October 24 event to feature three award winning authors

The New York Mills Public Library, Viking Library System, and The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library, as well as the Minnesota Center for the Book, will present an author event as part of the Moving Words series. The event is a tour of Minnesota Book Award winners and finalists across Minnesota. 

Authors Peter Geye, Michael Kleber Diggs and Sarah Stonich will come together for readings and discussion on Monday, Oct. 24 at 6:30 p.m. The event will be hosted by the New York Mills Public Library at 24 North Main Street, New York Mills. This event is free and open to the public. ASL interpretation available by advance request, contact the NY Mills Public Library at (218) 385-2436.

The event will feature multi-genre, Minnesota Book Award-winning authors. 

Moving Words is an opportunity for writers and readers to explore various themes together: the impact of literature in their lives, their connection as fellow Minnesotans, and the lens through which people read. 

Featured authors

Peter Geye is the author of the award-winning novels “Safe from the Sea,” “The Lighthouse Road” and “Wintering,” winner of the Minnesota Book Award, Northernmost, and The Ski Jumpers. 

Geye received his MFA from the University of New Orleans and his PhD from Western Michigan University, where he was editor of Third Coast. He currently teaches the year-long Novel Writing Project at the Loft Literary Center. 

Born and raised in Minneapolis, he continues to live there with his family. 

Michael Kleber Diggs is a poet, essayist and literary critic. His debut poetry collection, “Worldly Things” (Milkweed Editions, 2021), won the Max Ritvo Poetry Prize. 

Among other places, Kleber Diggs’ writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Poem-a-Day, Poetry Daily, Poetry Northwest, Potomac Review, Hunger Mountain, Memorious, and various anthologies. Since 2016, Michael has been an instructor with the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop. He also teaches Creative Writing in Augsburg University’s low-res MFA program and at Saint Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists. He lives in Minneapolis.

Sarah Stonich has been awarded a number of grants, including a Minnesota State Arts Board Fellowship and a Loft McKnight Fellowship. 

Her first novel, “These Granite Islands” was translated to eight languages and was short-listed for France’s prestigious Grand Prix de lectrices d’Elle.  Her second novel “The Ice Chorus” been re-issued in paperback by Alma Books of England, distributing it in English language markets worldwide. Laurentian Divide won the Minnesota Book Award in 2019.

Presented by BNSF Railway Foundation, Moving Words is a program of The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library as the Library of Congress-designated Minnesota Center for the Book. Additional support is provided by the Harlan Boss Foundation for the Arts and Education Minnesota. 

This program is made possible in part by the State of Minnesota through a grant to the Minnesota Department of Education and the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.