Letters From Minnesota

• Diane Jarvenpa from Minneapolis
• jester from Cook
• Shanai Matteson from Palisade

Send us your contributions to hello@writersfordemocraticaction.org.

Minneapolis ISO the Next City Poet Laureate

Information session

When:

September 10, 5:00–6:00pm

Where:

Open Book Loft Classroom and online

Interested in applying for to be the next Minneapolis Poet Laureate for 2027-2028? Join this hybrid info session either in-person or online to hear the ins and outs of the program's eligibility!

Graywolf Literary Salon

When:

September 10, 7:00pm

Where:

Glass House
Mpls, MN

Graywolf Press is thrilled to invite our community of readers, writers, and literary friends to gather once again for our 2026 Literary Salon! Featuring Deb Olin Unferth, Karen Tei Yamashita, and Graywolf executive director and publisher Carmen Giménez, with Danez Smith as MC.

Join us for an unforgettable evening of literature, conversation, and community. Secure your seat now and be among the first to discover the secret, exclusive experience we’ll unveil at the 2026 Literary Salon.

Minnesota Writers Off the Page: Lanesboro

sponsored by the Minnesota Humanities Center

When:

September 17, 6:00–7:30pm

Where:

Lanesboro, MN

Featuring Minnesota writers Thomas Maltman and Mubanga Kalimamukwento. Registration required.

Minnesota Children's Book Festival

27th Annual

When:

September 19, 11:00am–4:00pm

Where:

Anderson Center
Red Wing, MN

This beloved event features presentations of new books by award-winning authors and illustrators writing for young readers through middle grade. Taking place at the Anderson Center’s beautiful, historic Tower View campus, the Children's Book Festival is an ideal opportunity for families to connect, learn and play.

A Virtual Afternoon with Heather Cox Richardson & Siri Hustvedt

Writers for Democratic Action presents The Inaugural Gitlin-Auster Defender of Democracy Award to historian Heather Cox Richardson

When:

September 19, 2:00pm CT

Where:

Online

Writers for Democratic Action (WDA) began in 2020 as a small group of poets, fiction writers, and journalists, and is now comprised of more than 4,000 writers worldwide. WDA is a volunteer organization devoted to literature as a bedrock of democratic culture. At today’s virtual gathering the group will bestow the first Gitln-Auster Defender of Democracy Award – named after two WDA founding members, Todd Gitlin and Paul Auster.

The first recipient of this award is Heather Cox Richardson, a professor of history at Boston College and an expert on American political and economic history. She is the author of seven books, including Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America and the award-winning How the South Won the Civil War. Her widely read Substack newsletter, Letters from an American, synthesizes history and modern political issues and is read daily by more than a million readers.

Following the award presentation, Richardson will be in conversation with the esteemed writer Siri Hustvedt, a WDA founding member. Hustvedt is the author of a book of poetry, five collections of essays, two works of nonfiction, and seven novels.

Her most recent work, Ghost Stories, a searing memoir of love and grief, is centered around the loss of her husband, Paul Auster.

Heather Cox Richardson and Siri Hustvedt are champions of democracy. Their conversation in this virtual event will focus on the challenges of the crucial run-up to the Midterm Election on which the fate of democracy hinges. With this gathering, WDA will launch its 2026 Book the Vote Campaign, bringing together readers, writers, booksellers, and librarians to register voters, defend the rights of voters, and resist voter-suppression. Please join us far and wide!

An Evening with George Saunders

Fall 2026 Freier Lecture in Literature

When:

September 22, 7:30pm

Where:

Northrop Carlson Family Stage
Mpls, MN

The Esther Freier Lectures in Literature Series presents the bestselling author of the Man Booker Prize-winning Lincoln in the Bardo (2017) reading from his new novel Vigil. Regents Professor Julie Schumacher will moderate a conversation with Saunders in this special event celebrating 25 years of the Freier series. This in-person event is free with registration.

Book the Vote

from National WDA

A national drive bringing together readers, writers, booksellers, publishers, and librarians to register voters

"Democracies die by foreign invasion, but they also die by homegrown authoritarian malignancies. That is happening now in the United States, and Writers for Democratic Action calls on YOU to stop it! Join us in protecting representative government with the most powerful weapon we still have: the Vote in 2026.

"WDA is launching BOOK THE VOTE, a drive to bring together readers, writers, booksellers, publishers, and librarians to register voters before the next elections. Books themselves are threatened now, which is no surprise since books have always been essential to democracy. The Bookstore and the Library can be the frontline of the campaign to rescue it."

Hands Off Our Vote Trainings

from Indivisible

Calling all Indivisibles who are ready to demand Hands Off Our Vote! This is the first of two trainings on 2026 election protection: the actions you and those around you can take to ensure every eligible voter can vote, every vote is counted, and the results are honored and the winners seated. This training includes a step-by-step of basic election protection steps that you can scale to how much time and energy you have, as well as a messaging special with Anat Shenker-Osorio and assorted FAQ.

