Minnesota Public Radio Announces Talking Volumes' Guests for Fall 2011 at the Fitzgerald Theater

Aug 8, 2011

WHAT: Minnesota Public Radio's Talking Volumes series invites booklovers to hear acclaimed authors discuss their latest books with MPR News Midmorning host, Kerri Miller. The 12th season features two Pulitzer Prize-winners, a post-apocalyptic satirist, and a bestselling cult writer.

WHERE: The Fitzgerald Theater, 10 E. Exchange St., St. Paul

TICKETS: Series tickets are on sale August 9 - 16 for $80. Seats for individual shows go on sale August 16 for $25. Tickets are $23 for MPR members, Star Tribune Talking Volumes Club and the Loft Literary Center members. Note: all tickets are for general admission seating.

Tickets can be purchased through The Fitzgerald Theater Box Office at 651-290-1200

About the Series

Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad
When: Wednesday, September 14 at 7:00 p.m.
A Visit from the Good Squad won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction as well as the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction in 2010, and is being adapted into a series for HBO. The book has been praised for its playful structure. The Pulitzer judges called it "an inventive investigation of growing up and growing old in the digital age, displaying a big-hearted curiosity about cultural change at warp speed."

Egan is a bestselling author and journalist who writes frequently for the New York Times Magazine.

Stacy Schiff, Cleopatra: A Life
When: Wednesday, October 5 at 7:00 p.m. In Cleopatra: A Life, Stacy Schiff turns the legend of Cleopatra into a timeless tale of how one shrewd ruler used power, wealth and politics to change ancient history. Booklist called the biography a page-turner, and said "Ancient Egypt never goes out of style, and Cleopatra continues to captivate successive generations."

Schiff has won many prizes for literary nonfictions including a Pulitzer for Vera (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov).

Colson Whitehead, Zone One
When: Wednesday, November 2 at 7:00 p.m.
Set in Manhattan after the apocalypse, Zone One is full of "dark humor one imagines actual survivors adopting in order to stave off madness," according to Publisher's Weekly's rave review.

Colson Whitehead's work has been widely published in the New Yorker, Harper's and the New York Times. He has received many prizes for prior novels and a Macarthur "Genius" Grant.

Chuck Palahniuk, Damned
When: Thursday, November 17 at 7:00 p.m. "Are you there, Satan? It's me, Madison," declares the whip-tongued eleven-year-old narrator of Damned, Chuck Palahniuk's subversive new work of fiction. The author, who built a reputation on shocking his readers, doesn't disappoint in this vision of Hell full of demonic young sinners. His protagonist has to figure out how hell works, how she got there and what to do about it.

Palahniuk's social media following is flourishing, but he may be best known for his first novel, Fight Club.

About Host Kerri Miller
Kerri Miller joined Minnesota Public Radio in 2004 as host of Midmorning and Talking Volumes. She has been a radio and television news reporter since 1981, including eight years as political reporter for KARE-11. She has won numerous awards, including the Society of Professional Journalists National Achievement Award and a Gracie Award from the Association of Women in Television.

About Talking Volumes
Talking Volumes is a partnership of Minnesota Public Radio and the Star Tribune in collaboration with the Loft Literary Center. A recipient of the prestigious Gracie Allen Award, the series was noted for superior writing, production and programming.