Residents
Mirriam Karraker
Nicollet Mall | November 2019
Miriam Karraker writes, performs, collaborates, and is based in Minneapolis. Lately, her work has focused on improvisation, embodiment, and documentation. Her writing has appeared in DIAGRAM, Gulf Coast, Indiana Review, MnArtists, Full Stop, and elsewhere. She was a recipient of the 2018 Academy of American Poets James Wright Prize and has been a resident at The Lighthouse Works (NY). Learn more about her practice at miriamkarraker.com.
Click here to read Miriam’s dispatches.
Casey Deming & Leslie Grant
Laurence McKinley Gould Library | November 2018–March 2019
Casey Deming is a Minneapolis-based artist and curator working with print, bookmaking and sound art. He has exhibited work at the White Page Gallery, Chicago Artists Coalition, Art of This, Madame of the Arts, the Minnesota Center for Book Arts, the Chicago Art Book Fair, and the Printed Matter Art Book Fairs in New York and Los Angeles. Casey curated the Tuesday Series for Experimental Music in collaboration with John Marks (2008-2017), and was a featured musician and curator at The Soap Factory’s 2013 Minnesota Biennial. He has received grants from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council and the Jerome Foundation.
Leslie Grant is an artist and educator based in Minneapolis. Through photographic imagery and mixed media, her practice focuses on collaboration and storytelling, and she works with laborers in a range of industries, such as mining, forestry, and refining. Her work has been shown in many alternative spaces, as well as traditional galleries and museums, for example, the basement of a bar in Cuylerville, New York (owned by a former miner), Artist’s Space in New York, the American Labor Museum in Haledon, New Jersey, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Cleveland.
Click here to read Casey’s and Leslie’s dispatches.
Lara Mimosa Montes
Bronx, New York | October 2018
Lara Mimosa Montes is the author of The Somnambulist (Horse Less Press 2016). She holds a PhD in English from The Graduate Center, City University of New York. Her poems and essays have appeared in the Academy of American Poets’s Poem-A-Day, BOMB, Boston Review, Hyperallergic, and elsewhere. She is a 2018 McKnight Writing Fellow and CantoMundo Fellow. Currently, she works as a senior editor of Triple Canopy and lives in the Twin Cities. She was born in the Bronx.
Click here to read Lara’s dispatches.
Kathryn Savage
Gullkistan, Center for Creativity | July 2018
Kathryn Savage is a recipient of the 2018 Academy of American Poets James Wright Prize. A hybrid writer, her work appears or is forthcoming in American Short Fiction, poets.org, the Guardian, Poets & Writers, Ploughshares, the Village Voice, Star Tribune, and The Best Small Fictions of 2015. She currently teaches writing at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD), and at the University of Minnesota, where she is pursuing a second MFA in poetry. Her work has been supported by the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Napa Valley Writers’ Conference, Minnesota State Arts Board, Millay Colony for the Arts, Ucross Foundation, Weisman Art Museum, O'Rourke Travel Fellowship, and Graduate Research Partnership Program Fellowship from the University of Minnesota.
Click here to read Kathryn’s dispatches.
Valérie Déus
Ruben/Bentson Moving Image Collection at Walker Art Center | November 2017–April 2018
Valérie Déus is a poet living and working in Minneapolis, where she is a professor of English at Minneapolis Community and Technical College. She is the publisher of We / Here, a South Minneapolis Art Zine, programmer of FilmNorth Cinema Lounge, and the host of KRSM radio’s Project 35, an eclectic mix of music, poetry, artist interviews, and more. Her work has been featured in the Brooklyn Rail, Saint Paul Almanac, Bezine, and the anthology How to Write an Earthquake (Autumn Hill Books 2011).
Click here to read Valérie’s dispatches.