Democracy Observer Trainings

from MN Voice

When:

Every Tuesday & Sunday, 6:00–8:00pm

Where:

Online

Why take a Democracy Observer training? You will gain:

• Key knowledge about MN elections law and voter protections
• Skills to identify, assess, and report unconstitutional activity related to elections (ex. Voter Intimidation)
• A framework for practicing community care in support of safe elections in your precinct

Write Postcards to Swing States

Progressive Turnout Project

Sign up for our Get Out the Vote postcards. We'll send you the postcards for free, along with voter lists and instructions with proven message options. You will need to provide the Postcard Stamps (currently $0.61). All the mailing dates for these postcards are in October.

Waking the Giant — Northwoods Solidarity Revival

Save the Date!

When:

October 4, All day

Where:

More soon

Mark your calendars! Something special is coming to the Mesaba Range.... a 'state-fair-like' experience for growing grassroots power in our quest to build a brighter future for all who call this land home through non-violent peaceful activism.

This will be a gathering you don’t want to miss....
Stay tuned for the details!

Northern Bridges

Monthly reading

When:

October 17, 2:00pm

Where:

Foxes & Fireflies Booksellers
1401 Tower Ave.
Superior, WI

Stanley Kusunoki has launched "Northern Bridges," a new poetry series in the Twin Ports featuring Minnesota & Wisconsin poets. The reading is the third Saturday of the month at Foxes & Fireflies, an independent bookstore just over the Bong bridge inside the historic post office building.

Visitors to this unique bookstore will meet founder Maria Lockwood and her team. She says, "Our store is a safe space for all book lovers, regardless of their reading preferences. We proudly carry a diverse selection of books, including many that have been banned or challenged. We believe that everyone has the right to read and explore different perspectives. By banning books, we limit access to knowledge and ideas, which can have a negative impact on society."

Writing about Climate

A WDA MN member sends these suggestions

These websites provide information about climate change and its human history. Use their rich set of resources to teach & write about history, the current moment & potential futures.

The Climate Chronicles

How has climate change influenced humanity’s past? What can history tell us about the future?

How Hot Will Earth Get?

Looking back from the future, fictional history students begin with one shared crisis in 2046, then follow four possible paths to the end of the century.

Climate Hits Here

Explore how past climate changes have already reshaped American communities—and how future changes might alter the places people call home.

Climate Tipping Points

This website provides an easy way to track new research on tipping points: the critical moments when tipping elements in the climate system could move to fundamentally different states. Tipping elements have the potential to dramatically transform regional environments on human timescales.

'Kids Literally Disappeared'

Minnesota schools lost at least 1,700 students following Operation Metro Surge

from Sahan Journal

"Though many districts tried to keep students engaged through online learning and food deliveries, some families, like Alessandro’s, decided they had to leave. A new Sahan Journal analysis shows the extent of the enrollment loss following Operation Metro Surge: as many as 1,700 students left the Minnesota school districts and charter schools with the highest percentage of English learners.

"'Kids literally disappeared,' said Brenda Lewis, the superintendent of Fridley Public Schools. 'Literally in an unprecedented manner. Overnight.'"

Rural Minnesota Community Helps Haitian, Latino Immigrants

Long Prairie, about 60 miles northwest of St. Cloud, is home to an increasingly diverse population

from MPR News

"At just under 4,000 residents, what Long Prairie lacks in size it makes up for in diversity. And many community members consider it the fabric that binds them together. But recent changes in immigration policies mean that fabric is in danger of being torn at the seams.

"'If you are civically aware of what's going on in your town, then you promote the livability of the community,' Thomas-Brunkhorst said. 'In our town, we have a variety of newcomers. The Latino population is very large. In the high school and elementary school, it's over 50 percent. And we have a large Haitian population, one of the largest in Minnesota.'"

The Appleton, MN CoreCivic Concentration Camp

NCDN Special Features — Episode #2

"Immigration and Customs Enforcement will pay private prison company CoreCivic more than half a billion dollars to reopen a defunct 1,600-bed prison in rural western Minnesota as an immigrant detention center.

"CoreCivic runs some of the country’s largest and most infamous immigrant detention centers, including the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas... Disease outbreaks, lack of medical care, inedible food and lack of outside time are common complaints"

— The Minnesota Reformer

Minnesota Truth Council

The Governor's Council to Record the Truth of Operation Metro Surge and Operation PARRIS was established by Executive Order 26-05 on March 25, 2026, to create a comprehensive public record of the impacts of these operations on Minnesota.

The first public meeting, held on August 26, focused on the violations of the Constitution and the Rule of Law.

From Fragments to Threads

How to Document a Campaign

from the Commons Social Change Library

"Most campaign documentation happens long after the work is finished, and by the time someone sits down to “write the story,” emotions have levelled out, key decisions have blurred, the tensions and turning points that shaped the work have faded from memory. This means that some of the most valuable learning, especially, how power actually moved is never captured.

"This guide summarises practical methods introduced through the Leading Change Network training and Commons Library on real-time documentation.

"It offers organisers simple tools for capturing the fragments of a campaign while it’s still alive, which includes the messages, emotions, decisions, tensions, and moments that later allow us to understand what really happened and why."

