Janet Preus will be reading from her recent release, "The Thirteenth Crime: The Ghosts of Injustice in Frontier Otter Tail County."

Grounded in true stories about a string of unpunished murders and Otter Tail County’s first hanging, The Thirteenth Crime gives voice to ordinary folks caught in extraordinary circumstances and examines the skewed perception of justice on Minnesota’s frontier.

Janet Preus is a journalist, playwright, songwriter and director who lives at her cabin in the north woods. The people of rural Minnesota are her inspiration, including those who lived in the 19th century and gave her “The Thirteenth Crime,” her first book.

Now at our new home at 201 6th Street SE, Suite 220, Minneapolis, MN 55414.

On the first Friday of each month, a puzzling group of people gathers to do a jigsaw puzzle or two. Over the highs, lows, and drama of completing a puzzle, friendships and interesting conversation emerge from the woodwork. Puzzlers of all ages and skill levels are welcome.

Minnesota author Steven Lang will read from his debut novel The Art of Falling Apart, a darkly funny and surreal story about art, obsession, and the uneasy boundary between grief and imagination.

Steven Lang is an artist and writer from Minnesota whose fiction blends humor with the uncanny and emotionally off-kilter. The Art of Falling Apart is his debut novel.

The Art of Falling Apart follows an artist preparing for his first major exhibition as his life begins to unravel—his relationship falters, his neighbor’s chaos seeps through the walls, and visions of his deceased mother begin to intrude on his work. By turns unsettling and darkly funny, the novel examines the costs of artistic obsession and the strange ways grief reshapes reality.

Fresh off the book’s May 9th release, Tiffany Payne will be sharing selected passages from Piecing Me Together. This event is a perfect opportunity to meet the author, ask questions, and get your copy personalized.

Piecing Me Together bravely explores the hidden threads between toxic patriarchal religion and toxic dating patterns. Personal and therapeutic insights guide Tiffany's powerful reclamation of her narrative as she rebuilds piece by piece.

Follow Tiffany here:

• Instagram

• Website

Please join us for a poetry reading by local favorites George J. Farrah, Paula Cisewski, and Elisabeth Workman.

Please join us as S.M. Garbers reads from their latest novel: Reaper of Resistance.

Reaper of Resistance is a dark sapphic fantasy with political intrigue and morally gray characters, perfect for readers of The Poppy War and the character dynamics of Six of Crows.

As loyalty fractures, devotion turns volatile, and betrayal leaves nothing unscathed.

On the first Friday of each month, a puzzling group of people gathers to do a jigsaw puzzle or two. Over the highs, lows, and drama of completing a puzzle, friendships and interesting conversation emerge from the woodwork. Puzzlers of all ages and skill levels are welcome.

Join us as Nick Narigon reads from his debut novel, Montuga: The Spheres of Trivandré.

In Montuga: The Spheres of Trivandré, follow Faud Medina, a centuries-old Aztec shaman and shapeshifter, who grows a magical strain of marijuana inside a burial crypt in the American Southwest. To save a remote orphanage, as well as the future of humanity, Faud joins a ragtag team of shapeshifters assembled by the mysterious thunderbird Po’Pay to battle the nefarious goat man Humberto—and Faud’s own demons.

Website: https://hayseedpress.com/

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Please join us for a reading by local poet Annette Gagliardi of her latest book, Benevolence .

Benevolence has recieved the John C. Rezmerski award.

Join us for the release of our "Road" issue, featuring fiction, poetry and memoir about fugitives, rovers, and other travelers. Readings by John-Ivan Palmer, Tony Rauch, and the Whistling Shade editorial staff.

Whistling Shade is a literary journal and small press located in St. Paul, MN.

A collection of writers from Shipwreckt Books will be reading from Volume 10 of Lost Lake Folk Opera. Through poetry, prose, and other formats, this issue is centered on the fallout from the ICE occupation of Minnesota.

Readings by: Ted King, Mike Hazard, Julie Martin, Rita Moe, Dougie Padilla, Thomas R. Smith, J.D. Fratzke, Rob Hardy, and Tom Driscoll.

Join us in celebrating the release of Bald Fade, Cow Tipping Press' newest chapbook of poetry and prose. Featuring live readings and Q&A with the authors, this event is free and open to all.

Cow Tipping Press teaches and publishes writing by people with intellectual/developmental disabilities, giving audiences a new way to think about this rich form of human diversity in practice and in print.

Now at our new home at 201 6th Street SE, Suite 220, Minneapolis, MN 55414.