Moheb Soliman
Mississippi Watershed Management District | October–November 2017
Moheb Soliman is a poet and interdisciplinary artist from Egypt and the midwest. In recent years his work has focused on issues of nature, culture, modernity, belonging, and identity through the site of the Great Lakes region, leading to a range of projects. In 2016 Moheb presented Attention Visitors Attention at the five Great Lakes national parks for the NPS centennial, a far-flung installation of 25 poems masquerading as official park signs, soon to be published as an art chapbook by Red Bird Books. In 2015, through a Joyce Foundation fellowship, Moheb traced the entire Great Lakes coastline for four months, developing partnerships with organizations region-wide and creating installation, media, and poetry work under the banner HOMES (the evocative Great Lakes acronym). Moheb has a BA from The New School for Social Research, an MA from the University of Toronto, and currently lives in Minneapolis where he works as Program Director for the Arab American arts organization Mizna.
Click here to read Moheb’s dispatches.
Su Hwang
Dickinson House | July 2017
Su Hwang received her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Minnesota in May 2016 and was a 2016–17 recipient of the Loft Literary Center’s Minnesota Emerging Writer Grant. Born in Seoul, South Korea, she grew up in New York then moved to San Francisco before transplanting to the Twin Cities. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Ninth Letter, Drunken Boat, Tinderbox Poetry Journal, Prairie Gold: An Anthology of the American Heartland, and Poets.org.
Click here to read Su’s dispatches.
Matthea Harvey
Reanimation Library at Queens Museum | August–September 2016
Matthea Harvey is the author of five books of poetry—If the Tabloids are True What Are You? (Graywolf 2014), Of Lamb, an illustrated erasure with images by Amy Jean Porter (McSweeney’s 2011), Modern Life,a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and a New York Times Notable Book (Graywolf 2007), Sad Little Breathing Machine (Graywolf 2004), and Pity the Bathtub Its Forced Embrace of the Human Form (Alice James Books 2000). She has also published two children’s books: Cecil the Pet Glacier(Schwartz & Wade 2013), illustrated by Giselle Potter, and The Little General and the Giant Snowflake (Tin House 2009), illustrated by Elizabeth Zechel. She teaches poetry at Sarah Lawrence and lives in Brooklyn.
Click here to read Matthea’s dispatches.
Victoria Blanco
East Side Freedom Library | April–May 2016
Victoria Blanco received her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Minnesota. Her research among the Rarámuris, indigenous peoples of Chihauhua, Mexico, has been funded by a Fulbright Award and fellowships from the University of Minnesota. She is a freelance writer for Pollen and has taught Creative Writing courses at the Loft Literary Center. Originally from El Paso, Texas, Victoria currently lives in Minneapolis with her husband and two children.
Click here to read Victoria’s dispatches.
Ted Mathys
St. Louis Central Library | March–April 2016
Ted Mathys is the author of three books of poetry, Null Set (2015), The Spoils (2009) and Forge (2005), all from Coffee House Press. He is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts, and was selected by Alice Notley for the Poetry Society of America’s 2013 Cecil Hemley Memorial Award. His poetry and criticism have appeared in American Poetry Review, BOMB, Boston Review, Conjunctions, Critical Quarterly, Denver Quarterly, jubilat, Fence, Verse, the Volta, and other publications.
Click here to read Ted’s dispatches.
Steven Lang
Silverwood Park | February 2016
Artist and writer Steven Lang received his B.F.A. from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. His visual work has been featured at the Soap Factory, Rosalux Gallery, and Soo Visual Arts Center. He was the recipient of a Loft Mentor Award for 2013–2014, and was a recent resident artist at Elsewhere, a living museum set in a former thrift store in Greensboro, North Carolina. His stories were included in the anthology Fiction on a Stick, published by Milkweed Editions, and The Art of Wonder, published by the Minneapolis Institute of Art.
Click here to read Steven’s dispatches.
