Featured Writers
Varla Ventura
Varla Ventura is an author, traveler, rotten botanist, and lover of the strange. She has written several books on bizarre and freaky things, from paranormal women’s history to werewolves and banshees to plants that smell like death. She is a committed supernaturalist, folklorist, and seeker of those shadowy things that…
Keenan Jones
Keenan Jones, an author in Plymouth, Minnesota, grew up in Gary, Indiana and south suburban Chicago. Coming from a family of educators, pastors, athletes, and musicians, he shifted to education after a college basketball injury, working as an elementary teacher before returning to writing. Jones believes literacy can inspire youth…
Paula Cisewski
Paula Cisewski’s fourth poetry collection, Quitter, won the Diode Editions Book Prize. She is also the author of The Threatened Everything, Ghost Fargo (Nightboat Poetry Prize winner, selected by Franz Wright), Upon Arrival, and several chapbooks, including the lyric prose Misplaced Sinister. She has been awarded fellowships and residencies from…
Find Author by Genre
- All
- Children's Early Reader
- Children's Picture Book
- Cookbook/Food Writing
- Fantasy
- Fiction
- Graphic Novels
- History
- Humor
- Memoir/Creative Nonfiction
- Middle Grade
- Minnesota Nonfiction
- Mystery/Thriller
- Nonfiction
- Poetry
- Romance
- Science Fiction
- Young Adult
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…
Lynn Garthwaite
Lynn Garthwaite is the author of 11 books, including mysteries, non-fiction, and children’s early chapter books. She has short stories in four anthologies and is working with a producer on the pre-production of a limited series for her mystery/thriller novel Starless Midnight. Garthwaite also writes screenplays and is working to adapt her children’s series into…
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…
Angie Bailey
Angie Bailey is an author, humorist, and Gen X pop culture nerd best known for Texts from Mittens—the delightfully ridiculous text message conversations between self-absorbed housecat and his long-suffering human. Her clever humor and feline-fueled creativity have produced books, calendars, and a daily funny that make cat lovers worldwide giggle with a knowing nod. She’s…
Charissa Bates
Charissa Bates is an award-winning children’s author, children’s mental health therapist, and speaker who is passionate about helping families find joy through storytelling. She is the author of Cancer Messed with the Wrong Family and the beloved Traveling Book series, which celebrates community, kindness, and connection through Little Free Libraries. With years of experience working…
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…
Connie Wanek
Connie Wanek lived for over a quarter century in Duluth, Minnesota. She is the author of 10 books, including Rival Gardens: New and Selected Poems. Wanek’s poems have appeared in Poetry, The Atlantic Monthly, The Virginia Quarterly Review, and many other journals. She was named a Witter Bynner Fellow of the Library of Congress in…
The Minnesota Writers Directory is a project of The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library as the Minnesota Center for the Book. The Library of Congress designated The Friends as Minnesota’s Center in 2012, and in that role The Friends promotes reading, literacy, and libraries throughout Minnesota. Learn more >>
How To Get Listed on the Directory
Thanks for your interest! If you live in Minnesota and you meet the Directory Eligibility Criteria, you can apply to be listed. (Before applying, read the Eligibility Criteria.) We will contact you after we’ve reviewed your application.
All applicants:
- You must live and work in Minnesota. If you live in Minnesota for part of the year, outline your availability in your application.
- You must provide an email address for your profile. (This will not be listed on the website, but it will be used to create a unique contact form linked to your email address.)
- Your county will be listed in the directory. (Street addresses will not be listed.)
- You must meet the Eligibility Criteria. Before applying, read the Eligibility Criteria to see if you are eligible for listing. You will be accepted at the discretion of the Minnesota Center for the Book.