Under Purple Skies: The Minneapolis Anthology

by Frank Bures (Editor)

Overview

“The ultimate (literary) tour guide to the neighborhoods and wild places, history and politics, culture and cuisine, music and myths of the Twin Cities” (Benjamin Percy, author of The Wilding).

In recent years, Minneapolis has become one of America’s literary powerhouses. With over fifty poems and essays, Under Purple Skies: The Minneapolis Anthology collects some of the most exciting work being done in, or about, Minneapolis and the Twin Cities area. The narratives delve into the complexities of Minneapolis life—with threads that stretch back not just to Scandinavia, but across the world.

This volume’s contributors include Marlon James, Shannon Gibney, Kelly Barnhill, James Wright, and many more. Collectively, they have won, or been shortlisted for, the Newbery Award, the Man Booker Prize, the Pulitzer, the Caldecott Award, the National Book Award, the Minnesota Book Award, among other awards. The wide-ranging stories featured here include:

• A tour through Prince’s Minneapolis
• The story of the Metrodome’s demolition
• A story of a Somali immigrant’s journey to Eden Prairie
• Eating Halva on Lake Street

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781948742429
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date:	05/01/2024
Series:	Belt City Anthologies
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	186
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Frank Bures is the author of The Geography of Madness. His stories and essays have appeared in Harper’s, Aeon, Lapham’s Quarterly, The Washington Post Magazine and other places. They have also been included in the Best American Travel Writing and selected as “Notable” picks for the Best American Sports Writing and the Best American Essays. He is a contributing writer for The Rotarian and a contributing editor for Poets&Writers. He lives in Minneapolis.

