Literary Fiction
Literary Fiction writers from Minnesota.
Paul Legler
Paul Legler grew up in rural North Dakota. He was educated at the University of North Dakota, University of Minnesota, and Harvard University. He started his career as a poverty and civil rights attorney, representing migrant farm workers and indigent people throughout Minnesota and North Dakota. He was later appointed by President Clinton to serve…
Loretta Ellsworth
Loretta Ellsworth grew up in Mason City, Iowa. A former teacher and a graduate of Hamline University with a Master’s Degree in Writing for Children, she is the award-winning author of four young adult novels, The Shrouding Woman, In Search of Mockingbird, In a Heartbeat, and Unforgettable. Stars Over Clear Lake, historical fiction set in…
Candace Simar
Candace Simar is a Minnesota writer with a passion for history and her Scandinavian heritage. Her Abercrombie Trail Series received awards from the Western Writers of America. Shelterbelts is set in Otter Tail County, Minnesota and received finalist awards from the Willa Literary Awards in Historical Fiction. Her Escape to Fort Abercrombie is geared toward…
Ashley Shelby
Ashley Shelby is a novelist, short story writer, and former environmental journalist. Her debut novel, South Pole Station, was a New York Times Editor’s Pick, a Shelf Awareness Book of the Year, and winner of the Lascaux Prize in Fiction. She is also the author of the nonfiction book Red River Rising: The Anatomy of…
Nathan Sacks
Nathan Sacks is a professional academic dissertation editor, children’s and young adult book writer, graphic novel translator, and occasional journalist. He was born and raised in Ames, Iowa and currently lives in uptown Minneapolis. He works on fiction, book-length nonfiction, and scholarly writing, and aims to provide fresh and original writing in a variety of…
Mona Susan Power
Mona Susan Power is the author of The Grass Dancer (winner of the 1995 PEN/Hemingway award), Roofwalker, and Sacred Wilderness. She is an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and graduate of Harvard College, Harvard Law School, and the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Her fellowships include an Iowa Arts Fellowship, James Michener…
Yvonne Pearson
Yvonne Pearson is a writer and clinical social worker who lives in Minneapolis. Her most recent picture book, Little Loon Finds His Voice, won a PubWest Silver Design Award and is a 2021 finalist for Foreword Indie Picture Book of the Year. Her first picture book, Sadie Braves the Wilderness, was published in 2017. She…
Sheila Packa
Sheila Packa is a poet, writer, and teacher with Minnesota and Finnish roots. She has five books of poetry: The Mother Tongue, Echo & Lightning, Cloud Birds, Night Train Red Dust: Poems of the Iron Range, and Surface Displacements. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College and has taught creative writing and…
Raymond Luczak
Raymond Luczak is the author and editor of more than 20 books. His most recent titles include Flannelwood and Lovejets: Queer Male Poets on 200 Years of Walt Whitman. He lives in Minneapolis.
Kathleen Anne Kenney
Kathleen Anne Kenney’s debut novel, Girl on the Leeside, is set in present day rural Ireland. Being born into a large Irish-American family to parents who were avid readers, writers, and interested in travel and history was the perfect wellspring for a writer, as the family was immersed in literature, music, and history. Her parents…