Featured Writers
Jennifer Manthey
Jennifer Manthey’s first book, The Fight, was winner of the Trio Award and a finalist for the 2024 Minnesota Book Award. Her work has appeared in journals such as Prairie Schooner, Poet Lore, Calyx Journal, Palette Poetry, and Best New Poets. She has received support from MVICW and Bread Loaf…
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Jeremy Norton
Jeremy Norton is a proud Washington, DC native. He’s received degrees from two universities in the Boston area despite a thorny relationship with the realm. He has lived in the Colorado mountains, the Tennessee mountains, the Minnesota not-mountains. He taught middle- and high-school literature at the end of the last…
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Jody Lulich
Jody Lulich is a professor of veterinary internal medicine at the University of Minnesota. He is a renowned educator and clinician, has published over 400 scientific manuscripts, and was contributing editor for four medical books. Lulich was winner of the 2015-16 Loft Mentor Series in creative nonfiction. His book, In…
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Kao Kalia Yang
Kao Kalia Yang is an award-winning Hmong-American writer. She is the author of the memoirs: The Latehomecomer, The Song Poet, and Somewhere in the Unknown World. Her children’s books include: A Map Into the World, The Shared Room, and The Most Beautiful Thing. She co-edited the ground-breaking collection What God is Honored Here?: Writings on…
Cathy Wurzer
Cathy Wurzer is one of Minnesota’s most recognizable broadcast journalists who has spent her career behind a microphone and in front of television cameras with time carved out to write books and produce documentaries. A multiple Emmy Award winning journalist, Wurzer is the co-host of “Almanac” on Twin Cities Public Television. On weekdays, she is…
신 선 영 Sun Yung Shin
신 선 영 辛善英 Sun Yung Shin’s third book of poetry Unbearable Splendor won the 2017 Minnesota Book Award for poetry. She is the Korean-born author of four books of poetry including most recently The Wet Hex in 2022 and is the editor of three acclaimed anthologies of essays including A Good Time for the…
Mike Wohnoutka
Mike Wohnoutka is the author and illustrator of Little Puppy and the Big Green Monster and Dad’s First Day, both Minnesota Book Award finalists. He has illustrated more than 20 other children’s books, including Moo! winner of the 2014 Minnesota Book Award and the Star of the North Picture Book Award. Ever since he can…
Elizabeth Verdick
Elizabeth Verdick writes a mix of nonfiction and fiction for children. Her main reading audience is toddlers and preschoolers. She has also written nonfiction for elementary-age kids. Verdick is a graduate of Hamline University’s MFA program in Writing for Children and Young Adults, and she has taught picture-book writing classes and done manuscript critiques to…
Patricia Kirkpatrick
Patricia Kirkpatrick received the Lindquist & Vennum Poetry Prize for Odessa and was awarded a 2013 Minnesota Book Award. Her awards include fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Bush Foundation, Jerome Foundation, the McKnight Foundation, the Loft, and Minnesota State Arts Board. She has taught writing at many colleges, including the University of…
Julie Gard
Julie Gard’s prose poetry collections include Scrap: On Louise Nevelson and Home Studies, which was a finalist for a 2016 Minnesota Book Award. Her chapbooks are Obscura: The Daguerreotype Series and Russia in 17 Objects. Gard’s poems, stories, and essays have appeared in Gertrude, Fourth River, Clackamas Literary Review, Crab Orchard Review, Ekphrasis, and Blackbox…
Anne Ursu
Anne Ursu is the author of several middle grade fantasies, including Breadcrumbs, an NPR Backseat Book Club pick, and The Real Boy, which was longlisted for the 2013 National Book Award. She is a recipient of the McKnight Fellowship and teaches at Hamline University’s Masters in Fine Arts in Writing for Children. Ursu lives 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.
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.