Table of Contents

Prologue Frank Bures 13

Introduction Laurie Hertzel 17

Little House with the Shared Wall Kao Kalia Yang 21

Counting Swallows Morgan Grayce Willow 25

The City by Segway Doug Mack 26

Distortion Todd Boss 30

Sewers Bill Donahue 32

The Minneapolis Poem James Wright 37

The Minneapolis Poem Dobby Gibson 40

No, You Turn Jason Good 42

Safe in Minnesota Ahmed Ismail Yusuf 45

The Revealing Season Marlon James 46

Prince is Alive! (And Lives in Minneapolis) Neal Karlen 48

Bobby Zimmerman Was Here Leif Pettersen 53

Rock 'n' Roll Exterminators Eric Dregni 56

Spark Valérie Déus 60

Wild Places Kelly Barnhill 62

On Minnehaha Creek in May Kris Bigalk 66

Run for Me Lindsay Nielsen 67

My Brother's Bachelor Party Kevin Kling 71

The Coldest Game Steve Marsh 75

Elegy for the Metrodome Matt Rasmussen 78

The Mauer Myth Robert O'Connell 80

Cycling Season William Souder 84

The Secret Handshake Max Ross 87

Minneapolis, revisited Shannon Gibney 91

You Tell Me Sofia Burford 93

Minneapolis Public David Mura 96

Parkway Theater, 1969 Sheila O'Connor 98

Powderhorn Ed Bok Lee 99

The Long Road from Somalia Fathia Absie 102

Dakota Homecoming Gwen Nell Westerman 106

Over There Sarah Stonich 107

Full Circle Marge Barrett 111

Seasons of Minneapolis Adam Regn Arvidson 112

The Why Bao Phi 115

Invisible Ink: The Art of an Unfinished Life Jason Albert 116

The First Winter Rae Meadows 121

The Chain of Lakes Jay Botten 125

Life on an Urban Lake John Rosengren 126

On The Number 6 between Lakewood Cemetery and Lake Calhoun Julian Bernick 129

Crossing Over Megan Kaplan 130

Hennepin and Lagoon, Minneapolis, 1984 Joshua Davies 133

Wall of Sound Lars Ostrom 135

Purple Rain Luisa Muradyan 140

Homeboy J. D. Fratzke 141

Lake Street Teppanyaki Grill and Supreme Buffet Marcie Rendon 144

Eating Halva on Lake Street James Norton 146

Beauty Supply Dobby Gibson 149

Party Bus Peggy "Pearl" Zambory 151

On 2^nd Street Northeast Francine Marie Tolf 153

The Forgotten River Jonathan Raban 154

The Draw of the River: John Berryman Sandra Sidman Larson 157

Mississippi Drift Matthew Power 158

Elegy for Bridge 9340, Minneapolis, 2007 Su Hwang 164

Nye's Julia Klatt Singer 166

Midnight in the Garden with Class Oldenburg Tami Mohamed Brown 169

Prince of the Midwest Michael Perry 170

I'm Going Back to Minnesota Where Sadness Makes Sense Danez Smith 175

Contributors 176

Acknowledgements 190

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"The ultimate (literary) tour guide to the neighborhoods and wild places, history and politics, culture and cuisine, music and myths of the Twin Cities, a place I only thought I knew. This anthology feels like the equivalent of a shaken snow globe—for if you look closely enough, and turn it this way and that, you'll discover the magic of a whole hidden world. What a great place to call home and what a talented group of writers has assembled here." —Benjamin Percy, author of The Dark Net, Thrill Me, The Dead Lands, and Red Moon

"Here are voices from her streets, parks, riversides, lake shores, alleys, train tracks, and seemingly private places everyone who lives here knows or will know. In strong prose and evocative poetry, these authors tell us Minneapolis is an indigenous place, a Dakota homeland, an immigrant place, a whiter-than-white place, a Black place. Minneapolis may seem simple to those who visit ('It's so pretty, so clean!') but this book tells us there's a deeper city, one as complex as a clock and as telling of our times." —Heid E. Erdrich, author of Curator of Ephemera at the New Museum for Archaic Media and editor of New Poets of Native Nations

"Ranging from the purple storm-skies above Minneapolis, to the sandstone caverns beneath it, these poems and essays manage a kind of inventory of the city: music, lakes, rivers, communities of every class and color, behavior(s), and geographies. The tonal range moves from James Wright's great curse on the city ('The Minneapolis Poem') to objective observations and the occasional blessing. Something wonderful must have come together to inspire these beautiful poems and essays, and this collection is the best guidebook I can imagine for both the longtime resident and the newcomer." —Charles Baxter, author of There's Something I Want You to Do: Stories and The Soul Thief

"This is the best collection of Minnesota writing I've read in ages. These stories will make a Minnesota native laugh, reflect, remember, and, in my case, deeply homesick." —J. Ryan Stradal, bestselling author of Kitchens of the Great Midwest and The Lager Queen of Minnesota

"The opening lines of David Mura’s poem are a tantalizing hint of what lies in this marvelous anthology: 'There are 150 first languages in our schools/and so many aliens even E.T. would go unnoticed.' You’ll find Prince and Bob Dylan and many other familiars, but every entry is a pleasant surprise, including a tribute to a local tattoo artist. Under Purple Skies will earn its place on your bookshelf for a very long time." —Jim Heynen, author of Ordinary Sins and The Fall of Alice K.

Editorial Reviews

"Minneapolis gets the star treatment in the latest installment of Belt Publishing's City Anthology series. The collection features contributions from an impressive list of current-award winning authors, nearly all of whom have either lived in or worked in the city. . . . Collectively the writers paint a thorough and sometimes amusing picture of our state and the people in it." —Nicole Hvidsten, Minneapolis Star Tribune

“In nearly every piece, I almost couldn't help feeling a little Geiger-like clicking yes! as the city I know and love was described anew, over and over, in ways I've never seen articulated.” — Weston Cutter, Minneapolis Star Tribune

"Minneapolis is known for its surfeit of excellent writers, so it’s not surprising that a collection of writing about the city by the writers who know it best would turn out to be a reader’s delight. ... For one varied, top-notch taste of that literary splendor, don’t miss reading Under Purple Skies." — Lynette Lamb, Minnesota Alumni

From the Publisher