spokesman Ronan Fowler.

Among the participants is four-time champion Travis Gienger, a horticulture teacher from Minnesota, whose winning streak ended last year after he was unable to participate because his pumpkin broke while it was still growing.

Gienger, who this year had to deal with temperatures that dipped below freezing, grew a pumpkin whose circumference is so big it could be a world record contender, Fowler said.

Fowler said last week that Gienger and his father planned to take turns driving 30 hours over the weekend to get the pumpkin the size of a small car to California.

The new world record was set by Ian Paton, of Lymington, on England's south coast, with a giant squash weighing 2,857 pounds. That's heavier than two and a half concert grand pianos.

Paton grows his giant gourds in a greenhouse, while Gienger grows them in the pumpkin patch in his backyard in Anoka, a city on the banks of the Mississippi River north of Minneapolis, Fowler said.

“The fact that Travis can weather the elements, like 30-degree weather, and still grow this massive pumpkin is pretty unbelievable,” the spokesman said.

Brandon Dawson, of Santa Rosa, California, who won the top prize last year with a behemoth of a pumpkin weighing 2,346 pounds, will also compete.

The pumpkin champ this year will win $9 per pound of pumpkin and have their lumpy gourd showcased during a parade through Half Moon Bay this weekend. If they break the world record, they will take an extra prize of $30,000.

Monday’s festivities, which will kick off the city's fall celebration, will also include a special appearance by pumpkin carver Mike Valladao.

Sadly, these giants are grown for their size, not flavor, so there will be no giant pumpkin pies at the end of the festival.

Indigenous Peoples Day is a time to celebrate the history, cultures and contributions of Native people. But it’s also an opportunity to reflect on what’s happening in Native communities today.

MPR News host Angela Davis talks with two Native leaders about the ways Native communities in Minnesota are thriving, the challenges they continue to face and what the future holds for the next generation.

Guests:

• Amber Annis is the executive director of Native Governance Center, where she works to support Native leadership and tribal sovereignty. She is a citizen of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe.

• Nikki Love is the executive director of the Tiwahe Foundation, a Minnesota-based organization that supports Native leadership, cultural preservation, and economic opportunity through grants, leadership opportunities and community programs. She is Bois Forte Anishinaabe.

Subscribe to the MPR News with Angela Davis podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify or RSS.

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.   

Hundreds of people lined the St. Croix River to watch four “pilots” race down the river in giant, hollowed out pumpkins Sunday.

The Pumpkin Regatta at the 21st annual Stillwater Harvest Fest is one of only a few across the country. This year, the weather was especially favorable for viewing and racing.

Stillwater native Tim Brown, who has competed every year for the last decade, took home the first place trophy for the third time.

“I think the first time I won was in 2016 so to be able to do it in my mid-40s is pretty cool,” Brown said.

The regatta is a family affair for Brown who was competing alongside his cousin and past winner, Matthew Schmidt.

“Happy to beat my cousin — that’s the biggest goal,” said Brown.

For first-time racer, Laura Fairchild, it was less about winning and more about honoring her son, Justin Ross Fairchild who served in the U.S. Army and died in 2007.

No matter who took home the trophy, though, the four racers all walked away with a unique experience — and perspective into what it takes to navigate a giant pumpkin down a river.

“It’s not as easy as it looks,” Brown said. “Who would’ve thought a pumpkin could float and be paddled?”

A growing get-together

The Stillwater Harvest Fest began as a giant pumpkin weigh-off more than 20 years ago. It’s since grown into a two-day event that now includes live music, food trucks, vendors and, of course, the regatta.

Cassie McLemore, director of events for Summer Tuesday, Inc, says as the festival has gotten bigger — so have the pumpkins.

For perspective, in 2010, a pumpkin at the Stillwater Harvest Fest weighing around 1,800 pounds broke the world record for largest pumpkin. The largest pumpkin at the festival this year weighed-in at 2,305 pounds.

“[The St. Croix Growers Association] has a really robust group of growers that have been doing it a long time,” McLemore said. “They use the seeds from the year before to grow bigger pumpkins the next year.”

When the pumpkins used in the regatta were hollowed out before the race, event organizers shared the seeds with lucky spectators.

By this time next year, there will be a whole new crop of giant pumpkins to weigh and paddle in.

To mark the fall member drive, Kerri Miller dips back into three conversations she’s had this year with authors who write about nature — and thus, wrestle with what they see climate change doing to our planet. How do we live richly in the midst of a great unraveling?

We start by revisiting the Big Books and Bold Ideas with Terry Tempest Williams, a writer and teacher at the Harvard School of Divinity. Her latest book is "The Glorians: Visitations from the Holy Ordinary," which itself is a meditation on attending to beauty and carrying forward against all odds.

