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
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…
Skye Smith
Skye Smith has retired from a career in mechanical engineering. In that profession he used CAD to design complex machines. The heightened visualization in that virtual world he tries to extend to writing mystery thrillers. For 10 years he moderated a Meetup writers group. His history degree from St. John’s University in Minnesota helps to…
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…
Kristi Belcamino
Kristi Belcamino is a USA Today bestselling crime writer, chess fanatic, and newspaper crime reporter. Her gritty, glamorous thrillers—like the Gia Santella and Queen of Spades series—feature kick-butt women, deadly secrets, and high-stakes revenge. Think Jackie Collins meets Patricia Cornwell. As a reporter, she has flown in an FA/18 jet with the Blue Angels, interviewed…
Damone Bester
Damone Bester is a two-time award-winning author whose debut novel Mendel received both a BookFest Award and a Black Excellence Award for Outstanding Fiction. His highly anticipated sequel, Blue Smoke Rises, releases in 2026. Known for bold storytelling that blends emotional depth with social insight, Bester teaches writers how to develop authentic voice, build compelling…
Dave Kenney
Dave Kenney is the author of nearly two dozen books, all historical non-fiction, covering topics ranging from World War II to the movie industry. Two of them won the Minnesota Book Award. His previous career in journalism included stints as a local television reporter and as a writer with CNN. He lives in Roseville, Minnesota,…
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…
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.