She writes about being the only Black student in a prestigious and predominantly white creative writing program, about institutional racism and implicit bias in writing instruction and violent legacies of racism in this country. She muses on why, more than 50 years after the Fair Housing Act passed, she and her Black African husband are the only Black family on their block and the forces behind the fact that she and her husband, college graduates, make less money than less-qualified white neighbors.
Coleman is a poet, writer and educator, and associate professor of English and women’s studies at St. Catherine University. Her work has been widely anthologized.
APRIL GIBSON: Discusses “The Span of a Small Forever” in conversation with Erin Sharkey. 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 29, Magers & Quinn, 3038 Hennepin Ave. S., Mpls.
ALAN GROSTEPHAN: Georgia-based author of “Bogota” presents his latest historical novel, “The Banana Wars,” which follows four characters — a banana worker making a play for power over guerillas, a decadent Colombian banana planter, a widow struggling to stay on the right side of the paramilitaries, and an American banana executive. The story is based on violent strikes in 1990 across the banana zone in Colombia. In conversation with Frank Bures. 7 p.m. Tuesday, May 28, Magers & Quinn, 3038 Hennepin Ave. S., Mpls.
What else is going on
Congratulations to V.V. Ganeshananthan, who teaches in the University of Minnesota MFA program, for winning the $150,000 Carol Shields fiction prize for her novel “Brotherless Night.”
The award, announced earlier this month in Toronto, is the largest English-language literary prize in the world for women and non-binary authors, named in honor Carol Shields, a beloved Canadian-American author.
Ganeshananthan is a member of the boards of the American Institute for Sri Lankan Studies and the Minnesota Prison Writing workshop, a former vice president of the South Asian Journalists Association and co-host of the Fiction/Non-Fiction Podcast Literary Hub. In a news release announcing the award, the judges said: “An ambitious and beautifully written novel, ‘Brotherless Night’ explores how ordinary people can be swept up in political violence and, despite their best efforts, eventually be swallowed by it. Through her sensitively crafted characters, (the author)) asks us to consider how history is told, whom it serves, and the many truths it leaves out. A magnificent book.” Ganeshananthan is also the author of “Love Marriage.” Her writing has appeared in major national publications.
Did you know there are 13 St. Paul Public Library locations across the city? Friends of the St. Paul Public Library are offering you a chance to visit all of them through the new Discover Your Library Passport Program that encourages Passport participants to experience unique features of the Public Library’s collections, spaces, and programs including the Innovation Lab at the downtown George Latimer Central Library, Merriam Park’s vinyl record collection, and the reading garden at Sun Ray. Here’s how the program works. Participants pick up a passport at any of the libraries. At each venue, visitors will show their passport to library staff and get a sticker for that location. They also have a chance to earn another sticker for completing each of four bonus challenges included in the passport. Those who complete all stops are eligible to win prizes. For more information, go to thefriends.org/passport.