Nonfiction
Nonfiction writers from Minnesota.
Renee Gilmore
Renee Gilmore is the author of Wayfinding: A Memoir. She is a neurodivergent multi-genre writer, essayist, and poet, and she fearlessly explores the illusion of happiness. Through her writing and lived experience, Gilmore proves that resilience can be practiced both by accident and intention. She holds degrees from the University of New Mexico and Hamline…
Obasesam Okoi
Dr. Obasesam Okoi is Associate Professor of Justice and Peace Studies, co-editor of the African Security Journal, and founding director of the Artificial Intelligence and Society Innovation Lab (ASIL). His research explores how global adversity, including war, terrorism, climate change, and technological disruption, reshapes everyday life, particularly for displaced populations living under chronic insecurity. He…
Jeff Olson
Jeff Olson has served as a youth hockey coach, high school hockey assistant coach, small college hockey assistant coach, and a hockey referee. He is the author and coauthor of Masters of Hockey Scoring Magic. Linemates, Natalie Darwitz and Krissy Wendell-Pohl To The Hockey Hall of Fame; Wisconsin’s Top 10 NHL Greats; The Torch is…
Ralph Brauer
The son and grandson of political refugees, Ralph Brauer brings a combination of experiences to writing about the history of social change. He is a retired professor and college administrator whose career is complemented by community organizing, consulting, and service experience that earned him a coveted Bush Leadership Fellowship. An award-winning writer, his work has…
Emilio DeGrazia
Emilio DeGrazia, from Winona, is a writer, teacher, and editor. In 1977 he founded Great River Review, now with the University of Minnesota. His first short story collection, Enemy Country, was followed by a novel, Billy Brazil. Then came more stories, Seventeen Grams of Soul, the novel A Canticle for Bread and Stones, essay collections…
Todd Smith
Todd Smith studied very little at the University of Montana before becoming a grizzled and runty Twin Cities publishing veteran. His work has appeared in The Rake and Minnesota Monthly, and he penned the wildly popular Spazz Dad print column and blog for Twin Cities METRO magazine. He is the author of Relegated: One American’s…
Peg Guilfoyle
Writer and speaker Peg Guilfoyle’s latest book is An Eye for Joy: Noticing the Good World Everywhere. She is the originator and writer of the wide-ranging Motley Peg small essay series. Her book The Guthrie Theater: Images, History, and Inside Stories won the Midwest Book Award and the Independent Publisher’s Award. She is also the…
Anne-Marie Erickson
Anne-Marie Erickson was born in the western Minnesota prairie town of Benson. Her journalism, poetry, essays, and book reviews have appeared in regional publications. Her first book, In the Evening, We’ll Dance, is a memoir in essays based on the 17 years of her husband’s dementia. Erickson attended Augsburg University in Minneapolis (B.A., American Studies).…
Andrew Kantar
Born and raised in Minneapolis, Andy Kantar is the author of a trilogy of Great Lakes shipwreck books written primarily for young adults. His first book, 29 Missing, was a Michigan Notable Book for Young Adults. Black November was a finalist for the Foreword Book of the Year (YA nonfiction) and the major source for…
Debra J. Stone
Debra J. Stone is a Jerome Hill Arts Fellow in Literature 2023-25, a Minnesota State Arts Board grant recipient, and The Loft Mirrors and Windows Fellow 2023. The University of Minnesota Press has published her debut novel, The House on Rondo. Stone resides in Minneapolis with her husband and dog Ruby, an ACD Red Heeler.