Naturalist Robert Macfarlane's new book "The Book of Birds” — done in collaboration with artist Jackie Morris — is an ode to our avian friends. Macfarlane insists he's not a birder; he's just an appreciator. But he's thoughtful and poetic about what he observes. He says he wrote "The Book of Birds" to reignite a sense of wonder about about birds because "we will not save what we do not love."

Author Cal Flynn lives on a remote island off the coast of Scotland, so maybe it's no surprise that she's obsessed with wilderness. Research for her new book, "The Savage Landscape," led her to climb mountains, plunge into forests and helicopter to volcanoes. But more than adventure, Flynn was in search of what these wild places mean for humanity.

Subscribe to Big Books and Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS or anywhere you get your podcasts.

Subscribe to the Thread newsletter for the latest book and author news and must-read recommendations.

MN Shortlist is the MPR News weekly roundup of arts and culture recommendations. This week’s picks include “Sweet Revenge” by the Native-led group Mni Giizhik Theatre Ensemble, a square Brainerd art show and more.

‘Andy DuCett: Home(town)’ at the Minnesota Marine Art Museum in Winona — Through Jan. 24, 2027

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The exhibition name says it all: Minneapolis-based artist Andy DuCett has created an homage to his hometown of Winona through a series of art installations that appear like interlocking theater sets at the Minnesota Marine Art Museum. The presentation is the middle ground for small-town mythologies, society and nostalgia.

“It talks about Winona as a small town on a river, as kind of an ‘Every Space, U.S.A,’ but also some of the particularities of Winona and its architecture and its histories and all those sorts of things rolled up into one,” DuCett said.

DuCett and a team of artists he’s tapped (Mark Dion, Allen Brewer, Carolyn Swiszcz, Deb Sokolow, Eric Carroll and Trever Hagen), have crafted a Zamboni, the old Hot Fish Shop, the main street “Toppers Tower” castle and a booth straight out of Rocco’s Pub and Pizza. The unseen inhabitants of this Winona leave traces of their daily life behind, DuCett says, be that new issues of the local paper or other ephemera.

“This exhibition is temporal, and it will start doing things as the calendar gets deeper into the fall,” DuCett said. (Alex V. Cipolle)

‘Sweet Revenge’ at Red Eye Theatre in Minneapolis — Oct. 9-17

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Native-led theater group Mni Giizhik Theatre Ensemble and Exposed Brick Theatre present the world premiere of “Sweet Revenge,” written by Marcie Rendon. A preview show will be held on Friday, Oct. 9, at 7 p.m. at Red Eye Theater.

The play, described as a true crime comedy, follows a middle-aged Native woman named Maggie as she works to make ends meet with her two grandchildren and grandmother while in a south Minneapolis apartment. Meanwhile in their neighborhood, a serial killer targets ice cream truck drivers, which brings homicide detective John into Maggie’s life. It follows themes of family, struggle and community.

Sequoia Hauck is co-founder of Mni Giizhik Theatre Ensemble and the play’s director. Hauck says the play was first written 20 years ago.

“It feels like it's of the time,” Hauck said. “It's set in right now, but it has those notions of, ‘Oh yeah, these things are circular, these things happen again.’”

“Sweet Revenge” showings are held at Red Eye Theater through Sat., Oct. 17. All performances will have open captions and sensory kits. A show with ASL and audio description will be held Friday, Oct. 16, at 7 p.m.

Tickets are pay-what-you-can and are available on Exposed Brick Theatre’s website. (Chandra Colvin)

‘Kunene and the King’ at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis — Oct. 10-Nov. 9

The Guthrie opens previews for its second production of the 2026-27 season, “Kunene and the King,” a day before its first, the popular “Waiting for Godot” closes.

The shows are similar in that they center a relationship between two men. But whereas “Godot” could take place most anywhere, “Kunene” is set in post-apartheid South Africa where Lunga Kunene, a “no-nonsense” Black caregiver, tussles it out with his client, Jack Morris, a privileged white actor preparing for the lead role in “King Lear” while also managing a serious health diagnosis.

The Tony-winning South African playwright John Kani not only wrote the play loosely inspired by “King Lear,” he will star as Kunene (Marvel fans may recognize Kani from his role as T’Chaka in “Black Panther” and “Captain America: Civil War”). Previews start Oct. 10, with opening night Oct. 15. (Alex V. Cipolle)

75th anniversary celebration at Theatre in the Round in Minneapolis — Oct. 10

Since the closing of the Old Log Theater in Excelsior in 2024, Theatre in the Round has been the longest-running theater in the metro area. The Minneapolis theater celebrates its 75th anniversary 7-11 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 10.

Executive director Larisa Netterlund says the party will have a “time tunnel” displaying artifacts from the theater’s history as well as live music and dancing, “an homage to our building's previous life as Bimbo's dance hall and pizza emporium.”

Theatre in the Round moved into the West Bank building, its second home, in 1969, after Bimbo’s had a fire.