On the first Friday of each month, a puzzling group of people gathers to do a jigsaw puzzle or two. Over the highs, lows, and drama of completing a puzzle, friendships and interesting conversation emerge from the woodwork. Puzzlers of all ages and skill levels are welcome.

Now at our new home at 201 6th Street SE, Suite 220, Minneapolis, MN 55414.

Bring a project to share! Can be a work-in-progress, sketch, outline, or anything else.

We will be having an open discussion about our artistic goals with an opportunity to share our own projects for those who would like to do so!

Please join poets Jane Dickerson, Marie Rickmyer, and Rita Moe as they read from their respective books and new work.

Jane Dickerson “found” the title to her most recent book in a letter written by Ken Kesey following the death of his teen-aged son Jed. In Phoenixbirds, she writes about losses in the natural world, the mysteries of birds, experiences in the Deaf world, and her West Virginia roots & family.

Marie Rickmyer, the author of On the Verge, is both a poet and craft chef. Her poetry and cookbook promise to warm hearts and toes while melting ice off our eyelashes and fingers.

As poet Jim Moore has said, the poems in Marie’s new book are “both heart-breaking and inspiring.”

A poet, a protestor, & a native of Minneapolis, Rita Moe remembers when ice was what we pestered the milkman for when he made his morning deliveries. Rita earned an MFA from Hamline University, where she developed a fondness for writing in various poetic forms. She’s the author of Findley Place: a Street, a Ballpark, a Neighborhood and Sins and Disciplines.

Light refreshments will be served.

If you can, please bring a non-perishable food item for the Keystone Community Food Shelf in St. Paul.

Please join local poet Stanley Kusunoki as he reads from his recent poetry release, Natural Life—A Poetic Field Guide.

Kusunoki will be joined by fellow poets, Mary Jo Thompson and Marg Walker.

Stanley Kusunoki is the author of five collections of poetry; 180 Days—Reflections and Observations of a Teacher, Items in the News ; Shelter in Place—Poems in a Time of COVID-19, and Social Studies—Poetry as History, Ethics and Journalism, ; and Natural Life.

Mary Jo Thompson’s poetry collection, Stunt Heart, was selected by Henri Cole for the Backwaters Poetry Prize and published in 2017.

Marg Walker is a lifelong writer who pursues her abiding interest in the human voice through poetry and choral music.

Now at our new home at 201 6th Street SE, Suite 220, Minneapolis, MN 55414.

On the first Friday of each month, a puzzling group of people gathers to do a jigsaw puzzle or two. Over the highs, lows, and drama of completing a puzzle, friendships and interesting conversation emerge from the woodwork. Puzzlers of all ages and skill levels are welcome.

A fundraiser for those affected by ICE terror, hosted by Tim Nolan. Come hear the local writers of the recent anthology ICE OUT. Guests include: Ted King, Lynette Reini-Grandell, Scott Vetsch, Susan Thurston, Cass Dalglish, Loren Niemi, and Pamela Fletcher.

ICE OUT is an anthology of poetry and short prose by Minnesota writers responding to the brutality and atrocities committed by ICE agents during the US government’s so-called ‘surge’ into Minneapolis to allegedly rid the city of criminal illegal immigrants.

Canary Room is the project of Portland based songwriter Maddy Heide. Pulling from a long tradition of folk music thru many generations (Vashti Bunyan, Joni Mitchell, Bruce Cockburn, Gillian Welch, the Weather Station, etc.), Maddy pens pockets of beautiful, heart-wrenching and yet comforting song with little more than her guitar and voice.

Please join us for a Friday night book club, led by Executive Director of L.L.C.O.O.L.J. literacy non-profit, Angela.

Come by and meet other curious minds and ask that age old question that's prompted many fruitful friendships: Read any good books lately? We will center our evening on a discussion of Making Friends Can Be Murder by Kathleen West. Additionally, we will hold space for networking and introductions. 

Now at our new home at 201 6th Street SE, Suite 220, Minneapolis, MN 55414.

Bring a project to share! Can be a work-in-progress, sketch, outline, or anything else.

We will be having an open discussion about our artistic goals with an opportunity to share our own projects for those who would like to do so!

Pat Arneson will be reading from her latest mystery, The Empty Dark, and leading a rousing discussion about writing, mysteries, and equine-assisted therapy.

Pat Arneson is an author, a storyteller, a licensed clinical therapist with decades of experience in high-trauma settings, a certified equine-assisted therapist, and an adventurer who advocates living great stories, big and small.

The Empty Dark is the second book in the Maguire Mystery Series.

