If you are an author, musician, thinker, or interested in hosting an event of some kind, please email us.
On the first Friday of each month, a puzzling group of people gathers to do a jigsaw puzzle or two. Over the highs, lows, and drama of completing a puzzle, friendships and interesting conversation emerge from the woodwork. Puzzlers of all ages and skill levels are welcome.
Letterpress Book Exhibit
A collection of rare letterpress books will be on display to the public at Eat My Words bookstore. This collection, largely produced by Yolla Bolly Press, includes letterpress and woodcut illustrated books as well as prospectuses. We welcome you to an open house viewing event and a short reading from the collection by Jacqueline White, daughter of the curators.
Available for purchase. Contact eatmywordsbooks@gmail.com for enquiries.
Join us for a reading and signing of Ron de Beaulieu’s latest book, Minnesota's Most Notorious Mobster: The Making and Breaking of Kid Cann.
Isadore Blumenfeld aka Kid Cann came to Minnesota as a toddler when his family emigrated from Romania. In Prohibition-era Minneapolis, a city of vast wealth inequality and vicious antisemitism, young Isadore rose from impoverished newsboy to millionaire. Kid Cann's ruthless determination, his own growing familial crime network and a willingness to commit wanton violence ignited his meteoric ascent. He got away with innumerable crimes over four decades before a series of relatively minor offenses brought him down. Although ravaged by stress and stripped of his social stature, the infamous gangster had earned a place in the folklore of Minnesota. Historian Ron de Beaulieu recounts the saga of the state's most notorious crime boss.
Ron has lived in Minnesota for nearly two decades. She went to Macalester College in St. Paul and the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities for a master's degree in history and a doctoral degree in sociology. She is also the author of Minneapolis Murder & Mayhem and St. Paul Murder & Mayhem. When she isn't reading and writing about history, Ron travels around the state with her family.
You can follow her at @rondebeaulieu.bsky.social.
Help us celebrate National Poetry Month with poets from our local haiku community!
Our readers will be: Sangita Kalarickal, Caroline Giles Banks, Kenne Thomas, Wendy Hauser Blomseth and Marjorie Buettner.
Stick around for a guitar performance by Gary Lee Joyner.
From the MPLS Creatives' Support Group!
MPLS Creatives' Support Group is for creatives of all types to receive kind constructive criticism for their work. We'll help each other take the next step to getting our art into the world.
Artists of all skill levels are welcome to join in! Bring a project you've been working on!
From the MPLS Creatives' Support Group!
MPLS Creatives' Support Group is for creatives of all types to receive kind constructive criticism for their work. We'll help each other take the next step to getting our art into the world.
Artists of all skill levels are welcome to join in! Bring a project you've been working on!
Please join us as local author C.M. Alongi reads from her latest novel, The Witch Who Trades With Death.
The Witch Who Trades With Death is a bewitching fantasy where a young witch is forced to play concubine for her empirical captor, and finally breaks free to find a life of her own. But even those with the power to call Death cannot outrun their past...
C.M. Alongi is a sci-fi/fantasy author and content creator from the Twin Cities. She is best known for her urban fantasy TikTok series CaFae Latte .
Please join us for the dulcet tones of local musicians Nick Bhalla and Embahn.
Nick's solo piano music has an open, spacey sound that leaves room for listeners to disappear into introspective ruminations and hopes for the future.
Nick’s newest album Empire (April 2024) is a spacious suite of explorations for solo piano, with plenty of room for improvisation & surprising twists of harmony.
Embahn is the solo-project of Emily Steuer. Steuer is an alternative folk singer-songwriter based in Minneapolis, MN. She is the lead vocalist, guitarist, and principal songwriter for the band Embahn.
Steuer’s recorded work showcases her love for layering harmonies and multiple instrumental arrangements in order to convey familiar feelings that only the listener knows. Steuer’s music is inspired by the natural wonders and metaphysical elements of and not of this world.
On the first Friday of each month, a puzzling group of people gathers to do a jigsaw puzzle or two. Over the highs, lows, and drama of completing a puzzle, friendships and interesting conversation emerge from the woodwork. Puzzlers of all ages and skill levels are welcome.
Please join us for an afternoon with the multi-talented Zaq Baker as he accompanies a reading from his first book Unspectacular with a piano performance.
About Unspectacular:
Mae Strand, twenty, is a compulsive liar and budding but reluctant Chicago vocalist whose mother's mysterious prior life is starting to loom dangerously large over her own. Coerced into recording a studio album by entertainment lawyer Robert Koenid, Mae is forced to choose between a small shot at fame or music's intrinsic value, all while she crests adulthood with her independence at stake.
A few blocks away, Ajay Chadhana is offered a rare opportunity: Skip a step in the software career he's been building since he decamped from the cricket pitches of Eastern India to Illinois... at the cost of severely hardening his heart. As he races toward thirty, Ajay must draw a line between the advantages of corporate life and his harried nights as a session drummer - a crisis of ambition and self-care.