“There was four months from acquiring the building to putting on the first show,” Netterlund told MPR News. “There was literally a hole where the stage is because there was a fire, and it was thousands of volunteer hours to turn it into a theater, which I think is just the perfect picture of what Theatre in the Round is.”

Because of its long history, Netterlund says people forget that Theatre in the Round is a community theater.

“People of any level of experience can come in at some place in the theater and learn how it works. So they can come to our workshops. They can come learn how to build sets or costumes,” Netterlund said. “Anyone can come audition.”

The 75th season features shows that are by or about Minnesotans, starting with “The Great Gatsby" in September. The season continues Oct. 23-Nov. 1 with “The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane,” based on the novel by Minnesota author Kate DiCamillo. (Alex V. Cipolle)

8x8 Community Art Exhibition at The Crossing Arts in Brainerd — Oct. 13-Nov. 7

What can you do with a blank square canvas? Whatever you like! This summer, the Crossing Arts Alliance distributed nearly 200 blank 8-by-8-inch canvases —the size of a small brownie pan —and invited people to make art.

The resulting 8x8 Community Art Exhibit is a joyful display of diversity: nearly 200 works by artists of all ages, from dabblers to professionals.

The art show is also Crossing Arts’ biggest annual fundraiser: The works are all up for auction, with online bidding running Oct. 18-25. While the exhibit remains open through Nov. 7, people can start to pick up their purchased pieces on Oct. 27, so visit early to see the full display. (Emily Bright)

Tall people can find community at a Minneapolis event next week.

Tall Tour makes its first stop in Minnesota on Oct. 16, with a meetup at Tom’s Watch Bar in downtown Minneapolis. The event series is known nationwide for gathering the vertically gifted and being a space where they blend in.

“When I first started out, it was almost like an out-of-body experience,” founder Tyler Bergantino said. “It was very surreal to be in a crowd where everybody was — it sounds so weird, but — just face-to-face.”

How the Tall Tour came to be

Bergantino, who is 6-foot-9, said the concept started as content for social media over a year ago. When traveling in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, he made a post inviting tall people to meet up for on-camera interviews. The resulting videos performed well. More and more people showed up when he made similar invites in Las Vegas and Los Angeles.

“I thought it was something I could do when I go to these cities, but the demand was so strong that I was like, ‘OK, we got to actually plan it out like a tour,’” he said.

Bergantino now organizes events across the country with Julie Pirrone, who is 5-foot-11, running logistics.

Event gives tall people a place to connect

While being taller than average comes with some privilege, they told MPR News about downsides.

“Puberty is already hard, but gosh, when I was 6 feet, 7 inches in eighth grade, that was tough,” Bergantino said. “I was a circus animal, basically, at school.”

“I was always stopped at the grocery store, like, ‘Oh wow, you must play basketball,’” Pirrone said. “I was not able to shop in normal stores because anytime I would try to buy a pair of jeans or sweatpants, they came up to my calf.”

At Tall Tour, they said, attendees can find tips on where to shop, befriend fellow giants and feel normal.

What to expect at Tall Tour Minneapolis

The Minneapolis meetup marks Tall Tour’s expansion into the Midwest beyond Chicago. Other stops include Milwaukee, Indianapolis and Kansas City, Mo.

“Apparently, this is where the tallest people in the country are, by rumor,” Bergantino said.

The event in Minneapolis will include the typical crowning of the tallest man and woman as king and queen, as well as social time, music and themed drinks. Among those are a huge-o spritz, margari-tall and XXL espresso martini.

Despite the name, Tall Tour is open to people of all sizes. Bergantino aims for events to be inclusive, acknowledging someone may be the tallest in their family without actually being that tall, and that tall people may have short loved ones.

Tickets to the Minneapolis event start at $25. Attendees must be 21 or older.

Tall Tour’s app VIP — short for Vertically Inclined People — has a minimum height requirement of 5-foot-8 for women and 6-foot-1 for men. Pirrone said the app, which launched this summer, features a height-verified community with discounts on tall brands and space for locals to connect.

From MPR News, Art Hounds are members of the Minnesota arts community who look beyond their own work to highlight what’s exciting in local art.

Want to be an Art Hound? Submit here.

Monstrous laughs with ‘Young Frankenstein’

Actor Dane Stauffer of St. Paul loves Mel Brooks’ movie “Young Frankenstein,” and he’s expecting the musical version of the show to be just as funny when it’s brought to life at the hands of Theatre 55. The show runs Oct. 9-25 at the Gremlin Theatre in St. Paul.

Theatre 55 casts actors ages 55 and older. Stauffer says, “As someone who is aging creatively, I enjoy seeing other folks get involved too without any barriers. There's so much talent on the stage, and so much talent behind the scenes in directing and everything.”

Finding ‘defiant joy’ through dance

Laichee Yang, an artist and designer based in Little Falls, was able to see a rehearsal of Ananya Dance Theatre’s new show “PREM | Love: An Occupation.” She says she was incredibly moved by the performance, which was created as a response to Operation Metro Surge. The dancers and artists move through grief, love and what they’re calling “defiant joy.”

