2021 MN Books
Fiction
Nice Girls by Catherine Dang
Two young women go missing in a Minnesota town. One is wealthy and white, the other poor and Black. Which disappearance rocks the town? And what does that say about us— more than the women themselves? U of M grad Catherine Dang’s first novel is a suspenseful thriller, sure—but it’s so much more than that. (Read our conversation with Dang here.) harpercollins.com
The Sentence by Louise Erdrich
One of our state’s guiding forces of literature, Louise Erdrich, dropped The Sentence in November—and it’s not completely fiction. The setting? A Twin Cities bookstore not too dissimilar from Erdich’s own Birchbark Books. The timing? 2020, our year of gut-wrenching pain and reckoning that’s far from over. But this is also a ghost story, and we don’t want to spoil anything more. (Read our full Q&A with Erdrich here.) harpercollins.com
The Troubled Girls of Dragomir Academy by Anne Ursu
Middle grade author Anne Ursu’s latest fantasy novel is a little like Harry Potter—but also completely different, and completely her own. The similarities? A faraway castle-like school, a sense of impending dread and doom (mixed with a healthy dose of cheerier moments), and magical abilities and monsters. The differences? Just about everything else, including Ursu’s deep and innate knowledge of, and love for, Minneapolis (her hometown), which gets sprinkled throughout her books in surprising ways. harpercollins.com
Search History by Eugene Lim
The plot to an enthralling work of fiction like Search History by Eugene Lim (out on local publisher Coffee House Press) immediately hooks you in with a premise full of possibilities like this: what happens when your narrator realizes he’s been reincarnated as a dog? coffeehousepress.org
Nonfiction
Baking for the Holidays by Sarah Kieffer
In 2021, our pan-bangin’ cookie queen bestowed upon us a gift: the new essential for holiday treat-making. From triple-chocolate peppermint bark to pear-almond Danish bread, streusel-laden pumpkin pie to hot cocoa cake, these recipes are sure to turn even your Scroogiest relative into a pile of holiday joy. (Psst, we won’t tell if you bake these goodies all year long.) chroniclebooks.com
Antitrust by Amy Klobuchar
Senator Amy Klobuchar’s history of monopoly power in the U.S. demonstrates why antitrust enforcement legislation is a crucial issue facing Americans. From Big Pharma’s pricing control to Big Tech’s overreaching information gathering, Sen. Klobuchar’s layered approach goes back to the Gilded Age, an era of industrialization where the likes of J. P. Morgan, John Rockefeller, and Cornelius Vanderbilt accumulated vast fortunes while the working class was left behind, and is still catching up. penguinrandomhouse.com
Funny Thing About Minnesota... by Patrick Strait
It’s hard to overstate just how influential Minnesota’s comedy scene is. Our state has produced Daily Show co-creator Lizz Winstead, SNL comedian-turned-Senator Al Franken, and the stand-up legend that is Louie Anderson. The Brave New Workshop pioneered sketch comedy in the U.S. Local writer Patrick Strait’s deep dive into the comedy scene shows just how vital it still is today, and traces its origins back to the 1970s at the Minneapolis dive bar Mickey Finn’s. The rest, as they say, is history. mnhs.org
An Essay for Ezra by Grant Farred
Grant Farred’s latest is a letter of sorts framed through the experiences of the author’s biracial son, exploring race in America and using the 2016 election as a jumping off point to critically examine a post-Trump nation. It’s personal, yet speaks to our wider cultural moment. upress.umn.edu
Settler Colonial City by David Hugill
In Settler Colonial City, David Hugill, an assistant professor of geography and environmental studies at Carleton University in Ottawa, uncovers how Minneapolis became a city of racial inequality through power structures reinforced by non-Indigenous people, that are embedded into its fabric today. Using the Phillips neighborhood as a case study, his research suggests how colonial practices continue to shape urban reorganization and perpetuate a system of racialized policing. upress.umn.edu
Poetry
You Better Be Lightning by Andrea Gibson
Beloved poet and spoken word artist Andrea Gibson’s latest collection, out on Button Poetry, captures lightning in a bottle. Exploring queer, political, and feminist themes, Gibson’s latest encourages the reader to seize moments and live to the potential of each day. buttonpoetry.com
Worldly Things by Michael Kleber-Diggs
The debut poetry collection by Micheal Kleber-Diggs, out on Milkweed Editions, was years in the making. “Everything I write, it’s a conversation, and it contains some idea—a bird, how police treat a Black man, how cool dog walking is, or something fairly grand,” he told us earlier this year. “But the people I most want to have conversations with are the people who live right here." It's time to listen. milkweed.org
Sho by Douglas Kearney
This National Book Award-nominated collection by the esteemed University of Minnesota professor plays with language, form, and the expectations of how poetry should even be. At times dark yet captivating, it will leave you turning each page until it’s over, and ending each poem in contemplation. “I want readers to be suspicious of language. I'm interested in constantly reminding people of our participation in the realm of making and extracting meaning, reading, talking, writing,” he tells us. wavepoetry.com
Homes by Moheb Soliman
Based in Minnesota, where he was the program director for the Arab American literary journal and arts organization Mizna, Moheb Soliman’s Homes (out on Coffee House Press) is a cartographic exploration of belonging, jumping along the coast of the Great Lakes as Soliman drives his Corolla to survey the region’s environmental destruction and history of colonial oppression. Buckle up for this ride. coffeehousepress.org
