Featured Writers
Janna Knittel
Janna Knittel is from the Pacific Northwest and has lived in Minnesota since 2004. Her book, Real Work, is a 2023 Minnesota Book Award finalist. Knittel’s work includes the chapbook Fish & Wild Life and poems in Blueline, Breakwater Review, Constellations, Cottonwood, North Dakota Quarterly, Pleiades, Whale Road Review, and…
Read More
Maya Washington
Maya Washington is an award-winning multi-hyphenate artist: writer, poet, director, narrative and documentary filmmaker (writer/director/producer), actress, creative director, visualist (photography), and arts educator. Her award-winning film, Through the Banks of the Red Cedar, about her father, Vikings football legend Gene Washington, premiered on PBS in 2022. Her memoir, Through the…
Read More
Will McGrath
Will McGrath is an award-winning writer and journalist based in Minneapolis. His debut, Everything Lost Is Found Again, is a joyous investigation into the southern African kingdom of Lesotho, where he lived for several years. That book won the Disquiet Open Borders Book Prize, as well as the Society of…
Read MoreFind Author by Genre
- All
- Children's Early Reader
- Children's Picture Book
- Cookbook/Food Writing
- Fantasy
- History
- Literary Fiction
- Memoir/Creative Nonfiction
- Middle Grade
- Minnesota Nonfiction
- Mystery/Thriller
- Nonfiction
- Poetry
- Romance
- Science Fiction
- Young Adult
Kurt Johnson
Kurt Johnson, along with his daughter Ellie, wrote The Barrens, winner of the 2023 Minnesota Book Award for Novel and Short Story and a 2022 Great Group Reads selection. Johnson divides his time between Minneapolis and Ely, Minnesota.
Maya Washington
Maya Washington is an award-winning multi-hyphenate artist: writer, poet, director, narrative and documentary filmmaker (writer/director/producer), actress, creative director, visualist (photography), and arts educator. Her award-winning film, Through the Banks of the Red Cedar, about her father, Vikings football legend Gene Washington, premiered on PBS in 2022. Her memoir, Through the Banks of the Red Cedar:…
Holly Day
Holly Day has worked as a freelance writer for over 30 years, with more than 7,000 published articles, poems, and short stories and 40 books and chapbooks, including the nonfiction books Music Theory for Dummies, Music Composition for Dummies, Walking Twin Cities, Stillwater Minnesota: A Brief History, Nordeast Minneapolis: A History, Tattoo FAQ, and History…
Emma Nadler
Emma Nadler is an author, speaker, and psychotherapist. In her private practice, she helps people better understand and tolerate emotions, build deeper relationships, and find meaning in life’s challenges. She is passionate about transforming her own experiences as a parent of a child with disabilities into empathy, compassion, humor, and stories. Her memoir, The Unlikely…
Nancy Pirri
Nancy Schumacher writes under the pseudonyms, Nancy Pirri (romance) and Natasha Perry (erotic romance). She is the owner-publisher of the small press, Melange Books, LLC, along with two imprints, Satin Romance and Fire and Ice for Young Adults. Schumacher is a member of Romance Writers of America and is also one of the founders of…
Karen Latchana Kenney
Karen Latchana Kenney is an Indian-Irish author and editor, born near the equator in Guyana, and raised far north in Minnesota. She’s lived in New Amsterdam, Toronto, Minneapolis, Dublin, Maynooth, Oregon, and Rhode Island, and visited many more places on far-flung adventures. She first got lost in books as a child and hoped one day…
Loren Niemi
Loren Niemi is a author/poet and professional storyteller whose life work has been creating, collecting, performing, teaching, and writing about what it means to be human. His collection of non-traditional “ghost” stories, What Haunts Us, won the 2020 Midwest Book Award for Sci-Fi/Horror/Fantasy/Paranormal fiction. His most recent book, A Breviary for the Lost, is a…
Jeanne Lutz
Jeanne Lutz is the author of the poetry collection Until the Kingdom Comes. She grew up on a small dairy farm in southern Minnesota, attended the National University of Ireland Galway, and spent two years in Japan. In addition to having her poetry supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Jerome Foundation, the…
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 currently live in Minnesota and have your work published in book form, you can apply to be listed. (Before applying, please read the Eligibility Criteria to see if you are eligible for listing.) We will contact you after we’ve reviewed your application.
Criteria for all applicants
- You must live and work in Minnesota. If you live in Minnesota for part of the year, please outline your availability in your application. You will be accepted at the discretion of the Minnesota Center for the Book.
- You must be willing to 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.)
- You must be willing to have your location in Minnesota (county only) listed in the directory.