The show runs Oct. 10-17 at the Southern Theater in Minneapolis. All performances begin at 7:30 p.m. Some performances include American Sign Language interpretation; others are designated “masks requested.”

Yang describes the performance:

"There were moments of shaking and trembling, and bodies pushing through space, and it really made me think about the idea of individual grief as well as shared grief. There was something really beautiful about witnessing all of the dancers carrying their emotions together, and it really made me think about just how we are feeling each other's humanity. And how can we feel it if we're not here to witness each other's grief?”

The heart and soul of Fred Cogelow’s woodcarvings

Rosemary Glesener is the director of the Bird Island Cultural Centre, and she adores the sculptures of master woodcarver Fred Cogelow of Willmar.

Glesener attended the unveiling of two new sculptures as part of Cogelow’s exhibit “Coming Home.” The exhibit, presented by the Cogelow Art Center, features a large selection of his woodcarvings, along with work by four area artists, at the Kandiyohi County Historical Society in Willmar through Oct. 30.

Glesener admires the way Cogelow captures the heart and soul of the characters he carves:

“I personally call him the Michelangelo of contemporary times … [Fred] will do a sketch, whether it's at the farmers market or at the mall, of someone he finds intriguing, and from that sketch, he captures the emotion and also the physical animation of the individuals. He should be considered not only a Minnesota treasure, but an American treasure in the arts.”

A new LGBTQ+ magazine and website has launched in Minnesota, three months after Lavender Magazine shut down its operations after a 30-year run. Lavender was a mainstay for the LGBTQ+ community in the state.

Q Minnesota was created by several former Lavender staffers. The very first issue came out last Thursday.

For more about the launch and what’s ahead, MPR News host Nina Moini spoke with Q Minnesota editor-in-chief and publisher, Andy Lien, and vice president of digital content and marketing, Nell Gelhaus.

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.

Subscribe to the Minnesota Now podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

We attempt to make transcripts for Minnesota Now available the next business day after a broadcast. When ready they will appear here.

All 46 member musicians of the Minnesota Opera Orchestra have voted to authorize a strike after they say Minnesota Opera management declined cost-of-living increases in addition to other demands.

“Striking is always the very last thing that we want to do,” said Rebecca Arons, who has been a cellist with the opera for 29 years. “We want to play. We're really looking forward to the start of the season, which is Oct. 31, and we are hoping that we can get to an agreement before then.”

The opera’s 2026-27 season is set to begin on Halloween with the world premiere of “The Many Deaths of Laila Starr.” The musicians are members of the American Federation of Musicians, Twin Cities Local 30-73.

Arons, who is chair of the negotiating committee, said management “started out with suggesting cuts to the orchestra, and now the suggestion is to keep our salary flat. It has been flat for the last four years.”

Minnesota Opera management shared a statement with MPR News that it is disappointed with the strike authorization announcement.

The statement also said the opera “is committed to reaching a fair and sustainable agreement that supports our orchestra musicians and protects the organization’s long-term artistic and financial health. While we respectfully disagree with several characterizations made by the Union — including the cost and impact of its proposal — we want to work through our differences at the bargaining table.”

Musicians in the Minnesota Opera Orchestra last authorized a strike in 2023. Arons said it avoided a strike after negotiations established a guaranteed minimum salary for musicians, even though it meant a pay cut. During those negotiations, Arons said the union conceded to no wage increases because “we were coming out of the pandemic.”

If the Minnesota Opera’s current contract proposal is adopted, Arons said that would mean eight years without a cost-of-living increase.

A Minnesota Opera web page titled “Claims Vs. Facts” states that orchestra compensation has increased because scale rates of pay and pension did not remain flat.

The union also claims that in the past four years, the opera authorized an 18 to 20 percent increase in salaries for the opera’s top four paid administrative positions. The opera counters that “the salaries of the highest-paid administrative staff only increased 2 percent from FY20 to FY25. The increases to which the Union refers represent a restoration to previous pay scales from voluntary pay cuts taken during the pandemic.”

At a press conference Tuesday, violinist Ian Snyder said the Minnesota Opera Orchestra buoys the arts community.

“This is one orchestra, but when you retain this orchestra, this is what allows there to be people to teach your children in MSP, musicians to be available for Broadway shows, for ballet series,” Snyder said. “We really appreciate being part of the entire arts ecosystem, and we expect our management to invest in its community by retaining us.”

Negotiations continue Wednesday.

When Kristin Kobes Du Mez’ book “Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation” was published in 2020, it quickly became a cultural phenomenon for the way it connected evangelical hypermasculinity with support for President Donald Trump.

Now, Du Mez is back with a follow-up — but this time, she’s focused on Christian women.

