Awards

Our Asian Flavors documentary, co-produced with tptMN, won the 2013 Upper Midwest Regional Emmy® Award from the Upper Midwest Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) in the Cultural Documentary category.

Inspired by the book Asian Flavors: Changing the Tastes of Minnesota since 1875 by Phyllis Louise Harris with Raghavan Iyer, this thirty-minute documentary celebrates Asian immigrants who have left an indelible and flavorful mark on Minnesota’s culinary, cultural, and economic history.

Congratulations to a winning team!

The Asian Flavors team:

Daniel Pierce Bergin, Producer/Director
Angela Barrett, Production Assistant
Fanique Weeks-Kelley, Production Manager
Jim Kron, Director of Photography
Jerry Lakso, Online Editor
Bob Tracy, Executive in Charge
Pamela McClanahan, Project Consultant
Phyllis Louise Harris, Co-writer/Project Consultant
Raghavan Iyer, Presenter
Shari Lamke, Senior Director-Supervising Producer
Lucy Swift, Vice President, MN Productions & Partnerships
Terry O’Reilly, Chief Content Officer

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We are pleased to announce that Mark Anthony Rolo’s My Mother Is Now Earth is a finalist for both a Minnesota Book Award and a Northeastern Minnesota Book Award.

The book depicts the story of the last three years of his mother’s life from the perspective of his child self. With an innocent and sometimes brutal child’s view, Rolo recounts stories of a woman who battles poverty, depression, her abusive husband, and isolation through the long northern Minnesota winters, and of himself, her son, who struggles at school, wrestles with his Ojibwe identity, and copes with violence. But he also shows, with eloquence and compassion, his adult understanding of his mother’s fight to live with dignity, not despair.

Rolo will be speaking tonight at Southwest State University in Marshall, Minnesota, as part of the Visiting Writers Series at SWSU. The event is at 7:00 p.m. in Charter Hall 201 and is free and open to the public.

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Last night, the winners of the Northeastern Minnesota Book Awards were announced in Duluth, and we at MHS are pleased to congratulate five of our authors: David LaRochelle and Joe Rossi, winners of the children’s literature prize  for Minnesota’s Hidden Alphabet; Layne Kennedy and Greg Breining, winners of the general nonfiction prize for Paddle North; and Anton Treuer, winner of a general nonfiction honorable mention for The Assassination of Hole in the Day. Check out the article in the Duluth News Tribune for the complete list of honorees.

Congratulations, all!

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This year’s Minnesota Book Awards gala featured even more good news for Minnesotans who love history: a brand-new award to be offered next year.

The Hognander Family Foundation is sponsoring the Hognander Minnesota History Award, which recognizes the author of the most outstanding scholarly work related to Minnesota history published during the preceding two years. It will be presented every other year beginning in 2012.

The Book Awards website quotes Joe Hognander’s rationale, which we’re delighted to present to you here: “We established this award because of our relationship with the Minnesota Historical Society. Its commitment to excellence is noteworthy in promoting scholarly research and writing within many of our state’s organizations. We hope this award will inspire more such activity by recognizing and rewarding the finest work in this field.”

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Once Upon a Crime Bookstore has won the Raven Prize from the Mystery Writers of America. In fact, a second midwestern bookstore has also been singled out, according to the national organization’s press release:

“Two exceptional mystery bookstores will be honored with the 2011 Raven Award. Established in 1953, the award recognizes outstanding achievement in the mystery field outside the realm of creative writing. Once Upon a Crime in Minneapolis, MN, and Centuries & Sleuths in Chicago, IL, will receive recognition for their contribution to the mystery community.”

MPR has a great article about Pat Frovarp and Gary Shulze, who have co-owned Once Upon a Crime for the past ten years.

Stop by the store to give them your best–and buy a book!

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We are pleased to announce that MHS Press/Borealis Books author Anton Treuer is the recipient of the 2010 Sally Ordway Irvine Award in Education.

