Literary Fiction
Literary Fiction writers from Minnesota.
Sarah Stonich
Beginning with Vacationland, Stonich’s Northern Trilogy continued in September 2018 with the release of Laurentian Divide, winner of the Minnesota Book Award. Both have been chosen as community reads in a dozen cities. These Granite Islands was a Barnes & Noble Great New Writers pick with multiple translations, as was The Ice Chorus. Her Fishing…
Rachel L. Coyne
Rachel Coyne, a novelist and poet, is a graduate of the Perpich Center for Arts in Minnesota and Macalester College. She is a devotee of Pablo Neruda, a lover of Don Williams songs, and collects vintage editions of Jane Eyre. Her published works include the novels The Patron Saint of Lost Comfort Lake and Whiskey…
Beth Dooley
Beth Dooley has been writing about the Northern Heartland for over 20 years. She is the author of six books, including Minnesota Book Award finalist In Winter’s Kitchen. Her column, “Seasonal Kitchen,” appears weekly in the Star Tribune, and she contributes regularly to Minnesota Public Radio’s “Appetites.” Dooley is the co-author with Sean Sherman of…
Swati Avasthi
Swati Avasthi (SWA-thee Of-US-thee) started writing when she was five, but she took a serpentine career path (working as domestic violence legal coordinator, law student, theater director, and stage manager) before she returned to writing. Her first book, Split, received the International Reading Association Award, Cybils Award, and has been translated into four languages. Her…
A. Rafael Johnson
A. Rafael Johnson writes in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His first novel, The Through, was a 2018 finalist for the Minnesota Book Award. His second book, Creative Evaluation & Engagement: Essentials, demonstrates how to create sustainable change. Johnson is a fellow at Kimbilio Fiction, an organization supporting African American writers. His writing has appeared in Callaloo, African…
Thomas Maltman
Thomas Maltman’s essays, poetry, and fiction have been published in many literary journals. He has an MFA from Minnesota State University, Mankato. His first novel, The Night Birds, won an Alex Award, a Spur Award, and the Friends of American Writers Literary Award. In 2009 the American Library Association chose The Night Birds as an…
Stephanie Wilbur Ash
Stephanie Wilbur Ash is the author of The Annie Year, a novel about a rural woman CPA who has an extra-marital affair with the new vocational teacher in town. A former editor at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Ash was one of the literary/musical comedians behind the Lit 6 Project (loud, drunken, funny, connected stories told in Midwest…
Kelly Barnhill
Kelly Barnhill is the author of four novels, most recently The Girl Who Drank the Moon, winner of the Newbery Medal. The Witch’s Boy received four starred reviews and was a finalist for the Minnesota Book Awards. Barnhill has been awarded writing fellowships from the Jerome Foundation, the Minnesota State Arts Board, and The McKnight…
Pamela Carter Joern
Pamela Carter Joern is an award-winning author of three books and numerous journal publications. In Reach won the 2015 Nebraska Book Award for Fiction (short story) and was a finalist for the Minnesota Book Award. The Plain Sense of Things was a Midwestern Booksellers Association Connections Pick, and The Floor of the Sky received a…
Robert Spande
Robert Spande has worked as a 911 dispatcher for Minneapolis 911 for about 19 years. He wrote The Born and the Made over 10 years. When he was finished, he figured how to make a book from YouTube. As the publisher, he submitted his novel to the Minnesota Book Awards, where it became the first…