“I wanted to look at the popular religious culture that shapes Christian women's lives: Christian radio, Christian publishing, romance novels, mommy blogs, influencers, multi-level marketing companies, Mary Kay, Lularoe, all of these fun things. Hobby Lobby, right? Joanna Gaines. So I thought it was going to be a fun book,” she said.

“In the end, it was not. In the end, what I ended up uncovering was just how economic and cultural and political values are embedded inside these seemingly fluffy products that actually also help us understand how we got to our political moment today."

In “Live Laugh Love: The Secret History of White Christian Women and the World They Made,” Du Mez traces the roots of modern Christian femininity to 19th century holiness theology — a type of Christianity that promises happiness if you totally surrender to God. And that's reflected by a subculture that subtly reinforces the ideals of prosperity and purity.

By revealing this often hidden world, Du Mez hopes to make some sense out of our current moment.

She will be in Minneapolis Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church for a conversation with Rev. Angela Denker about the book hosted by Magers & Quinn Booksellers. Tickets are free but RSVPs are required.

From Twin Cities art crawls to small-town galleries, fall offers plenty of ways to explore Minnesota’s arts scene. But behind the art and performances are the artists — working to find audiences, afford studio space and make a living. What helps them thrive, and how can we support creativity in our communities?

MPR News host Angela Davis explores what’s happening in Minnesota’s arts scene, how local artists are supported and where to discover art across the state this fall.

Guests:

• Mariusz Kujawski is the executive director of the St. Paul Art Collective, an organization that supports local artists and connects them with audiences.

• Michele Anderson is the senior director of partnerships and rural strategy at the nonprofit Springboard for the Arts, where she leads programs and partnerships supporting artists and creative communities in greater Minnesota.

Subscribe to the MPR News with Angela Davis podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify or RSS.

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.   

In northern Minnesota, the largest stretch of peatlands in the contiguous U.S. can be found. This wet terrain has taken thousands of years to form. And draws scientists and experts from around the world.

That includes Jennifer de Mooy, who spent quite a bit of time there researching for her new book: "Water, Carbon, Time: Exploring Peatlands in a Warming World."

Minnesota Now host Nina Moini spoke to de Mooy about these important ecosystems.

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.

Subscribe to the Minnesota Now podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

We attempt to make transcripts for Minnesota Now available the next business day after a broadcast. When ready they will appear here.

The way we build careers and make money is changing. MPR News host Angela Davis talks with journalist Lee Hawkins about how people create businesses, move forward after career setbacks and make financial decisions — and what we can learn from their journeys to success.

Guest:

• Lee Hawkins is a contributor to American Public Media — a unit of American Public Media Group, the parent company of MPR News — and a Spencer Education Fellow at Columbia University. He is a Minnesota native and a journalist who spent 19 years at The Wall Street Journal. He is the host of “Must Be the Money,” a podcast produced by Marketplace, and author of the book, "I Am Nobody’s Slave: How Uncovering My Family's History Set Me Free.” He is also host of the podcasts, “What Happened in Alabama” and “Unlocking the Gates: How the North Led Housing Discrimination in America,” produced by APM Studios.

• Chris Farrell is a senior economics contributor for MPR News and Marketplace.

Subscribe to the MPR News with Angela Davis podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify or RSS.

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.

One January night, in the future, four out-of-season tornadoes converge on Minneapolis and flatten whole blocks in minutes. That's the opening of Kawai Strong Washburn's propulsive new novel “The Names of the New World.” That storm throws together three strangers whose lives will become entangled over the next 25 years.

Washburn, who grew up in Hawaii and now lives in Minneapolis, has seen the predictive models that show the places he loves in Hawaii stand a good chance of being destroyed as the planet warms.

As the opening chapter of his new book shows, no place is climate-proof. But if the thought of supercharged storms, bleached coral reefs, and flooding Pacific islands makes you want to crawl under the bed, don't let that fear keep you from this book.

The writing is electric, the characters quickly make you feel invested, and, despite the backdrop, Washburn has zero interest in imagining a dystopia.

In his vision of the future, the human tendency toward compassion and mutual aid drive characters’ decisions, even as Mother Nature serves up harrowing challenges.

“More than anything, I'm hoping this book being out in the world gives people a vision of the future that feels worth fighting for,” Washburn said. “A vision of the future that makes people want to ask, ‘Why not? Why can we not do that? What's stopping us from doing that?’ And in their own ways, answers that move them closer to being part of the solution.”

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The Names of the New World: A Novel

Go to MPR's bookshop page to purchase this title and support indie bookstores.

Washburn got national attention for his first novel, "Sharks in the Time of Saviors." The family saga hit "Best Book of 2020" lists for a dozen major publications, and its awards include the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel and a Minnesota Book Award. Former president Barack Obama named it one of his favorite books of the year.

The book comes out Oct. 6 and Washburn will read from "Names of the New World" at an event hosted by Milkweed Books and Rain Taxi at Open Book in Minneapolis with local poet Claire Wahmanholm.