Junauda Petrus & Erin Sharkey (aka Free Black Dirt)
Givens Collection of African American Literature at the University of Minnesota | November–February 2015
Junauda Petrus is a writer, aerialist, playwright, creative organizer, and performance artist. She has received a Givens Foundation fellowship, a Jerome Travel and Study grant and a Many Voices Mentorship with the Playwright’s Center, and is currently the performance and installation artist for the Naked Stages Residency at the Pillsbury House. She is also a cultural producer in residence at the Givens Foundation, where she co-hosts a podcast series called Black Market Reads, a weekly talk show about Black Literature, creativity, and cultural production. The co-founder of Free Black Dirt, Junauda is grateful to be an artist in this lifetime and loves to create art that seeks to explore, expand, and excite around the experience of Blackness, love, and transformation.
Erin Sharkey is a prose poet, essayist, educator, and graphic designer. She was nominated for Best New Poets 2015, is a 2015 Givens Foundation for African American Literature Fellow, and has been published in RPS. In her role as cultural producer in residence at the Givens Foundation, she is the co-host of a new podcast series called Black Market Reads, a weekly talk show about Black Literature, creativity, and cultural production. A co-founder of Free Black Dirt, Erin is an MFA candidate at Hamline University, St. Paul, MN.
Click here to read Erin and Junauda’s dispatches.
Ander Monson
Kinsey Institute Library and Special Collections at Indiana University | July 2015
Ander Monson is the author, most recently, of Letter to a Future Lover: Marginalia, Errata, Secrets, Inscriptions, and Other Ephemera Found in Libraries (Graywolf Press). He is also the author of Vanishing Point, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and Neck Deep and Other Predicaments, both published by Graywolf Press. In 2016, Monson and Coffee House Press will present How We Speak to One Another: an Essay Daily Reader, edited by Monson. He edits DIAGRAM and the New Michigan Press. Monson lives in Tucson and teaches in the MFA program at the University of Arizona.
Click here to read Ander’s dispatches.
Steve Healey
The Floating Library at Silver Lake, Silverwood Park | July–August 2015
Steve Healey is the author of two books of poetry, 10 Mississippi and Earthling, both published by Coffee House Press. His poems have been published in magazines such as American Poetry Review, Boston Review, Denver Quarterly, Fence, and Jubilat, and in anthologies, most recently The New Census: an Anthology of Contemporary American Poetry. His essays about creative writing pedagogy have appeared in The Writer’s Chronicle and the collection Creative Writing Pedagogies for the Twenty-First Century.He teaches creative writing and English at Minneapolis Community & Technical College.
Click here to read Steve’s blog dispatches.
Eric William Carroll
The Bakken Museum | July –August 2015
Eric William Carroll’s work on photography, science, and nature has been exhibited widely, including the New Orleans Museum of Art, Aperture Foundation, the Museum of Contemporary Photography, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and Pier 24 Photography. Carroll has participated in residencies with the MacDowell Colony, Rayko Photo Center, and the Blacklock Nature Sanctuary, and was the winner of the 2012 Baum Award for Emerging Photographers. Born and raised in the midwest, Carroll currently teaches at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Click here to read Eric’s blog dispatches.
Emily Stover
Dept of Transportation & Army Corps of Engineers | May–June 2015
Emily Stover is a multidisciplinary designer and public artist whose work focuses on temporary environments, experiential art, and public engagement as ways of investigating how people live together and work together. She is currently working on an interactive poetry game for Northern Spark 2015, a large-scale lighting project celebrating a downtown energy utility, and a sculptural installation that investigates modern shipping practices and how goods move through the landscape. In addition to her practice, Stover teaches design thinking and the creative process at the University of Minnesota’s College of Design.
Click here to read Emily’s dispatches.
Kao Kalia Yang
Sun Ray Library March–April 2015
Kao Kalia Yang is a teacher, public speaker, and writer. Yang is the author of the award-winning book, The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir (Coffee House Press 2008), and The Song Poet (Metropolitan Books 2016). She is a graduate of Carleton College and Columbia University’s School of the Arts. Kao Kalia lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota with her family.
