Hear Minnesota authors share about their work, their inspiration, and how stories have shaped their lives!
Chad Corrie
Chad Corrie has enjoyed creating things for as far back as he can remember, but it wasn’t until he was twelve that he began to write. Since then he’s written comics, graphic novels, prose fiction of varying lengths, and an assortment of other odds and ends. His work has been published in other languages and produced in print, digital, and audio formats. He also makes podcasts.
Satish Jayaraj
S.P. Jayaraj loves telling stories. The world of Adijari and the tales in it are his lifelong passion that draw inspiration from global mythology.
Satish received his Masters in Fine Arts from Hamline University and lives in Minneapolis, MN
with his wife Azure and their two cats Mouse and Myles. He is also the host of the upcoming podcast 'Not your Mother's Mahabharata' an informal conversational storytelling podcast of the great Indian epic.
Jess Lourey
Jess Lourey writes about secrets. She's the Edgar-nominated, Amazon Charts bestselling, International Thriller Award, Anthony Award, and Minnesota Book Award-winning author of crime fiction, nonfiction, children's books, YA adventure, and magical realism.
Raymond Luczak
Raymond Luczak is the author and editor of over 30 books, including poetry, fiction, nonfiction, drama, and anthologies. Recent titles in the last few years include Widower, 48, Seeks Husband: A Novel; A Quiet Foghorn: More Notes from a Deaf Gay Life; and Chlorophyll: Poems about Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Forthcoming titles include Far from Atlantis: Poems and Animals Out-There W-i-l-d: A Bestiary in English and ASL Gloss. He lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota. [raymondluczak.com]
Matt Wendt
Matt Wendt is a freelance and self-published Comic artist and Cartoonist who has done freelance work for various publishers, including: Dark Horse, Image Comics, Lerner Publishing, and GI Studios.
Matt grew up in the frozen tundra of Alaska, where long winters being trapped indoors caused him to take up drawing to break the monotony of the long winters. Over the years he continued to grow as an artist and eventually found his calling in cartooning and comics. Now living in Minnesota, he and his wife self-publish their comics under their own Planet Doom Studios as well as take on occasional freelance comics projects.
John Coy
John Coy is the author of young adult novels, chapter books, and fiction and nonfiction picture books. He has received numerous awards for his work and loves working with students to celebrate reading and writing. He lives by the Mississippi River in Minneapolis.
Shannon Gibney
Shannon Gibney is an award-winning author of books of all kinds — from novels to anthologies to essays to picture books. She writes for adults, children, and everyone in-between.
The through-line in all her work is stories that may have previously gone untold. Sometimes these perspectives have remained hidden because the speakers have not had an outlet for their stories; other times, the stories carry darkness and fear that we prefer to look away from.
Molly Beth Griffin
Molly Beth Griffin is the author of several picture books including The Big Leaf Leap, Ten Beautiful Things and Rhoda's Rock Hunt. She has also written a YA novel, Silhouette of a Sparrow, and the School Sidekicks series of beginning readers. She is a graduate of Hamline University's MFA program in Writing for Children and Young Adults and a teaching artist at The Loft Literary Center. In addition to critiquing manuscripts, mentoring emerging writers, and hosting a monthly Picture Book Salon, Molly enjoys walking around lakes, taking pictures of birds, eating pastries, and waiting for the mail. She lives in South Minneapolis with her partner and their two kids.
Naomi Kritzer
Naomi Kritzer has been writing science fiction and fantasy for over twenty years; her fiction has won the Hugo Award, the Lodestar Award, the Edgar Award, and the Minnesota Book Award. Her newest book, LIBERTY'S DAUGHTER, will be coming out in November. She lives in St. Paul. You can find Naomi online at naomikritzer.com or on Twitter and Bluesky as @naomikritzer.
Mindy Mejia
Mindy Mejia is a CPA, the president of the midwestern chapter of Mystery Writers of America, and a graduate of the Hamline University MFA program. She lives in the Twin Cities with her family and is the author of Strike Me Down, Everything You Want Me to Be, and Leave No Trace. To Catch a Storm, her latest thriller, is on sale now.
Sun Yung Shin
Sun Yung Shin is the editor of A Good Time for the Truth: Race in Minnesota and two other anthologies of essays. She is the author of four books of poetry, most recently The Wet Hex which won the Midland Authors Award for Poetry and was a 2022 finalist for a Minnesota Book Award, and is also the author or co-author of two illustrated books for children—most recently Where We Come From, which was a 2022 finalist for a Minnesota Book Award. She has been awarded fellowships from the MacDowell Foundation, Minnesota State Arts Board, the McKnight Foundation, the Bush Foundation, the Jerome Foundation. She is currently a teaching artist with the Loft and the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop.
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Allen Eskens
Allen Eskens is the bestselling author of The Life We Bury, Nothing More Dangerous, Saving Emma, and six more novels. 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 Edgar Award, Thriller Award, and Anthony Award. His books have been translated into 23 languages. Allen lives with his wife in Greater Minnesota.
Nina Hamza
Nina Hamza lives in Minnesota where she works as a primary care physician. She tried downhill and cross-country skiing, ice-skating, sledding, snow tubing, and snowshoeing before deciding the long winter months were perfect for reading and writing. Her debut middle grade book, Ahmed Aziz's Epic Year is a Chicago Public Library Kids Best Book of the Year, A BookPage Best Book of the Year, A Bank Street Best Book of the year and Finalist for the Minnesota Book Award. Her second book, Samira's Worst Best Summer comes out in May of 2024.
David Mura
David Mura’s most recent book is the acclaimed The Stories Whiteness Tells Itself: Racial Myths and Our American Narratives. His previous book was on creative writing and race, A Stranger’s Journey: Race, Identity & Narrative Craft in Writing. With essayist Carolyn Holbrook, Mura is co-editor of an anthology of 2021 Minnesota BIPOC writers, We Are Meant to Rise: Voices for Justice from Minneapolis to the World.
Mura is a poet, creative nonfiction writer, fiction writer, critic, playwright and performance artist. A Sansei or third generation Japanese American, Mura has written two memoirs: Turning Japanese: Memoirs of a Sansei , which won a 1991 Josephine Miles Book Award from the Oakland PEN and was listed in the New York Times Notable Books of Year, and Where the Body Meets Memory: An Odyssey of Race, Sexuality and Identity.
Mura co-produced, wrote and narrated the Emmy winning documentary by Twin Cities Public Television, Armed With Language, about the Japanese American Military Intelligence Services linguists who served in WWII.
In 2019 he won the Kay Sexton Award for contributions to Minnesota literature by the Friends of the St. Paul Library and the Minnesota Book Awards.
Melody Tenhoff (Nova DuBois)
Nova DuBois has spent her life among children’s books and elementary-aged children. She began her love of children’s literature in her early teens when volunteering at her hometown’s library where she held Saturday morning storytelling hour and assisted in maintaining the children’s book area. This passion resulted in pre- and post-graduate degrees in library science. She enjoys bringing stories to life for children and watching their imaginations soar. She has her own special black cat who helps provide inspiration for the Vine Street Mysteries series. This is the first book of this series, and who knows where her black cat will lead her?
Anne Ursu
Anne Ursu is the winner of a McKnight Fellowship and the author of many acclaimed books for young readers, including the Kirkus Prize finalist The Troubled Girls of Dragomir Academy and the National Book Award longlisted The Real Boy. Her next book is Not Quite a Ghost, coming in January 2024. She lives in Minneapolis with her family and unruly herd of cats.