Americans in recent years have become accustomed to seeing people without homes setting up tents on sidewalks or in parks. Panhandlers at intersections. Cars with windows blocked by cardboard as the occupants sleep.

The five families Goldstone follows through modern Atlanta are less visible, but they’re right there, making your latte and trying to keep their balance on the slippery edge of homelessness. It doesn’t take much, usually a misunderstanding with a shift manager or a broken rule at an apartment, to make them lose their footing.

Readers of Adrian Nicole LeBlanc’s “Random Family” and Barbara Ehrenreich’s “Nickel and Dimed” nonfiction narratives will recognize Brian Goldstone’s approach. He embeds with families over a period of years to tell a broader story about how our country’s leaders and the policies they’ve enacted have failed our citizens.

The winner of a Pulitzer Prize, “There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America,” sensitively brings readers into the precarious existence faced by so many Americans, from sketchy emergency shelters to the pricey, run-down extended stay hotels that have bloomed on the outskirts of American cities.

The book isn’t all gloom. There are moments of beauty and joy. But anxiety infuses the stories in this book, and stress permeates every character. The subjects’ dreams are modest. They want safe housing, a decent job and a future where they can enjoy more of life’s small pleasures. It’s heartbreaking to watch even these little dreams fall away.

All the stories in this book, from low-wage airport workers struggling to make rent to single mothers forced to camp in their car, are tests of whether America is keeping its basic promise: work hard and you’ll be rewarded.

Our country has minted the first trillionaire in human history, but a growing number of working Americans can’t afford a home. Wealth inequality is increasing. Social services are disappearing. That’s a choice, Goldstone says, and a failure: “Such suffering is so unnecessary, so utterly preventable. We have the solutions. We have the resources. What we need now is the will to act.”

Read MPR News senior reporter Jon Collins full interview transcript below.

Collins: Paint a picture for me of how you settled on this specific topic, or even how you met the folks that are featured in your book.

Goldstone: My wife Elaine, who is a nurse practitioner, was working at a community health center in Atlanta, and we share a car. So every day, I would pick her up from work, and we would debrief our days. And she started to tell me about this trend she was seeing among her patients. Her patients were working, often not just one job, but multiple jobs at places like Walmart, or they were driving for Uber or Lyft, or they were packing boxes in Amazon warehouses.

What she was learning from them was that when they finished their shifts, they weren’t going to a home; they were homeless. And when she told me about that, I was stunned. Even as an educated person and someone who had even reported and researched on economic injustice and equality around the globe, I had never made the connection between work and homelessness, much less unpacked and investigated.

That really spurred me to first write a magazine story for the New Republic, following one family in Atlanta, and when that was done, I realized that I had only scratched the surface.

That there was so much more to know, and crucially that there were so many systems, not just housing, not just low wages and the volatility of work itself, but so many other systems, childcare, healthcare — that were kind of colliding to make this crisis not only possible, but I would argue, inevitable and predictable.

Collins: The conventional wisdom for Americans would be, “Well, you have a job, then you can afford a house.” But your book really illustrates the divide that many people, especially low-wage workers, are experiencing as they try to juggle everything in their lives and make it work.

Goldstone: Absolutely, for a lot of people, including me, the term “working homeless,” which is kind of at the center of this book, that term is not just contradictory; it's kind of scandalous. Many of us have been taught to believe in America that if you just work hard enough, if you just clock enough hours, you might not be able to buy a mansion, but you will at least have your most basic material needs met.

And yet for the five families who I followed for nearly six years for this book, and the many, many, many people like them, they are working and working and working some more, and it still isn't enough.

And it explodes our ideas about meritocracy — it explodes the American dream. If in the richest nation on the planet, a full-time job or multiple jobs still can't get you a roof overhead, then what is going on? And so that was really the question that was kind of hanging over my reporting throughout this period.

Collins: One of the things that really struck me from your book is the level of stress that people experience. It's not even just people stressed about their job or making a living. It's people trying to envision themselves in a stable place. It permeates every story in your book. What sort of change did you see in them during these six years?

Goldstone: There's a term that public health experts use to refer to exactly what you're describing, and that term is toxic stress. It's so important to just linger on that phrase, toxic stress.

Because that is stress that is so chronic and so debilitating that it can actually alter your brain chemistry. It can fundamentally alter your long-term trajectory. And this was especially harrowing when it came to the children in this book, to see how this toxic stress that they were plunged into and forced to endure was really choking off their futures, choking off their opportunity, choking off the rest of their lives before they had even started.

It's the stress, the ways that it then cascades into other things. The way that sleeplessness can cascade into a car accident, as happened with one person in the book, Kara, and then that leads to yet other tragic things in her life.

The important point that I really want readers to constantly be aware of is that these conditions, these circumstances are not God-given; they are not somehow natural. This isn't a Greek tragedy where these families are just struck with this unforeseen malady. Each of the circumstances documented in the book are utterly preventable.

