History

History writers from Minnesota.

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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 Banks of the Red Cedar:…

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William Durbin

William Durbin lives on Lake Vermilion at the edge of Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Wilderness. A winner of the Great Lakes Book Award and a two-time winner of the Minnesota Book Award, he has published 14 novels for young readers, including, The Broken Blade, Wintering, Blackwater Ben, Song of Sampo Lake, The Darkest Evening, Dead Man’s…

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Michael Tisserand

Michael Tisserand’s books include the Eisner Award-winning biography Krazy: George Herriman, A Life in Black and White, an exploration of the “Krazy Kat” cartoonist and his life on the American color line. Other books include the ASCAP-Deems Taylor-winning The Kingdom of Zydeco, the Hurricane Katrina memoir Sugarcane Academy, and My Father When Young, a self-published…

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Hampton Smith

Hampton Smith is an independent researcher and writer with a specialty in mid-19th century America and Minnesota History. He was a reference librarian for the Minnesota Historical Society from 1983 to 2015.

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Amy Sullivan

Amy C. Sullivan, Ph.D., teaches women’s history, children’s history, and the history of medicine, especially where the intersection of race, class, and gender influence these histories. She uses oral history, narrative writing, digital projects, and a robust public history mindset in her scholarship. In her writing, she strives to connect narrators’ experiences in order to…

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Danny Spewak

Danny Spewak is a journalist, writer, and author with a decade of experience in local broadcast television, including stations in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Buffalo, NY, and mid-Missouri. His first book, From the Gridiron to the Battlefield: Minnesota’s March to a College Football Title and into World War II, was a finalist for the 2022 Minnesota Book…

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Mark E. Fisher

After authoring books of epic fantasy and historical fiction for the Christian and general market, Mark E. Fisher’s eighth novel, The Day the End Began, begins a series of Christian end-times thrillers based on the book of Revelation. Once a month, Fisher plays acoustic guitar in the church band. Periodically, he travels to foreign countries.…

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Kathryn Nuernberger

Kathryn Nuernberger is an essayist and poet who writes about the history of science and ideas, renegade women, plant medicines, and witches. Her latest book is The Witch of Eye, which is about witches and witch trials. She is also the author of the poetry collections, RUE, The End of Pink, and Rag & Bone,…

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Kim Heikkila

Kim Heikkila, Ph.D., is a historian who believes in the power of deep listening and artful storytelling to build bridges between the head and the heart. Her award-winning writing has been published in historical journals and literary magazines. Her most recent book, Booth Girls: Pregnancy, Adoption, and the Secrets We Kept, uses history, biography, memoir,…

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Yelena Bailey

Yelena Bailey, Ph.D. is a writer, researcher, and former professor of English and cultural studies. She enjoys writing about race, power, policy, and culture. Her most recent project is How the Streets Were Made, which examines the creation of “the streets” not just as a physical, racialized space produced by segregationist policies, but also as…