Featured Writers
Janna Knittel
Janna Knittel is from the Pacific Northwest and has lived in Minnesota since 2004. Her book, Real Work, is a 2023 Minnesota Book Award finalist. Knittel’s work includes the chapbook Fish & Wild Life and poems in Blueline, Breakwater Review, Constellations, Cottonwood, North Dakota Quarterly, Pleiades, Whale Road Review, and…
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Maya Washington
Maya Washington is an award-winning multi-hyphenate artist: writer, poet, director, narrative and documentary filmmaker (writer/director/producer), actress, creative director, visualist (photography), and arts educator. Her award-winning film, Through the Banks of the Red Cedar, about her father, Vikings football legend Gene Washington, premiered on PBS in 2022. Her memoir, Through the…
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Will McGrath
Will McGrath is an award-winning writer and journalist based in Minneapolis. His debut, Everything Lost Is Found Again, is a joyous investigation into the southern African kingdom of Lesotho, where he lived for several years. That book won the Disquiet Open Borders Book Prize, as well as the Society of…
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Newell Searle
Newell Searle grew up on a Minnesota farm and graduated from a vocational high school. After earning degrees in history from Macalester College and the University of Minnesota, he ditched an academic career to conduct public affairs for corporate, non-profit, and government agencies. His early writing focused on forest conservation. Later, he turned to fiction…
Mary Seifert
Mary Seifert loves a good mystery and can never leave a brain teaser or puzzle go unchallenged – she can get lost for days. As a former math teacher, she brings numbers and logic to the Katie and Maverick Cozy Mystery mayhem game. When Seifert is not writing or reading, she’s making memories with family…
Alan Davis
Alan Davis’s So Bravely Vegetative won The Prize Americana for Fiction; Alone with the Owl and Rumors from the Lost World both won the Many Voices Project Competition. He co-edited Visiting Bob: Poems Inspired by the Life and Work of Bob Dylan and 10 editions of American Fiction, received a Loft-McKnight Award of Distinction, a…
Juliet Patterson
Juliet Patterson is the author of Sinkhole: A Legacy of Suicide and two full-length poetry collections, Threnody, a finalist for the 2017 Audre Lorde Poetry Award, and The Truant Lover, winner of the Nightboat Poetry Prize and a finalist for the 2006 Lambda Literary Award. Patterson is a recipient of a 2011 Arts & Letters…
Allison Blevins
Allison Blevins is a queer disabled writer and the author of Cataloguing Pain; Handbook for the Newly Disabled, A Lyric Memoir; and Slowly/Suddenly. She is also the author of the chapbooks Chorus for the Kill, Susurration, Letters to Joan, and A Season for Speaking, part of the Robin Becker Series. Blevins is the Founder and…
Mary Christine Kane
Mary Christine Kane is a Moth-winning storyteller and author. Her poetry book, Between the stars where you are lost, was published in 2019. Her essays and poems have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies including Storytellers’ True Stories About Love, Volume 2; Right Here, Right Now: the Buffalo Anthology; Chicken Soup of the Soul: Lessons…
Hudda Ibrahim
Hudda Ibrahim graduated from the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University, majoring in Conflict Resolution and English Literature. She went on to earn a Master’s degree in Conflict Resolution from the University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana. Her books include From Somalia to Snow, What Color is My Hijab?, and Lula Wants…
Ayaan Adan
Ayaan Adan is a UX designer, organizer, and author of Daughters of Arraweelo: Stories of Somali Women. She is a graduate of the University of Minnesota where she earned a Bachelors of Arts in Psychology. Her design philosophy centers a human-centered approach that values collaboration and quality. Adan is an avid writer and storyteller. She…
The Minnesota Writers Directory is a project of The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library as the Minnesota Center for the Book. The Library of Congress designated The Friends as Minnesota’s Center in 2012, and in that role The Friends promotes reading, literacy, and libraries throughout Minnesota. Learn more >>
How To Get Listed on the Directory
Thanks for your interest! If you currently live in Minnesota and have your work published in book form, you can apply to be listed. (Before applying, please read the Eligibility Criteria to see if you are eligible for listing.) We will contact you after we’ve reviewed your application.
Criteria for all applicants
- You must live and work in Minnesota. If you live in Minnesota for part of the year, please outline your availability in your application. You will be accepted at the discretion of the Minnesota Center for the Book.
- You must be willing to provide an email address for your profile. (This will not be listed on the website, but it will be used to create a unique contact form linked to your email address.)
- You must be willing to have your location in Minnesota (county only) listed in the directory.