Yes, people make choices that they regret later on. Yes, these are human beings. These are not superhuman angels or something who can do no wrong. And yet there are whole systems, whole structures just militating constantly against their stability at every turn, and that is precisely what produces that kind of deep, deep anxiety and stress on a daily basis.

Collins: Cars were also, in my mind, a character in your book to a certain degree, they serve as shelter sometimes, right? But they also are necessary in many American cities, especially Atlanta, to be able to get around, to get to work. And when something like a car falls through, everything else cascades behind.

Goldstone: Atlanta, like many cities in the country, is a place where you really have to have a car to get by. For Kara, one of the moms in the book, her car was the way that she was able to earn her income.

Because when the pandemic hit and she lost her job as a home health aide and the kids were out of school and she didn't have any childcare, she put her four kids in the car with her and started driving for DoorDash, delivering food. And so her car was literally the vehicle for her income.

There was one moment in the book where they're at a birthday party. She's taken the kids to the park to celebrate her son's birthday, and her son spills juice on her phone accidentally, and Kara just bursts into a tirade against her son.

Anyone walking by would think, “OK, this is an abusive situation. What's going on here?” But what they wouldn't know was that if this phone died, if this phone was damaged, she wouldn't be able to use her app to drive for DoorDash.

That same car becomes the closest thing that they have to shelter when Kara and the kids are forced to sleep in her car in a Walmart parking lot, terrified that a cop will knock on the window and call Child Protective Services and take the kids away.

Cars are central, and when people ultimately lose their car because they can't make the car payment anymore, and it gets repossessed, that's just one more kind of part of the safety net that has been shredded for these families.

Collins: You really can't talk about income inequality or poverty in the United States without also talking about race. First off, what sort of impacts do you see on folks in that regard? And how did you approach it as a white journalist?

Goldstone: There's a cliche in this country that anyone can become homeless, anyone can experience poverty, that it's colorblind, and to some extent, that's true. There are people from all kinds of backgrounds and of all races who experience this kind of homelessness.

And yet, in Atlanta, where the book is based, even though Atlanta is no longer a majority Black city, an astonishing 93 percent of families who are homeless are Black. That racialized dimension is really replicated in every city around the country.

Here in the Twin Cities, we know that Black and Indigenous families and individuals are overwhelmingly represented in the homeless population. So homelessness is not as colorblind as we would like to believe, and that has a history. There's an entire history of displacement, segregation, dispossession and displacement behind these disparities.

Going into this project, I really wanted to have this kind of demographic plurality. I wanted to have people from many backgrounds — the white working-class family. But the truth was, as I started going to food pantries on Saturday morning and going to shelters, everyone there was Black.

And so I had to confront the question of “What will it mean as a white man to do work where it is going to be primarily about not just black families and individuals, but lots of single mothers as well?”

I just tried to be as acutely conscious at every point in this process of the biases that I was bringing to this, the ignorance that I was bringing. And I hope that some of that ignorance, some of that naivete, was actually productive because it allowed me to have a kind of curiosity about what these families were experiencing.

But that's a question, among many other questions, that really kept me up at night, and that I think anyone doing this work needs to really struggle with.

Collins: Gender was also a huge theme. You saw it repeated over and over in these families that much of the burden falls on the women in the family. Not all of it, of course, but the women in the family and the girls in the family carry a lot of the burdens. How did you think about that, and how did you sort of navigate that fact?

Goldstone: It's absolutely true that in the population of working homeless families, and really just homeless families, they are disproportionately headed by single mothers.

I didn't go out looking for this, but when I met a family where it was a two-parent household, in the book, their names are Maurice and Natalia, it also felt very crucial to show that even in a two-parent household, even with a father who is absolutely devoted to his children and to his spouse, they too can [be] pushed into homelessness by by these larger structures.

I just learned yesterday the devastating news that Maurice died tragically in a work accident. It feels very raw for me because Maurice was so determined that through allowing me to tell his family stories, that this crisis would finally be addressed, and that people would no longer feel the shame of experiencing the kind of insecurity that his own family and so many others do experience in this country.

Gender was in the mix throughout. There are a lot of really bad men in this book. I think that's the only way to put it. There are a lot of men who are not there for their children or their partners, and I just try to show the reality of what was happening, in all of its messiness and authenticity.

Collins: How do you deal with that sort of frustration that there's not a clean ending?

Goldstone: There were so many times as I was writing the book, and even during the reporting, where I wished I was writing a novel, where I could just kind of take the material I had documented, but put a happy ending on it, to give a tidy resolution. There really isn't one.

And Maurice and Natalia, I think, were the closest ones in the book to finding themselves at the end of the book in a place of of peace, and kind of making it through this absolutely tumultuous and wrenching year that they went through when they were homeless with their children living in an extended stay hotel.

