Link to Clip: Kevin on TPT\’s Almanac

Here’s the link to voting online at TwinCities.com.

Voting ends March 31!  Spread the word!

Winners will be announced at the Awards Gala April 17, 2010.

MINNESOTA BOOK AWARDS
When: 6:30 p.m., April 17, Crowne Plaza Hotel, St. Paul.
Tickets: $40, thefriends.org or 651-222-3242.

By Laurie Hertzel, Star Tribune

Some familiar names, including thriller writer John Sandford, humorist Kevin Kling, children’s author Kate DiCamillo and poet Dobby Gibson, are among the finalists for this year’s Minnesota Book Awards, announced Saturday night. The finalists — four each in eight categories – were chosen by 24 judges from around the state.

They are:

Memoir & Creative Nonfiction: “The Bullhead Queen” by Sue Leaf; “Going Blind” by Mara Faulkner, OSB; “Holiday Inn” by Kevin Kling, and “The Wolf at Twilight” by Kent Nerbern.

Children’s Literature: “The Longest Night” by Marion Dane Bauer, illustrated by Ted Lewin; “Red Sings from Treetops” by Joyce Sidman, illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski; “Song of Middle C” by Alison McGhee, illustrated by Scott Menchin, and “Stampede!: Poems to Celebrate the Wild Side of School” by Laura Purdie Salas, illustrated by Steven Salerno.

General Nonfiction: “Drink This” by Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl; “I Go to America” by Joy K. Lintelman; “Journeywell” by Trish Herbert, and “Richard Parkes Bonington: The Complete Paintings” by Patrick Noon.

Genre Fiction, sponsored by Wellington Management Inc.: “Frag Box” by Richard A. Thompson; “Jelly’s Gold” by David Housewright; “Rough Country” by John Sandford, and “The Silent Governess” by Julie Klassen.

Minnesota, sponsored by Xcel Energy: “Honor Bright” by Dave Kenney; “Jewel of Como” by Leigh Roethke and Bonnie Blodgett; “Minneapolis in the Twentieth Century” by Iric Nathanson, and “Opening Goliath” by Cary J. Griffith.

Novel & Short Story: “The Annunciations of Hank Meyerson, Mama’s Boy and Scholar” by Scott Muskin; “The Book of Night Women” by Marlon James; “A Travel Guide for Restless Hearts” by N. M. Kelby, and “The Turtle Catcher” by Nicole Helget.

Poetry: “Faith Run” by Ray Gonzalez; “I Wish I Had a Heart Like Yours, Walt Whitman” by Jude Nutter; “Skirmish” by Dobby Gibson, and “Unrest” by Joanna Rawson.

Young People’s Literature, sponsored by 3M: “Crows & Cards” by Joseph Helgerson; “Lucy Long Ago” by Catherine Thimmesh; “The Magician’s Elephant” by Kate DiCamillo, and “The Sky Always Hears Me and the Hills Don’t Mind” by Kirstin Cronn-Mills.

Winners will be announced April 17.

Minnesotans are also invited to vote for the Readers’ Choice Award throughout March. Two awards for contributions to the literary and artistic community in Minnesota will also be given April 17.

Wilber H. Schilling is the recipient of the third Book Artist Award, presented with the Minnesota Center for Book Arts. He owns Indulgence Press, which specializes in hand-bound, letterpress-printed, fine-press books. A reception featuring his work will be held at 5:30 p.m. Feb. 26 in the Open Book Building.

The Kay Sexton Award, sponsored by Common Good Books, will be announced later in February.

The Minnesota Book Awards is led by the Friends of the St. Paul Public Library, in consortium with the St. Paul Public Library and the St. Paul mayor’s office.

Laurie Hertzel is the Star Tribune’s books editor. She is at 612-673-7302.

“Talk of the Stacks”

Minneapolis Central Library, 7 p.m.

Pohlad Hall, 300 Nicollet Mall, More Information

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Saturday, November 14, 2009: Holiday Inn Reading

Northfield Arts Guild, 7 p.m.

304 Division St., Northfield, MN 55057
507.645.8877

Map/Directions

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Tuesday, November 17, 2009: Holiday Inn Reading

Common Good Books, 7:30 p.m.

165 Western Avenue North, St. Paul, MN 55102
651.225.8989

Map/Directions

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Friday, November 20, 2009: Holiday Inn Reading

St. Peter Public Library, 4-5 p.m.

Bjorling Recital Hall, Gustavus Adolphus College, 7 p.m.

Gustavus grad Kevin Kling returns to St. Peter to share his holiday stories. He will be chatting and signing his new book,  Holiday Inn, at the St. Peter Public Library from 4-5pm, then will make a free public presentation at Bjorling Recital Hall at Gustavus Adolphus College.

This special holiday treat is brought to you by St. Peter Reads and the Friends of the St. Peter Public Library.

Gustavus Adolphus College
800 West College Avenue, St. Peter, MN 56082
507.933.7587

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Tuesday, November 24, 2009:  Holiday Inn Reading
Brooklyn Center High School Auditorium 10:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
6500 Humboldt Avenue North, Brooklyn Center, MN 55430

Sponsored by BC READS Program, the Brookdale Bookers Book Club and Friends of the Brookdale Library.

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Thanksgiving Day, 2009: Classical MPR “Giving Thanks: A Celebration of Fall, Food and Gratitude” Broadcast 9 a.m.

