Memoir / Creative Nonfiction
Memoir and/or Creative Nonfiction writers from Minnesota.
Ranae Lenor Hanson
In her writing, Ranae Lenor Hanson weaves a path through the landscapes and communities of Minnesota that have informed her life and vision. In northern Minnesota, she learned an earth-based ethic like that of the Ojibwe people on whose land she grew up. After earning a Ph.D. in cross-cultural education, she taught writing and global…
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…
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…
Said Shaiye
Said Shaiye is an Autistic Somali Writer & Photographer who lives in Minneapolis. He is a 2023 Loft Windows & Mirrors Fellow. His debut book, Are You Borg Now?, was named a 2022 Minnesota Book Award Finalist in Creative Nonfiction & Memoir. He has contributed essays to the anthologies Muslim American Writers at Home and…
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,…
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,…
Michael Kleber-Diggs
Michael Kleber-Diggs (KLEE-burr digs) is a poet, essayist, and literary critic. His debut poetry collection, Worldly Things, won the Max Ritvo Poetry Prize. His essay, “On the Complex Flavors of Black Joy,” is included in the anthology There’s a Revolution Outside, My Love: Letters from a Crisis, edited by Tracy K. Smith and John Freeman.…
Steve Cwodzinski
Steve Cwodzinski’s first book, Beyond the Lesson Plan, is a compilation of motivational stories based on his life experiences and his career as a high school American Government and American History teacher. Cwodzinski got the inspiration for his book from the 12,000 students he taught, and learned from, during his 33 year career. During his…
Kandice Kay Magnan
Kandice Magnan grew up on a small dairy farm in central Minnesota. Surviving domestic violence, raising her four young children as a single mother, and recognizing the destruction her own choices were causing, she discovered Jesus. Allowing Jesus to guide her decisions, she was able to experience a transformed life of victor instead of victim.…
Jonathan Slaght
Jonathan C. Slaght is the Russia & Northeast Asia Coordinator for the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). He manages research projects involving endangered species such as Blakiston’s fish owls and Amur tigers, and coordinates WCS avian conservation activities along the East Asia-Australasian Flyway from the Russian Arctic to the mudflats of Southeast Asia. Slaght’s first book,…