On Wednesday, September 26, Sherman Alexie appeared on the stage at the Fitzgerald Theatre in downtown St. Paul as featured writer for the
Talking Volumes program. What a terrific evening--probably one of the BEST performances of any living writer that I have attended. The man is a master showman, a real comedian in his own right. The place was packed and laughter ruled the evening. In the past I've seen him elsewhere (Macalester College) but he was in rare form last night and surpassed any other performance of his that I had witnessed!! If you haven't seen his movie,
Smoke Signals, or have read any of his books and poetry, I highly recommend this talented writer. Read a bit more about him and his work in this
Wiki article.
The Friends of the Minneapolis Library has a series of free lectures at the Central downtown library, given by contemporary writers. On Thursday, September 27 I listened to Norweigan novelist, Per Petterson, whose book_out stealing horses_ I had just finished reading. Petterson is a quiet man who held the attention of the large crowd that was gathered in the Pohlad Auditorium...a bit less rolicking than the performance I watched the night before though! (See my September 27th post) Petterson's book is an interesting read, one that I recommend.
