Laurie Hertzel - NEWS TO ME

News to Me: Adventure of an Accidental Journalist

by Laurie Hertzel


The story of how Laurie Hertzel fell into journalism, starting as the newsroom clerk at the Duluth News-Tribune in the 1970s and becoming a reporter almost against her will. It's a sort of coming-of-age story, and a look at newsrooms back in the days of fedoras and typewriters, and the experiences of a woman in a man's world. Parts of it are pretty funny--hopefully, the parts the author intended.


BIOGRAPHY
Laurie Hertzel is the Senior Editor for Books and Special Projects at the Star Tribune, where she has worked for 14 years. Previously, she was a senior editor of Minnesota Monthly magazine, and a reporter and editor at the Duluth News-Tribune for nearly 20 years. She has had Fellowships at Duke University and the James Thurber House, and has been a speaker and faculty member at the Nieman Conferences on Narrative Writing and Editing at Harvard
University.

BOOK LAUNCH
September 7
The Loft Literary Center
Minneapolis

SIGNINGS AND APPEARANCES
7 p.m. Aug. 31
Write-On Radio, KFAI-FM

7:30 p.m., Sept. 13
Magers & Quinn, Minneapolis

7 p.m. Sept. 16, book launch
Fitger's, Duluth

6:30 p.m., Sept. 20
Talk on memoir and creative nonfiction
Mounds View Public Library

7 p.m. Sept. 28
Talk on book clubs
Grand Rapids Public Library

4 p.m. Sept. 29
Talk, Tower Hall
College of St. Scholastica

7 p.m. Oct. 6
Micawber's Books
St. Paul

2 p.m. Oct. 16
Cross River Heritage Society
Schroeder, Minn.

WEBSITE
www.lauriehertzel.com

BLOG
http://lifewiththreedogs.blogspot.com

OTHER BOOKS
They Took My Father: American Finns in Stalin's Russia
UM Press, 2004

Real Feature Writing
(contributed one chapter) 2006.

PUBLISHER
University of Minnesota Press

PURCHASE
Indie Bound

or

Amazon

Swati Avasthi - SPLIT

SPLIT

By Swati Avasthi

Knopf

16-year-old Jace Witherspoon arrives at the doorstep of his estranged brother Christian with a re-landscaped face (courtesy of his father’s fist), $3.84, and a secret.

He tries to move on, going for new friends, a new school, and a new job, but all his changes can’t make him forget what he left behind—his mother, who is still trapped with his dad, and his ex-girlfriend who is keeping his secret. At least so far.

Split is about what happens after. After you’ve said enough, after you’ve run, after you’ve made the split—how do you begin to live again?

BIOGRAPHY
Swati Avasthi has been writing fiction since she read Little House in the Big Woods at age five. Emily Brontë, Harper Lee, and many others furthered her addiction. She institutionalized her habit at the University of Chicago, where she received her B.A. She has received numerous honors, including a Loft’s Mentor Series Award and University of Minnesota’s Marcella DeBourg Fellowship and the Thomas H. Shevlin Fellowship. 2010 will be a big year for her: she will complete her MFA from the University of Minnesota, and Knopf will publish her debut novel, Split, in March.

BOOK RELEASE
March 9, 2010

BOOK LAUNCH
The Loft Literary Center
March 20, 2010
7:00 PM
Performance Hall
Refreshments provided

APPEARANCES
March 18th, I'll be interviewed by Charlotte Sullivan on KFAI

WEBSITE
www.swatiavasthi.com

BLOG
www.swatiavasthi.blogspot.com

UNIQUE INFORMATION
Before I wrote Split, I coordinated a domestic violence legal clinic where I interviewed thousands of abuse survivors.

Ellen Hart - The Mirror and the Mask

The Mirror and the Mask

By Ellen Hart

Minotaur Books

ISBN: 0312375271

Minneapolis restaurateur Jane Lawless is at crossroads. The rough economy has put her plans for a third restaurant on hold, and her long distance romance is on the rocks and quite possibly unsalvageable. Unsure of what to do next, she takes her good friend A. J. Nolan up on his standing offer to take her on as a private investigator.While still in training, her first job seems simple enough. All she had to do is find Annie Archer’s stepfather. Jane tracks down a likely match—a man who has made a small fortune in real estate. While she’s happy to close her first case, she finds it hard to reconcile the difference between PI work—finding what people pay you to find—and uncovering the truth, the whole truth, especially when clues in this seemingly simple case point to more threatening family secrets than where Annie’s father has been hiding out.Ellen Hart’s The Mirror and the Mask is another engrossing mystery filled with the deceit and psychological intrigue that fans have come to expect from this Lambda and Minnesota Book Award--winning author.

BIOGRAPHY

Ellen is a five-time winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Best Lesbian Mystery, as well as a three-time winner of the Minnesota Book Award for Best Popular Fiction. Entertainment Weekly recently named her one of the "101 movers and shakers in the gay entertainment industry." For the last eleven years, Ellen has taught "An Introduction to Writing the Modern Mystery" through the The Loft Literary Center, the largest independent writing community in the nation.

Ellen lives in Minneapolis with her partner of 30 years.

SWEET POISON

Nominated: 2008 Lambda Literary Award for Best Lesbian

MysteryShortlisted: The Golden Crown Literary Award for Best Mystery

JANE LAWLESS SERIES
Hallowed Murder (1989)

Vital Lies (1991)

Stage Fright (1992)

A Killing Cure (1993)

A Small Sacrifice (1994)

Faint Praise (1995)

Robber's Wine (1996)

Wicked Games (1998)

Hunting the Witch (1999)

The Merchant of Venus (2001)

Immaculate Midnight (2002)

An Intimate Ghost (2004)

The Iron Girl (2005)

Night Vision (2006)

The Mortal Groove (2007)

Sweet Poison (2008)

The Mirror and the Mask (Nov. 2009)

SOPHIE GREENWAY SERIES

This Little Piggy Went to Murder (1994)

For Every Evil (1995)

The Oldest Sin (1996)

Murder in the Air (1997)

Slice and Dice (2000)

Dial M for Meatloaf (2001)

Death on a Silver Platter (2003)

No Reservations Required (2005)

WEBSITE
www.ellenhart.com

MINNESOTA CRIME WAVE
www.minnesotacrimewave.org