August 2005

Dear Good Thunder Reading Series Supporter:

In 1982, some colleagues in the Department of English decided to launch a full program of readings by contemporary writers. The series would reach out to the campus population, certainly, but also to anyone in the broader community who had an interest in seeing writers discuss and perform their work. That first year, the roster included local writers as well as writers connected with other state university campuses—all volunteers in the cause. Twenty-three years later, thanks to those early organizers and the support of many others since, the Good Thunder Reading Series enjoys a firm position in the landscape of Minnesota arts. It enters its 24th season committed to featuring emerging and established artists, from our state and elsewhere. By having guests meet with local writers, be interviewed on KMSU-FM, conduct discussions on the writing craft, and perform their published work, the series goes a long way toward reflecting the great diversity and vitality of contemporary writing.

The schedule for 2005-2006 promises to be especially rich.

FALL: The semester kicks off with a reading by roughly one half of the creative writing faculty; Diana Joseph, Roger Sheffer, and I will go first. Next up are MSU alumni Steve Gehrke, who sold his first book before completing his undergraduate degree; Mike Magnuson, author of four books since earning an MA from us; and Nicole Helget, a BA recipient and MFA candidate with a memoir due out next month from Borealis Books. Following them is the acclaimed Irish writer Bernard MacLaverty, whose Grace Notes was short-listed for the prestigious Booker Prize. Following him are Twin Cities poets Ed-Bok Lee and Thien-Bao Thuc Phi, whose performance delighted audiences two years ago; they are joined by emerging poet Juliana Pegues. To create more exposure for the Robert Wright Scholarship program, the series now hosts a day-long Wright residency in lieu of the customary conference/luncheon; Minnesota writer and National Book Award finalist Charles Baxter is slated for the full range of activities and is then joined for the evening reading by fiction and nonfiction writer Benjamin Drevlow, an MSU graduate student who won 1st Place in the 2005 competition. The semester concludes with Michigan fiction writer and poet Stuart Dybek, whose Chicago stories are, as The Chicago Tribune has written, “spellbinding.”

SPRING: We begin with the other half of the creative writing faculty: Candace Black, Suzanne L. Bunkers, Terry Davis, and Richard Terrill. They are followed by fiction writer for adults and teens Pete Hautman; his Godless won both the National Book Award and the Minnesota Book Award for 2005. Following him is Pennsylvania fiction writer and former MSU faculty writer Cathy Day, whose Circus in Winter was very well received when it appeared last year; she is joined by New Jersey poet Catie Rosemurgy. Following these two is the four-day Eddice B. Barber Visiting Writer, novelist Judith Guest, who recently published a new mystery. We finish off the year with Minnesota poet Patricia Kirkpatrick and South Dakota poet Lee Ann Roripaugh; both have recently published new books.

All of this costs money, of course. The good news is that the series will get support this year from both the Prairie Lakes Regional Arts Council and the Minnesota State Arts Board. Along with funds from MSU sources, we are covered for 60% of the estimated costs. For the rest of those costs, though, we rely on you, and it is with this in mind that I ask you to become an individual subscriber to one of Minnesota's oldest literary arts series. As always, there are various levels of membership, most with accompanying premiums, such as signed editions. All or most of your contribution is tax-deductible. By subscribing at whatever level, you'll help keep contemporary writing alive, and live, in the Mankato area.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Richard Robbins, Director
Good Thunder Reading Series

This year's Good Thunder Reading Series is funded by the Minnesota State University Department of English, the MSU College of Arts and Humanities, the MSU Office of Institutional Diversity, MSU Library Services, the Eddice B. Barber Visiting Writer Endowment, the Robert C. Wright Endowment, and individual donors. This activity is made possible in part by a grant provided by the Prairie Lakes Regional Arts Council from funds appropriated by the Minnesota State Legislature. This activity is also made possible in part by a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, through an appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.