Memoir / Creative Nonfiction

Memoir and/or Creative Nonfiction writers from Minnesota.

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Raki Kopernik

Raki Kopernik is a first generation American, queer, Jewish writer. She is the author of The Things You Left and The Memory House, both Minnesota Book Award finalists, and The Other Body chapbook. Her work has appeared in numerous publications and has been shortlisted and nominated for several other awards, including the Pushcart Prize for…

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D. Allen

D. Allen is a queer and genderqueer poet and multidisciplinary artist living in Minneapolis. They completed an MFA in Poetry at the University of Minnesota in 2017 and were a 2019-20 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow. They have received a 2019 20% Theatre Company Q-STAGE: New Works Fellowship, a Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative grant,…

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Judy McConnell

Judy McConnell is the author of two memoirs, a novel, and a book of short stories. After obtaining a B.A. in Creative Writing at the University of Southern California and a master’s degree in Training & Development from the University of Minnesota, she went on to career as a Training Specialist and writer of training…

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Genny Zak Kieley

Kieley has been writing nonfiction memoir, history, and nostalgia for more than 30 years. She meets with two writers groups regularly and has a warm, often humorous, hometown style of writing.

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Alisha Perkins

Alisha Perkins is mom to two girls, wife to Glen Perkins (3 time All-Star Minnesota Twins pitcher), and owner to dog Harry Potter. Her non-fiction book, Running Home, is her story of dealing with mental illness in a world full of insane stigma. In 2019, she released her first fiction novel, Martyred, a feminist thriller…

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Tracy Youngblom

Tracy Youngblom has been living and writing in the Twin Cities for 30 years. She earned an M.A. in English from the University of St. Thomas and an MFA in Poetry from Warren Wilson College. She has published widely in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction; individual poems, stories, and essays have appeared in journals such as…

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Kristin Eggerling

Kristin Eggerling enjoys writing and editing books, articles, grants, and newsletters. She loves telling the story of places and people, the editing process, and helping others communicate in a clear, concise, and creative way. She is the author of a children’s book about wilderness advocate and writer Sigurd Olson and is passionate about preserving wild…

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Patricia Cumbie

Patricia Cumbie is the author of two books, the memoir The Shape of a Hundred Hips, and the young adult novel Where People Like Us Live. Her writing has been supported by The Loft Literary Center’s Fiction Mentor Series, a SASE/Jerome Fellowship, a Loft Career Initiative Grant, and a Minnesota State Arts Board fellowship. She…

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Gene Stark

Gene Stark writes fiction, non-fiction, historical fiction, poetry, and has written a children’s book. His writing is local, rural, and outdoors-oriented. Minnesota and local interest predominate his writing. Stark’s audience is comprised of the folks who live and work in Flyover Country. He has been a teacher, farmer, and a grower and propagator of native…

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Carol Masters

Carol Masters is the author of Dear Descendent, poems; the biography You Can’t Do That: Mary Davidov, Nonviolent Revolutionary (finalist for the 2010 Midwest Independent Publishers Award), and The Peace Terrorist, short stories (1994 winner of MN Voices Project). She has been part of a Loft Mentor series and a Loft-McKnight winner. Her poems and…