Click here to read Kao Kalia Yang’s blog dispatches.
Nor Hall
Opus Archives & Research Center | March 2015
Nor Hall is a writer, performance researcher, archetypal psychologist, and author of the chapbook Traces (Ohm Editions) and the books Irons in the Fire (Station Hill), Those Women (Spring), and The Moon & the Virgin (Harper Collins). Hall has presented at the Eranos Institute on gender, at International Cast Iron Artists and Myth & Theatre festivals, at the Walker Art Center, and for the Friends of the Hennepin County Library (Minneapolis). A graduate of Beloit College and the 1960’s University of California at Santa Cruz’s History of Consciousness doctoral program, she has been a dramaturg with Archipelago Theatre (Chapel Hill) since 1996 and works with the Studio 206 Tink Tank in the Twin Cities. Hall serves as an occasional advisor for Pacifica Graduate Institute, volunteers at the Center for Victims of Torture in Saint Paul, and is distracted by thirteen grandchildren.
Click here to read Nor’s blog dispatches.
Valeria Luiselli
Poets House–NYC | October 2014
Valeria Luiselli was born in Mexico City in 1983 and grew up in South Africa. She is the author of Faces in the Crowd and Sidewalks, both published by Coffee House Press. Her novels and essays have been translated into many languages, and her work has appeared in publications including the New York Times, Granta, and McSweeney’s. She lives in New York City.
Click here to read Valeria’s blog dispatches.
Stephanie Watson
Hennepin County Library–Ridgedale | October–November 2014
Stephanie Watson is the author of the middle-grade novels Elvis & Olive and Elvis & Olive: Super Detectives and two picture books, The Wee Hours and Behold! A Baby. She also teaches writing workshops in schools and libraries, teaches and performs theater improvisation, and draws a lot of pictures. Stephanie has received grants from the MN State Arts Board and the Jerome Foundation.
Click here to read Stephanie’s blog dispatches.
Hans Weyandt
Hennepin County Central Library | August–September 2014
Hans Weyandt has worked at four independent bookstores in St. Paul and Minneapolis over the past 15 years. He is the former co-owner of Micawber’s Books and the editor of Read This! Handpicked Favorites from America’s Indie Bookstores published by Coffee House Press. He currently works at Sea Salt Eatery, Moon Palace Books, and Big Bell Ice Cream. He also is handling publicity for Ben Weaver’s fall record release (I Would Rather Be a Buffalo) and bike tour from Minnesota to Louisiana. He lives in Minneapolis with his wife, Jen, and three sons.
Click here to view Hans’ blog dispatches.
Éireann Lorsung
Little Poetry Library, Minneapolis | July–August 2014
Éireann Lorsung is the author of Music For Landing Planes By (Milkweed 2007), Her Book (Milkweed 2013), and Sweetbriar (dancing girl press 2013). Recent poems appear in Beloit Poetry Journal, Burnside Review, Colorado Review, and Women’s Studies Quarterly. Now she is at work on a novel about archives and earthquakes, pieces of which can be found in Two Serious Ladies, DIAGRAM, Mandala, and Bluestem.She edits 111O and co-runs MIEL, a micropress (miel-books.com).
Click here to view Éireann’s blog dispatches.
Eric Hanson
Minneapolis Institute of Arts | May–June 2014
Eric Hanson’s artwork has appeared in the New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Harper’s, the New York Times, Rolling Stone, Die Zeit, Travel & Leisure, and Gourmet, among other publications. He has designed product lines for Pottery Barn and illustrated books for Knopf (the Chic Simple series); Chronicle; Random House; Faber & Faber; Farrar, Straus and Giroux; the New York Review of Books; and Pantheon. His writing has been published in McSweeney’s, the Atlantic, Smithsonian, Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazine, Leite’s Culinaria, the Rumpus, the Week, the New York Tyrant, Ampersand, Torpedo, and the Lifted Brow (Australia).
