IMPRESSIONS Coming to a Train or Bus Near You Saint Paul Almanac on Wheels!

November 3, 2015

Saint Paul Almanac is celebrating its newest publishing initiative, Impressions. Impressions provides yet another outlet for Saint Paul to tell its story in its own authentic voice where writers’ work will be posted on broadsides in the trains and buses of our city.

TWISP | This Week In Saint Paul: Monday, October 12th – Sunday, October 18th, 2015

October 12, 2015

There is no rest for the wonderful. The fall has been busy and maybe you think you need a break, but when you realize that Saint Paul is not sleepy enough, you might be willing to miss some rest yourself. The ball of culture keeps rolling this week with a ton of happenings in Saint Paul.

How Max Shulman Got to College

March 28, 2012

Max Shulman (1919–1988) grew up in a Jewish community in Saint Paul’s Selby-Dale neighborhood. After graduating from Central High School, he earned a journalism degree from the University of Minnesota. His writings were invariably humorous and were published in novels and magazines. He eventually became a successful writer for theater and television. His novel Potatoes are Cheaper was a portrayal of life in the city in the late 1930s. Extract from Max Shulman, Potatoes Are Cheaper (Doubleday and Company, 1971): 1–4, 23.

Meridel LeSueur Recalls Swede Hollow Before Prohibition

March 21, 2012

Patrick Coleman writes: "LeSueur was perhaps Minnesota’s most famous proletarian writer, so it is not surprising that she wrote about the humble people of Saint Paul’s Swede Hollow. The following selection was written during Prohibition, ushered in by passage of the Volstead Act in 1919." Extract from Meridel LeSueur, “Beer Town,” Life in the United States: A Collection of Narratives of Contemporary American Life from First-Hand Experience or Observation (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1933); pages 31–33, 40.

Building a Bridge with Words

March 25, 2011

At the writing workshop, I ask the students if they are here because they think writing is important. A couple of them raise their hands. Then I ask if they are taking the workshop because they will receive extra credit, and most of the hands shoot up. I had offered to share my love of language by teaching this workshop at Face to Face Academy, a charter school for homeless youth in crisis, after learning that 70 percent of all teens in foster care end up being homeless for a year or two—foster parents no longer receive help from the government when the child turns eighteen.

Sixth-Grade Cookie Competitors

By Steve Trimble ● February 20, 2011

David Haynes, an African American author and St. Louis native, lived in Saint Paul for many years and taught fifth and sixth grade at a downtown public school. He has written several adult novels, and decided to write for younger readers because he found a dearth of works for that age group that were set in this city. "Business As Usual" tells the story of a cookie-selling enterprise among two rival groups of sixth graders, with a few life lessons about people and economics woven in along the way.

At the Bar Where F. Scott Fitzgerald Drank Gin

December 10, 2010

—even though I drank wine, and then only half a glass—I felt I owed it to myself and to the guests who’d sat politely through the reading —and to everyone in every college and university 20th Century American Literature class throughout history...

August Wilson’s Early Days in Saint Paul

August 1, 2010

Tennessee Williams. Arthur Miller. August Wilson. When you list the playwrights of American theater whose work transcends all others, those three names stand at the top. Much of Wilson’s defining ten-play saga of African American life in the twentieth century, a massive undertaking with a play for every decade, was written right here in Saint Paul. That includes the first to hit Broadway (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom) and the Pulitzer Prize winners Fences and The Piano Lesson.

A Trio of Saint Paul Storytellers

January 22, 2010

Groundbreaking urban historian Richard Wade always told his students, me included, that the true feel of cities was more likely to be found in literature than in scholarly works. That holds true for this metropolis and can be demonstrated through the works of three Jewish writers who grew up in Saint Paul. They had somewhat similar early experiences, but told their stories in different manners—humorous, serious, and nostalgic—and eventually traveled different paths. One thing the trio has in common, however, is the fact that they are still well worth reading.

Carol Bly—Affection for the World

May 5, 2009

Carol Bly wrote short stories that had weight, complexity, and wit. She was also a prolific writer of essays, a cultural critic, an ethicist, and, in her own terms, "a gadfly." Being that outspoken and opinionated can startle Minnesotans. She was also a teacher of writing at universities, summer programs, the Loft, in her own dining room, and by e-mail. Before I met her in a summer class, I was vaguely aware that some people found her intimidating, even alarming. What I found was a dedicated teacher, very kind, and tremendous fun.

Mabel Seeley, “The Mistress of Mystery”

March 15, 2009

"A high priestess in the cult of murder as a fine art" was how Saint Paul literary critic James Gray described her. She was often referred to as "the Mistress of Mystery." But until recently, she was an almost forgotten figure in the city's literary lineup.