On September 13, 2012, we celebrate the launch of the 2013 Saint Paul Almanac—the indispensable seventh edition of the friendly guidebook to Minnesota’s capital city and Saint Paul’s eclectic community storytelling book of record! Buy it now!

The 2013 Saint Paul Almanac. Cover art by Andy Singer.

This year, the 416-page 2013 Saint Paul Almanac is again available in full color with over 160 photos and illustrations.

Detail from the Downtown Saint Paul map in the 2013 Saint Paul Almanac.

Our gorgeous, hand-drawn, poster-size, pull-out maps of the City of Saint Paul and Downtown have been newly revised, and this latest edition now includes a pull-out poster of Ta-coumba Aiken’s beautiful illustrations from the Almanac’s Lowertown Reading Jam events.

Some of the pull-out art by Ta-coumba Aitken in the 2013 Saint Paul Almanac.
Sample pages from the datebook in the Saint Paul Almanac.

Our growing Saint Paul City Guide offers up-to-date listings for Art Galleries, Bookstores, Museums, Libraries, Historical Sites and Tours, Parks and Nature Reserves, Bars and Restaurants, Coffee Houses and Tea Shops, Food Trucks and Street Food, Deli Grocers and Food Co-ops, Sports and Recreation events, and Music, Dance, Theater, and Performing Arts venues.

Our Saint Paul Calendar incorporates a handy datebook where you can write your appointments and notes alongside listings for Saint Paul’s festivals, parades, exhibitions, and events. Both our City Guide and our Calendar have companion online versions available at www.saintpaulalmanac.org

Stories are at the heart of what we do

The Saint Paul Almanac is a literary campfire around which the diverse Saint Paul community gathers to share their stories.

2013 community editors at work. (Photo by Dan Tilsen)

A successful experiment in democratic publishing, the 2013 Almanac brought together a multigenerational group of 21 community editors to choose 132 pieces by 114 writers—without the editors knowing the authors’ identities—from hundreds of submissions.

High school students’ work appears alongside writing by grandparents, and first-time writers appear next to Saint Paul literary greats such as Garrison Keillor and Max Shulman.

Every person’s story is one unique part of a larger puzzle. When pieced together with all the other stories in the Saint Paul Almanac, the book transforms into a magical overview of Saint Paul’s interwoven cultures and communities, a tapestry of neighborhoods and favorite haunts.

The 2013 Almanac includes stories about jailbird ancestors and ice palaces, first kisses and school bullies, flood-threatened weddings and matchmaking worms, buses and bicycles, steamboats and cars, brave kids and wise elders, new immigration experiences and generations of Saint Paul memories, Rondo recollections and Hmong dreams, Irish ghosts and 1920s brewery workers, Bob Dylan’s piano skills and one roadkilled iguana—the latter two apparently having more in common than you might suspect!

Detail from the Events Listings in the 2013 Saint Paul Almanac.

The 2013 Almanac also features poems by Wendy Brown-Baez, Sharon Chmielarz, Carol Connolly, Maryann Corbett, Desdamona, Virginia L. Dippel, Norita Dittberner-Jax, Sandra Erskine, Emily Gurnon, Jaime Hagg, David Harden, Margaret Hasse, Linda Hawj, Tish Jones, Daryl C. Jorgenson, Garrison Keillor, Kathryn Kysar, James Lachowsky, Laura Lassor, Tou SaiKo Lee, Moleen (Harris-Davis) Lowe, Linda Back McKay, Deborah McLaren, John Minczeski, Michael Kiesow Moore, Paul Ofstedal, Sheronda Orridge, Alma Palahniuk, Yvonne Pearson, J. Otis Powell‽, Marcie Rendon, Sigwan Rendon, Paige Riehl, Amy E. Riley, Mary Rosen, Mary Kay Rummel, Deb Runyon, Julia Klatt Singer, Karen Trudeau, Diego Vázquez Jr., Saymoukda Duangphouxay Vongsay, Nicholas Voss, Marilynne Thomas Walton, Greg Watson, Susan Steger Welsh, Lucia Wroblewski, Royetta Zabel, and the Ninth Grade Class of Higher Ground Academy.

The 2013 Saint Paul Almanac is a reliable companion for the endless exploration of our beautiful city, and a thoughtful gift that readers will reference all through the year!

Launch Events, Readings & Purchase Information

Join us at the 2013 Saint Paul Almanac Book Release Party! On September 13th, from 7 to 9 p.m., join us at AZ Gallery, the Black Dog Coffee and Wine Bar, and Clouds in Water Zen Center for readings, artwork, food, and Almanacs. The reading features Saint Paul Poet Laureate Carol Connolly, Kofi Bobby Hickman, Diego Vázquez Jr., Saymoukda Vongsay, Tish Jones, Tou SaiKo Lee, Loren Niemi, Brenda Bell Brown, Kemet Imhotep, and Clarence White.

The Saint Paul Almanac Readings series follow the September 13 launch party, throughout September to November 2012 in coffee bars around the city, featuring writers published in the 2013 Saint Paul Almanac reading their poems and stories. Events are free and all ages. Copies of the new 2013 Saint Paul Almanac will be available for purchase at the launch party and readings.

The 2013 Saint Paul Almanac also sells for $14.95 online at www.saintpaulalmanac.org (including S&H) and will be available in independent and mainstream bookstores—including Common Good Books, Subtext, Barnes and Noble, and Amazon.com—after September 13, 2012, for $14.95.

The 2013 Saint Paul Almanac team

Community editors: Aisha Mohamud, Andrew Hall, Ben Werner, Cade Yassin, Diego Vázquez Jr., Ilhan Salah, Ismail Khadar, Jennifer J. Syverson, Jill Michaelis, Kabao Lee, Kathryn Pulley, Miss Lillie Jordan, Muriel Tate, Lisa Steinmann, Najib Aweis, Naomi Krueger, Patricia Kirkpatrick, Patricia Anita Young, Shaquan Foster, Tish Jones, and Victoria Perkins.

Copy editor: Sally Heuer
Cover art © 2012 Andy Singer
Cover designer: Ellen Lawson
Typesetter: Judy Gilats
Events compiler: Shelagh Connolly
History facts researcher: Steve Trimble
Photo specialist: Nigel Parry
Proofreader: Carol Singer
Publisher and managing editor: Kimberly Nightingale
Pull-out artwork © 2012 Ta-coumba Aiken
Saint Paul city map and Saint Paul downtown map, second editions © 2012 Roberta Avidor

Book details

416 pages, 5 3/16 x 8 inches, full-color book with 132 pieces by 114 writers, 167 photos and illustrations, a full-color, two-sided 18 3/4 x 15-inch color map (revised), 4-page color pullout of Lowertown Reading Jams drawn by Ta-coumba. ISBN: 978-0-9772651-9-0. $14.95.

Contact

Kimberly Nightingale, Publisher
Saint Paul Almanac
275 East Fourth St.,
Suite 735
Saint Paul, MN 55101
www.saintpaulalmanac.org
editor@saintpaulalmanac.org

Saint Paul Almanac is a subsidiary of Arcata Press, a nonprofit publisher.

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