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Amy Goetzman

Amy Goetzman writes about books, authors, libraries and the Twin Cities literary scene. She is a freelance writer and editor who has covered the arts for MinnPost, the Rake, City Pages, Star Tribune and Minnesota Monthly, as well as culture topics for Salon.com, The New York Times and Babble.com.

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Arts Arena

Minnesota Microphone is your one-stop poetry slam stop

By Amy Goetzman | 07/21/09
The spoken-word scene has always struck me as somewhat ephemeral; if you miss the moment, it’s entirely gone — it’s not as though you can go check out the book after the reading.
Arts Arena

Craigslist ad leads to book deal for outdoors writer Jake Kulju

By Amy Goetzman | 07/10/09
Freelance outdoors writer Jake Kulju was cruising Craigslist one day, and there it was, the job of his dreams: Avalon Travel was looking for an outdoors writer to create a Twin Cities hiking guide for its Moon line of guidebooks.
Arts Arena

Nicole Johns offers unvarnished, unromanticized memoir in 'Purge: Rehab Diaries'

By Amy Goetzman | 07/08/09
One hates to ever side with book bans, but consider the weird category of eating-disorder literature: According to writer Nicole Johns, certain titles romanticize the illness and actually encourage readers to develop or deepen an illness.
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Could Michael Stanley cut the Barry Award in half?

By Amy Goetzman | 06/23/09
OK, one more note about Minnesota’s Barry Award nominees: So, what happens if Michael Stanley is named the winner for "A Carrion Death"? Who gets to keep the plaque?
Arts Arena

Minnesota mystery writers hit the mark

By Amy Goetzman | 06/22/09
Minnesota probably has one of the country’s highest numbers of mystery novelists per capita, and if that’s not true, then I’ll argue that if ours are fewer, well then, they’re better.
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Yet more about Bob Dylan in new essay collection

By Amy Goetzman | 06/19/09
So, we’re moved from the era of "Dylanology" to Dylan Studies, say the editors of a new collection of essays about the singer/poet’s life and work.
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Jennifer Baldwin Peden belts out George Rabasa's 'The Wonder Singer'

By Amy Goetzman | 06/09/09
When did books become so outgoing? These once quiet, solitary endeavors seem to be getting out of the house a lot more lately.
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Norah Labiner’s guide to not writing about terrible things

By Amy Goetzman | 06/03/09
Norah Labiner’s new book, "German for Travelers" (Coffee House Press), is a novel about storytelling.
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Heather McElhatton skewers the chick-lit formula

By Amy Goetzman | 06/01/09
Heather McElhatton has written the last word in the chick-lit genre. After this one, we don’t need any more.
Arts Arena

Make room on the kitchen shelf for the first-ever Hmong cookbook

By Amy Goetzman | 05/22/09
There aren’t that many original book ideas out there, but amazingly, here one is: The first Hmong cookbook has just been published, and it’s long overdue.