I just have to allow that to be. I have to allow the fact that this isn't a novel; that this is real life. And you know, one thing that I believe now is that it's on us. It's on readers. It's on those who encountered these stories. It's on us as citizens to ensure that their ending, which is still being written, their lives, are ongoing, that their ending can find security.

I just always go back to the sheer scale and magnitude of this problem. There are so many languishing in a manufactured invisibility. The fact that as I argue, the real number of people who are unhoused in this country is conservatively about six times greater than the official number.

So close to 4 million men, women and children without homes in this country. The ending for all of those millions of men, women and children remains to be written. That is my hope: that readers will not just finish the book feeling sad, but that they will feel empowered to demand that the suffering end.

The Heights Theater has survived Prohibition, the Great Depression, World War II and COVID-19. Now, as it turns 100, the Columbia Heights movie house is celebrating with a week of events, and film offerings from every decade it’s been in operation.

On Central Avenue, the theater stands out with a towering vertical marquee spelling “Heights” in lights. It bills itself as the Twin Cities’ longest-operating movie house.

Since the silent-movie era, the Heights has been through at least six owners, multiple renovations, a firebombing by a rival projectionist and a stint as a discount theater charging just 99 cents a ticket.

Classic movies inspired generations of fans

Along the way, it has left a lasting impression on moviegoers. Medtronic co-founder Earl Bakken, who went on to develop an external pacemaker, credited a 1932 screening of “Frankenstein” at the Heights with inspiring him.

When Beatlemania swept the country, screaming fans filled its single auditorium for “A Hard Day’s Night.”

For Naomi Osborn, the Heights offered a chance to see classic movies she couldn’t find at mainstream theaters, including the 1944 film noir “Double Indemnity.”

“What made it special for me was I brought a friend who had never been to the Heights, nor had they seen Double Indemnity, and they thought black and white movies were boring. And that's the movie I used to convert them,” she said.

Osborn now runs Strange Hours, a late-night series that is part of the theater’s push to offer programming movie lovers can’t find elsewhere.

When previous owner Tom Letness retired in January, Ryan Oestreich came on board after helping revitalize the Music Box, an historic theater in Chicago.

Oestreich has already updated the Heights with a 4K laser projector and surround speakers. Plans also include showing new releases such as Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” on 70 mm film, and more late-night showings, all with the goal of getting more people off the couch and into the theater.

But some of the Heights’ appeal comes from traditions that predate streaming by decades.

Elise Foster, the theater’s manager, saw the 2025 drama “Hamnet” with accompaniment from the Heights’ house organist. She said the experience was unforgettable.

“Watching the organ being played and seeing you know the red curtain’s part when the show started, and just thinking, like, wow, this is truly a show. It's a performance. It is larger than just you know hitting play on a movie,” Foster said.

As it welcomes new generations of fans, the theater hopes to keep its traditional charm, along with fresh popcorn made daily.

Heights Theater centennial screenings

Saturday, Oct. 3: “Pinocchio” at 11 a.m., with live organ music; “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” at 4:30 p.m.; and “The Matrix” at 6:30 and 9:30 p.m., in 35 mm. The later “Matrix” screening includes an introduction by Natalie Marlin.

Sunday, Oct. 4: “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” at 1 p.m., with organ music before the film; “It Happened One Night” at 4:45 p.m.; and “Safety Last!” at 7:15 p.m., with a live organ score by Ed Copeland.

Monday, Oct. 5: “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” at 4:30 p.m. and “Chicago” at 7 p.m.

Tuesday, Oct. 6: “Chicago” at 4:15 p.m. and “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” at 7 p.m.

Wednesday, Oct. 7: “Parasite” at 7 p.m.

Thursday, Oct. 8: “Babylon” at 7 p.m., in 70 mm, closing the festival on the theater’s 100th birthday.

Thankfully for the hotel guests — and mystery readers — Miss Marple is there, observing from the sidelines and taking it all in.

As Foley told Kerri Miller at Talking Volumes, “Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel” is the first full-length, commissioned novel featuring Agatha Christie’s beloved Miss Marple in fifty years. The challenge was translating her into a more modern sensibility.

Talking Volumes: Lucy Foley

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“[Miss Marple] would definitely not describe herself as a feminist icon,” Foley told Miller on stage at The O'Shaughnessy. “I think she would say, ‘I’m just a traditional Victorian who believes in traditional Victorian values.’ But in terms of her creation, she absolutely is, because she’s an old lady who uses her invisibility as an older woman as her superpower.”

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Agatha Christie fans since childhood, Foley and Miller also talk about the magic of Christie’s mysteries and her belief in the importance of “fair play” with the reader. Is it really possible all the clues are hidden in plain sight? Foley says absolutely. Because what’s the fun of a mystery novel if you can’t figure out who done it?

The appropriately mysterious and magical Minneapolis-based musician Aby Wolf provided music for the evening.

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