Tune in to 99.5 Classical MPR in the Twin Cities (or find your station here <http://minnesota.publicradio.org/radio/stations/> ) or listen online at classicalmpr.org <outbind://239/Classicalmpr.org>

Classical MPR’s John Birge host two hours of reflections on the meaning of gratitude and the blessings of Thanksgiving through words and music. The program includes Kevin Kling reading a prayer from “the Dog Says How” and grace from “Holiday Inn”.

Birchbark Books, 7 p.m.

Reading Location:
Lake of the Isles Lutheran Church
2020 W. Lake of the Isles Pkwy.
Minneapolis, MN 55405

For More Information: 612.374.4023

Magers & Quinn, 7.30 p.m.

3038 Hennepin Ave. South
Minneapolis, MN 55408
612.822.4611

St. Peter Reads

St. Peter Public Library, 4-5 p.m.

Bjorling Recital Hall, Gustavus Adolphus College, 7 p.m.

Gustavus grad Kevin Kling returns to St. Peter to share his holiday stories. He will be chatting and signing his new book,  Holiday Inn, at the St. Peter Public Library from 4-5pm, then will make a free public presentation at Bjorling Recital Hall at Gustavus Adolphus College.

This special holiday treat is brought to you by St. Peter Reads and the Friends of the St. Peter Public Library.

Gustavus Adolphus College
800 West College Avenue
St. Peter, MN 56082
507.933.7587

Common Good Books, 7:30 p.m.

165 Western Avenue North
St. Paul, MN 55102
651.225.8989

Map/Directions

Northfield Arts Guild, 7 p.m.

304 Division St.
Northfield, MN 55057
507.645.8877

Map/Directions

Home for the holiday

Goofy sidekicks help shift Kling’s latest collection into high gear.

By CURT BROWN, Star Tribune

Last update: October 31, 2009

Amy Goetzman, MinnPost.com, also raves!

Kevin Kling spins a year’s worth of family holiday tales

By Amy Goetzman | Published Thu, Nov 12 2009 9:19 am

Kevin Kling has been telling stories — on the radio and on the stage, in plays and in film — for about 30 years, not counting all the years before that when he was listening and practicing and gearing up to become a professional storyteller. But he didn’t feel that he was a real writer until his first book of stories, “The Dog Says How,” came out in 2007.

“Now I feel like I have really arrived, like I’m part of this great community of Minnesota authors, and now I can go up to these folks that I’ve admired for so long and look ’em in the eye. It’s a totally different feeling, being in print,” he said from his home in Minneapolis.

His new collection, “Holiday Inn” (Borealis Books), is a string of tales, tall and true, spun out across a year of holidays, which means we get a longer look at the quirks and adventures of Kling’s family. Unlike the families of many a memoirist, the Kling clan doesn’t mind being the subject of his work; these are a people who revere storytelling, and they’ll gladly help him corroborate what sounds like a whopper, or even refine it.

“Family will say, ‘We need more here, I don’t think you got that right.’ They’re pretty savvy to the fact that I’m gonna stretch things, but it’s all based in real stories. They’ll come to a storytelling and back me up on it. People will say, ‘That can’t be true!’ and there’s my mom, nodding her head,” he said.

In one piece, Kling revisits the several months he spent in the Shriner’s Children’s Hospital as a young boy. He was born with a congenital birth defect that gave him a short left arm, missing a wrist and thumb, and he needed surgery. So his parents, without warning or explanation, dropped him off for an extended stay at what turned out to be surgery plus recovery in a Lord of Flies-like children’s ward.

“Your parents couldn’t visit for at least the first month, because the theory was if they saw you, they’d remember you,” said Kling, marveling at the outdated health-care model. “My mom, early on, had a really hard time with that story. She says, ‘One of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do was drop you off at that hospital,’ and she didn’t like it that when I told the story at first, it seemed like I was just abandoned by her and my dad. So I added a part where she cried as she left and said, ‘Mom, is that enough?’ And she said yeah.”

That’s one way putting it in print is different: No more refinements allowed. “The ethereal world of storytelling is that you’re either there or you’re not. There’s a beautiful sense of event about it, it could only happen at that moment,” he said. “But there’s something about having the stories in a book that makes them lasting, and I wanted, once I was gone, for them not to go with me.”

Kling’s work has become warmer, more resonant, and cleaner over the years. His audience includes a large number of junior-high and high-school students, he says. While the other storytellers they might hear on the radio, such as the essayists on NPR’s “This American Life,” might tell tales of their own generation, with a bitter twist, Kling’s work is sweeter, funnier, and lets them in on the secrets of their parents’ generation.

“When I was growing up, there were guys like Bill Cosby, storytellers I just loved, and now for some kids, I get to be that character. I’m letting them in on this world that was their parents’ world, a world that is both familiar and different,” he says. “I learned that it is really important to write down what you know and what others know, things about your time and other times, and that your ancestors are really, really important.

“We seem so isolated now. We’re so crowded but we’re all in front of screens, and when do we get to feel a sense of belonging? It’s so important that we belong to a family or group or community, and stories can unite us. Last night I was out with some buddies and they told the funniest stuff, and I know it’ll sift in. I’ll be out somewhere and hear something, or I’ll read something in the paper, or I’ll read a book and it will spark a memory of my own. It’s an ongoing process. I really love it when a buddy of mine tells a story and I laugh my head off. That’s part of the process. It’s a pretty good job.”