Featured Writers
David Nash
David Nash is an author and singer songwriter known for his warm, rhythmic, and heartfelt style. He plays in and around the Driftless Region of his home in La Crescent, Minnesota. In early 2023 he released the audiobook version of his first novel, The Man in the Pines, and his…
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Sarah Ghazal Ali
Sarah Ghazal Ali is a Pakistani American writer. She is the author of the poetry collection Theophanies, winner of the GLCA New Writers Award and a finalist for the Kate Tufts Discovery Award and Minnesota Book Award. She has been awarded The Sewanee Review Poetry Prize, and her poems have…
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Nicole Kronzer
Nicole Kronzer is the author of the young adult novels Unscripted and the forthcoming The Roof Over Our Heads. Unscripted was named a Best Book for Young Adults by the American Library Association and was a Minnesota Book Award Finalist. Kronzer is also a high school English teacher and former…
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Tony Dierckins
Tony Dierckins, Duluth author and Saint Paul native, has written or co-written more than two dozen books. His regional history books include Crossing the Canal: An Illustrated History of Duluth’s Aerial Bridge and Lost Duluth: Landmarks, Industries, Buildings, Homes, and the Neighborhoods in Which They Stood (both finalists for the Minnesota Book Award). His work…
Atina Diffley
Atina Diffley is an organic farmer-educator and author of the 2012 award-winning memoir, Turn Here Sweet Corn: Organic Farming Works. From 1985 to 2008, she and her husband Martin ran an urban-edge, organic vegetable farm. In 1989, the 5th-generation Diffley family land was lost to suburban development. They started over on new land, but faced…
Allen Eskens
Allen Eskens is the bestselling author of The Life We Bury, The Guise of Another, The Heavens May Fall, The Deep Dark Descending, and The Shadows We Hide. He is the recipient of the Barry Award, Minnesota Book Award, Rosebud Award (Left Coast Crime), and Silver Falchion Award and has been a finalist for the…
Jack El-Hai
Jack El-Hai, a writer of literary nonfiction and creative nonfiction, covers long-lost history — frequently the history of science, medicine, and crime. He leads workshops and gives presentations on research and writing techniques, the craft of creative nonfiction, and freelance writing as a career. A winner of two Minnesota Book Awards, El-Hai holds an MFA…
Thomas Fisher
Thomas Fisher is a Professor in the School of Architecture, Director of the Minnesota Design Center, and former Dean of the College of Design at the University of Minnesota. A graduate of Cornell University in architecture and Case Western Reserve University in intellectual history, he was the Editorial Director of Progressive Architecture magazine and was…
Shannon Gibney
Shannon Gibney is a writer, educator, activist, and the author of See No Color, a young adult novel that won the 2016 Minnesota Book Award in Young Peoples’ Literature. Gibney is faculty in English at Minneapolis Community and Technical College, where she teaches critical and creative writing, journalism, and African Diasporic topics. A Bush Artist…
Peter Geye
Peter Geye is the author of four novels – Northernmost, Safe from the Sea, The Lighthouse Road, which was a World Book Night selection, and Wintering, which won the Minnesota Book Award and was a Midwest Booksellers Choice award winner. He holds an MFA from the University of New Orleans and a Ph.D. from Western Michigan…
Brian Freeman
Brian Freeman is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than 20 psychological thrillers, including the Duluth-based Jonathan Stride series. His novel Spilled Blood won the award for Best Hardcover Novel in the Thriller Awards, and his Midwestern mystery The Deep, Deep Snow was a 2021 Minnesota Book Award winner and…
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.
Criteria for 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.