
Meet Emily Bright
Emily Bright is a newscaster and weekend host at MPR News. She produces two weekly arts and books features, Art Hounds and Ask a Bookseller, and also fills in as a host for other shows across MPR News. Emily has worked for MPR News since 2017.
Emily came to radio with a background in writing and teaching, having taught English at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities and the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire for several years.
Before MPR News, she worked as community features editor at WXPR in Rhinelander, Wis. Her freelance work in print and radio has appeared in MinnPost, “KFAI - 10,000 Fresh Voices,” “PRX Re-mix,” and Brains On!, a science podcast for kids from American Public Media. She also cowrote and produced season three and four of KFAI's “MinneCulture” podcast.
Emily holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Williams College and a master’s degree in poetry from the University of Minnesota. She is the author of the forthcoming poetry collection, “Fierce Delight: Poems of Early Motherhood” (North Star Press, 2025) and co-author of “Powerful Ideas in Teaching: Creating Environments Where Students Want to Learn.”
Emily loves Minnesota's thriving literary scene. She’s also happy to live in a state with an official state muffin (blueberry).
You can find Emily Bright on X.
Recent Contributions
- Ask a Bookseller: ‘The Pretender’ by Jo Harkin
- MN Shortlist, June 20-26: Drag shows, refugee beats, and Sherlock with a twist
- Ask a Bookseller: ‘Old School Indian’ by Aaron John Curtis
- Art Hounds: Trolls get sculptural company, a one-woman odyssey and nature-themed works at the arboretum
- Effort to open land near Boundary Waters to mining has been stripped from Congressional budget bill
- Two Minnesotans spar during Congressional hearing
- Ask a Bookseller: ‘No One Was Supposed to Die at This Wedding’ by Catherine Mack
- Art Hounds: Americana, Sondheim and Twin Cities improv
- Layoffs possible if lawmakers don't reach deal; Cleaner air in the forecast for Minnesota
- Ask a Bookseller: ‘Come Home to My Heart’ by Riley Redgate