Click here to view Eric’s blog dispatches.
Andy Sturdevant
Hennepin County Library–Northeast | April–May 2014
Andy Sturdevant is an artist, writer, and arts administrator living in South Minneapolis. He has written about art, history, and culture for a variety of Twin Cities–based publications and websites, including mnartists.org, Rain Taxi, Art Review and Preview!, Mpls. St. Paul, and heavytable.com. His essays have also appeared in publications of the Walker Art Center and the Jerome Foundation. Sturdevant writes a weekly column on arts and visual culture in Minneapolis–St. Paul for MinnPost. He was born in Ohio, raised in Kentucky, and has lived in Minneapolis since 2005. His first book, Potluck Supper with Meeting to Follow, was published by Coffee House Press in 2013.
Click here to view Andy’s blog dispatches.
Greg Hewett
Quatrefoil Library | February–March 2014
Greg Hewett is the author of darkacre (Coffee House Press 2010), The Eros Conspiracy (Coffee House Press 2006), Red Suburb (Coffee House Press 2002), To Collect the Flesh (New Rivers Press 1996), and Blindsight (Coffee House Press 2016)—poetry collections that have received a Publishing Triangle Award, two Minnesota Book Award Nominations, a Lambda Book Award Nomination, and an Indie Bound Poetry Top Ten recommendation. The recipient of Fulbright fellowships to Denmark and Norway, Hewett has also been a fellow at the Camargo Foundation in France, and is a professor of English at Carleton College. He is currently finishing a biography of the film noir actor Thomas Gomez.
Click here to view Greg’s blog dispatches.
Ed Bok Lee
Wallenberg Library and Archive at the American Swedish Institute | January 2014
Ed Bok Lee is the author of Whorled (Coffee House Press 2011), winner of an American Book Award and a Minnesota Book Award, and Real Karaoke People (New Rivers Press 2005), winner of a PEN Open Book Award.
Heather Hartman
Cookie House Press | November 2013
Heather Hartman is a chef, promoter of local foods and the people who make them, and all-around lover of deliciousness. She is the chef at the Mill City Farmer’s Market, the operator of Nourish Catering, a catering and personal chef business, and a proud mama of a fantastic girl. In addition to making food for those she loves, Heather enjoys gardening, riding her bike, listening to records, and eating lots of homemade pizza. She is a proud resident of NE Mpls.
Click here to view Heather’s blog dispatches.
Chris Martin
Minnesota Historical Society Gale Family Library | October 2013
Chris Martin is the author of American Music (Copper Canyon 2007) and Becoming Weather (Coffee House Press 2011). He is also the author of several chapbooks, including How to Write a Mistake-ist Poem(Brave Men 2011), enough (Ugly Duckling 2012), and the serially released CHAT (Flying Object 2012). After editing one of the first online magazines, Puppy Flowers, for its entire ten-year run, he is now an editor at Futurepoem books and curates the response blog Futurepost.
Click here to view Chris’ blog dispatches.
Sarah Fox
American Craft Council Library | July 2013
Sarah Fox co-imagines the Center for Visionary Poetics, serves as a doula, and is a teacher of poetry and creative writing. She contributes posts on feminism, mysticism, astrology, and poetics to the blog Montevidayo and has won grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Bush Foundation, the Jerome Foundation, and the Minnesota State Arts Board, among others. Sarah is the author of The First Flag (Coffee House Press 2013) and Because Why (Coffee House Press 2006).
Click here to view Sarah’s blog dispatches.
Lightsey Darst
Walker Art Center Resource Library | May 2013
Lightsey Darst writes, dances, writes about dance and other arts, and teaches. She is the author of Dance (Coffee House Press 2013) and Find the Girl (Coffee House Press 2006).