The Sally Awards honor individuals or institutions that strengthen and enrich the state of Minnesota with their commitment to the arts and arts education. The awardees’ talents and determination help make Minnesota’s quality of life excellent and its culture unique and rich.

The Sally Award is based on the “First Trust Award” presented in 1986 to Sally Ordway Irvine, whose initiative, vision, and commitment inspired the creation of the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts.

Anton Treuer is professor of Ojibwe at Bemidji State University and the author of Ojibwe in Minnesota and The Assassination of Hole in the Day.

For more information on the other award winners, see Rohan Preston’s article in the Star Tribune.

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The Friends of the St. Paul Public Library recently announced the finalists for the prestigious Minnesota Book Awards, and five MHS Press/Borealis Books authors are included in the mix. The Assassination of Hole in the Day by Anton Treuer is nominated in the category of General Nonfiction, as is Paddle North: Canoeing the Boundary Waters-Quetico Wilderness, which has photographs by Layne Kennedy and essays by Greg Breining. Prairie, Lake, Forest: Minnesota’s State Parks, with photographs by Doug Ohman and essays by Chris Niskanen, was nominated in the category of “Minnesota.”

We here at MHS Press wish to congratulate all nominees!

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Ojibwe in Minnesota by Anton Treuer was named “Best Read in Minnesota 2010″ by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress.  The book was featured at the National Book Festival in Washington, DC, on Saturday, September 25.  Treuer is also the author of The Assassination of Hole in the Day, which will be available beginning in October.

Each year at the  festival, the Center for the Book, in cooperation with state affiliates, salutes the literary traditions of the fifty states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. territories. The Minnesota Center for the Book at the Minnesota Humanities Center selected Ojibwe in Minnesota and Night Driving by John Coy for this year’s list.

Ojibwe in Minnesota was featured in a “Discover Great Places Through Reading” brochure available at the festival, and the 52 Great Reads are listed on the festival website.

While most historians concentrate on relationships with whites to explain Ojibwe history, Treuer in both Ojibwe in Minnesota and The Assassination of Hole in the Day tells that history from a tribal point of view—focusing on Ojibwe interactions with other groups, the role of Ojibwe culture and tradition, and interviews with tribal elders.

Ojibwe in Minnesota also does not shy away from today’s controversial topics, covering them frankly and with sensitivity—issues of sovereignty as they influence the running of casinos and land management; the need for reform in modern tribal government; poverty, unemployment, and drug abuse; and constitutional and educational reform. He also tackles the complicated issue of identity and details recent efforts and successes in cultural preservation and language revitalization.

Anton Treuer, professor of Ojibwe at Bemidji State University, is the author of Ojibwe in Minnesota, The Assassination of Hole in the Day  and several books on the Ojibwe language. He is also the editor of Oshkaabewis Native Journal, the only academic journal of the Ojibwe language.

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Photographer Wing Young Huie was named Best Public Artist in Minnesota Monthly’s Best of the Cities 2010 list. The magazine notes:

“The Minneapolis photographer’s six-mile-long “University Avenue Project” is the most ambitious public-art exhibition in Minnesota since, well, his last one, the seminal “Lake Street Project.” In fact, Huie has taken things even further this time, not only papering the corridor with massive images of neighborhood residents but also hosting monthly cabarets with local performers, transforming an entire section of the city into an outdoor art space.”

Look for The University Avenue Project Volume 2 in bookstores next month. This forthcoming book features images of people experiencing the exhibit and events at the Project(ion) Site, as well as an introductory essay by art historian, critic, and curator Patricia Briggs about Huie’s creation of “relational art experiences.” Huie also shares stories about people’s reactions to the exhibit and how he communicated and interacted with the people he photographed.

The next University Avenue Project cabaret is this Saturday, August 28. Check out the great musical lineup!

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Congratulations to Joy K. Lintelman, author of “I Go To America”: Swedish American Women and the Life of Mina Anderson, for winning the Minnesota Book Award for General Nonfiction, and to Cary J. Griffith, author of Opening Goliath: Danger and Discovery in Caving, for taking top honors in the Minnesota category!

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