'Be Loud in Your Dissent' Defending First Ammendment Rights

Sabrina Halvorson, CEO of the North Dakota News Cooperative, discussed issues of the First Amendment and Constitution during a presentation at a League of Women Voters event in Park Rapids, Minnesota

from Duluth News Tribune

"The First Amendment is under attack in an obvious and unprecedented way.

"“We are seeing growing suppression of dissent," Halvorson said. "Activists and academics are being arrested or deported. Government critics do face retaliation, and our free press is being smeared, silenced, shut out by the people who benefit most when the truth is hidden.'

"She emphasized that this is not a Republican or Democratic issue. 'It’s about the U.S. Constitution and the freedoms and protections it gives us.'"

Operation Metro Surge Resistance Takes Center Stage

In the State Fair Art Exhibit

"Humans look to art to process experience, both collective and personal, the full spectrum from joy to trauma,' said fine arts superintendent Jim Taylor. He was speaking to a crowd at the Fine Arts preview Aug. 25. 'We celebrate that here. There is a broad survey of what's on the hearts and minds of Minnesota artists today. I'm very proud to be a part of this and to support human expression."

VS. GOLIATH: Greater Chaco

Virtual Screening hosted by Th!rd Act

When:

September 1, 7:00pm CT

Where:

Online

Join us for a free national screening series of VS. GOLIATH—a powerful new documentary series following everyday people across the United States as they stand up to the fossil fuel industry and fight for the future of their communities. We will be screening the 4 episodes on the first Tuesday of the month from July-October.

The sacred Greater Chaco region of New Mexico, ancestral homeland of the Pueblo and Diné peoples, is under siege from a relentless surge of oil and gas extraction. After a life-changing call to Standing Rock, young Sandia Pueblo leader Julia Bernal returns home to confront the same forces threatening her own community. Uniting with Diné elder Daniel Tso and an intergenerational coalition, they lead a powerful fight to defend tribal sovereignty and protect Chaco for future generations.

All across the country, members of Sierra Club, Food and Water Watch, People Vs. Fossil Fuels, Center for Biological Diversity, Power Up: The Movement Against Fossil Fuels, Institute for Policy Studies, Third Act, Climate Hawks Vote, 198 Methods, 350 Local Groups and many more will come together in living rooms, offices, and in homes to watch this powerful series of ordinary people going up against the fossil fuel industry. Join us for the first of 4 screenings on the first Tuesday night of the month in July, August, September, October.

North Star Lane — Home

with host Michael Goldberg

In his second episode of North Star Lane, Michael welcomes two storytellers who talk about their connections to home.

Doris Kolodji grew up in the house next door to the house her father grew up in. His mother still lived next door. Doris has raised her own family and spent her life in this place she calls home.

Recording artist and community builder Annie Humphrey, tells of finding home while stationed overseas.

In Praise of Dolly Parton

1946-2026, Our Goddess of Kindness

from Meditations on an Emergency (Rebecca Solnit)

"We will always love her, and there will never be another like her, this artist who came out of deep rural poverty in the 1960s to become not just a staggeringly great performer and songwriter but philanthropist, humanist, humorist, and – well there's a way she demonstrated that lots of things often thought to be opposites could be the same thing, especially if you were her. Down home and brilliant, feminist and feminine, glitter-bedecked and generous, country and cosmopolitan, funny and soulful."

"If your actions create a legacy that inspires others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, then, you are an excellent leader."

"The Holy Ghost is that part of God that lives in everybody, and the way you sin against it is by not loving everybody with all your heart, for exactly who they are."

"If I hadn't been a girl, I'd have been a drag queen"
— Dolly Parton

Recorded earlier this year: "Light of a Clear Blue Morning" by Dolly Parton featuring Lainey Wilson, Miley Cyrus, Queen Latifah and Reba McEntire. Also featuring David Foster on piano and Christ Church Choir on background vocals.

Bernice Johnson Reagon on 'This Little Light of Mine'

The power of singing together

Listen to this interview from 1991 & then listen to her sing. "We've Come a Long Way to Be Together." Give Your Hands to Struggle

Bringing Down a Dictator

The power of creative, non-violent, de-centralized resistance

"In the year 2000, in a war barely noticed outside Yugoslavia, the indicted war criminal Slobodan Milosevic fought to hold power. He controlled a battle-hardened army, a tough police force, and most of the news media. But he underestimated his opponents, led by a student movement called Otpor! (‘resistance’), who attacked the regime with ridicule, rock music, and a willingness to be arrested. Their courage and audacity inspired others to overcome their fear and join the fight.

"Otpor! students were the shock troops in what became an army of human rights and pro-democracy activists who systematically undermined police and army loyalty to Milosevic and forced him to call early elections. When Milosevic refused to accept his defeat at the polls, the people responded with a general strike. As normal life ground to a halt, Serbs by the hundreds of thousands descended on the capital on October 5 to seize the parliament in a dramatic triumph for democracy. Milosevic was arrested and extradited to the Hague to stand trial for crimes against humanity in June 2001."