She made it out alive. But is she out of the woods?

Desperate for a change of pace, therapist Abby Maguire took a short assignment at an equine-assisted therapy ranch. After decades spent in the trenches of other people’s trauma, she wanted to find some calm. When dead bodies started turning up, foul play evident, it seemed she couldn’t catch a break - but, she did catch a killer.

Investigation complete and assignment extended, Abby wants nothing more than to immerse herself in doing what she does best: helping people heal. Summer turns to autumn, and the days grow short in the woods of central Minnesota. But darkness grows as the seasons change, and death is once again close at hand. Abby’s surroundings may be beautiful, serene - but not everything that is quiet is safe.

Now at our new home at 201 6th Street SE, Suite 220, Minneapolis, MN 55414.

On the first Friday of each month, a puzzling group of people gathers to do a jigsaw puzzle or two. Over the highs, lows, and drama of completing a puzzle, friendships and interesting conversation emerge from the woodwork. Puzzlers of all ages and skill levels are welcome.

Join Ryan King for a reading and signing of his gripping new dystopian novel, Fragments of Tomorrow.

Six hundred years after humanity fled Earth, Ixe lives in a city ruled by machines, created but never truly free. As their twentieth birthday approaches, exile looms—and with it, a life beyond the Bots who raised them. When a mysterious ship lands outside the city, curiosity pulls Ixe into captivity and a conflict that could change everything. Fragments of Tomorrow is a dark, tense dystopian debut about survival, identity, and the fragile hope for a future in a broken world.  

Ryan King is a Minnesota-based author whose debut novel, Fragments of Tomorrow, began as a dream that refused to let him rest until he put it to the page. By day, he works as a software engineer, but his true passion lies in storytelling and building worlds. When he’s not writing, Ryan can be found gaming, spending time with his spouse and two kids, or helping fellow authors achieve their publishing dreams.  

Now at our new home at 201 6th Street SE, Suite 220, Minneapolis, MN 55414.

Bring a project to share! Can be a work-in-progress, sketch, outline, or anything else.

We will be having an open discussion about our artistic goals with an opportunity to share our own projects for those who would like to do so!

Please join us as John-Ivan Palmer reads from his third book, Hypnotic Control: Reflections on the Nature of Staged Influence. Hypnotic Control reveals the bizarre world of stage hypnotism and how the same principles control your sense of reality itself. You may be under and not even know it.

This event will be emceed by Minneapolis musician, Joel Van Valen.

Son of a nightclub magician and Croatian actress, John-Ivan Palmer has spent a lifetime career as a stage hypnotist. His writing has appeared in literary publications across the US.

Set in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Blues Jam follows the emotional journey of Sarah, a young woman navigating personal tragedy, opioid addiction, and the pursuit of her dream to become a Blues drummer. The novel is a character-driven coming-of-age story that powerfully resonates with readers of all backgrounds—especially those who appreciate heartfelt fiction rooted in real-world challenges and triumphs.

Stephen Rice grew up in Henderson, New York, about an hour south of the Canadian border. He moved to Saint Paul, Minnesota, to attend Hamline University.

Please join us for a reading of the biography of James Walsh and one of Minnesota’s greatest rock bands, Gypsy. Minnesota journalist, Al Zdon, shares Walsh’s story in his latest book, Working Musician.

From Zdon:

James Walsh died in 2023 just as this book was completed. He was a lifelong musician who had a strong influence on the Minnesota music scene as both a band artist and a studio record producer for six decades. He began his career playing drums at age 13 in a polka band that played all over northern Minnesota. Along the way he was a member of  the Underbeats, Gypsy, Minnesota's first great rock and roll band, and recorded a solo album at Muscle Shoals with the legendary Swampers. 

Al Zdon is a lifelong Minnesota newspaper editor. He has written seven books, mainly about Minnesota veterans who have served in the wars. This is his first book about rock and roll.

Like James Walsh, he was born and raised in Northeast Minneapolis and is an Edison High School alumni, Class of 66. He and his wife, Mary, have six children. He is a reporter for the Northeaster newspaper. He is a member of the Greater Mesabi Mens Book Club

Zdon has played the tenor banjo for over 50 years, and someday he might get good at it.

Now at our new home at 201 6th Street SE, Suite 220, Minneapolis, MN 55414.

On the first Friday of each month, a puzzling group of people gathers to do a jigsaw puzzle or two. Over the highs, lows, and drama of completing a puzzle, friendships and interesting conversation emerge from the woodwork. Puzzlers of all ages and skill levels are welcome.