Zaq Baker is a songwriter, pianist, keyboardist, vocalist, co-arranger, director, performer, recording artist, and occasionally published essayist. Among other 2024 accolades, Zaq Baker’s original music is featured in new film How to Break a World Record (Apple TV, Amazon Prime); and this summer he shared the keynote speaking and performing role at Youth Mental Health Day, a nonprofit conference with 730 attendees. In addition to albums, singles, music videos, and performances under his own name, Zaq plays in ten bands in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His prose has been published twice in accredited magazines. Unspectacular is his first novel.
From the MPLS Creatives' Support Group!
MPLS Creatives' Support Group is for creatives of all types to receive kind constructive criticism for their work. We'll help each other take the next step to getting our art into the world.
Join Wendy Brown-Baez to write poems expressing love in all forms: love of place, pets, beloveds, or the world, followed by a reading from Threading the Gold and new poems.
The cost of the workshop is to purchase any book from the store before the workshop starts.
Wendy Brown-Baez is the author of the poetry collections Threading the Gold and Ceremonies of the Spirit, and her work has appeared in literary journals and anthologies such as Water~Stone Review, Talking Writing, and The Power of the Feminine. She has facilitated writing workshops in community spaces for over 20 years and is the executive editor of Saint Paul Almanac.
Threading the Gold is a collection of poems written as artist-in-residence at Westminster Presbyterian Church. They explore how we can be both contemplatives and social justice activists. What is our responsibility to our neighbors, when those neighbors are in a country across the globe? How do we experience sorrow and exultation along our journey to healing? "Sensitive and moving poems."--Fern Phillips
Warm up with a performance by some of our local folk and fingerstyle guitarists.
Beachey/Verdin Duo: Guitarists Matt Beachey and Mark Verdin explore American primitive guitar odysseys and pastoral folk oddities.
The Daily Norm is the solo project of Kae Layne, started in 2022. His fingerstyle technique is described as expressive, atmospheric, and thought-provoking. Inspired by the likes of Lindsay Buckingham, Bruce Cockburn, and Doug Smith, he takes what he learns and adds it to his style.
On the first Friday of each month, a puzzling group of people gathers to do a jigsaw puzzle or two. Over the highs, lows, and drama of completing a puzzle, friendships and interesting conversation emerge from the woodwork. Puzzlers of all ages and skill levels are welcome.
Eat My Words will be partnering with our nearby neighbors at Curiosity (just down the street).
Families will be starting at Curiosity to make bookmarks and hear a reading of Isabella, Cat in the City from the illustrator Heather Bassler-Zemien.
They will then head over to Eat My Words for a second craft and reading.
Curiosity address: 1228 2nd Street NE, Suite 3, Minneapolis, MN 55413
Eat My Words address: 214 13th Ave NE, Minneapolis, MN 55413
From the MPLS Creatives' Support Group!
MPLS Creatives' Support Group is for creatives of all types to receive kind constructive criticism for their work. We'll help each other take the next step to getting our art into the world.
Please join Marjorie Buettner and guests for a reading from Dakota Dreaming. Her new chapbook, published by NDSU press, has won the 2024 Poetry of the Plains & Prairies (POPP) Award.
Marjorie Buettner (born Marjorie Ann Junkert, September 14, 1951, Bismarck, North Dakota, U.S.A.), American Pushcart Prize–nominated, award-winning haiku, haibun, tanka, and sijo poet.
She will be joined by the following authors: Caroline Giles Banks, Gary Lee Joyner, and Sangita Kalarickal.
Caroline Giles Banks is a cultural anthropologist by training and profession. Her poetry, written in several genres, is often informed by her research and experiences ‘in the fields’ of life. She is the author of seven books of poetry, including The Weight of Whiteness: a Memoir in Poetry and Picture a Poem: Ekphrastic and Other Poems.
Dr. Sangita Kalarickal is an award winning, Touchstone and Pushcart Prize nominated poet. Her chapbook Mamina showcases free-verse poetry and haikai form. She will be reading works from my chapbook and some other published poems.
On the first Friday of each month, a puzzling group of people gathers to do a jigsaw puzzle or two. Over the highs, lows, and drama of completing a puzzle, friendships and interesting conversation emerge from the woodwork. Puzzlers of all ages and skill levels are welcome.
Please join us for an evening of Christmas jazz piano arrangements, performed by Nick Bhalla.
Minneapolis-based pianist Nick Bhalla creates meditative arrangements and improvisations by drawing on the past to create moments in the present.
Have an artistic project that you just can't finish? Have 12 unfinished projects and thinking of starting another? Struggling with creative block?
This group is for you!
MPLS Creative's Support Group is for creatives of all types to receive kind constructive criticism for their work. We'll help each other take the next step to getting our art into the world.
Bring an artistic project (or even just a concept) and we'll all help to add the final touches and get your art in front of some eyeballs!
Join us for an hour of music with Moose Lucas from their EPs, Burning Rage and Til Death, with some early previews of new music.
Moose Lucas is a musician from Minnesota. Moose uses music to process and understand the world at large, writing songs about death, lost friendships, climate change, social justice, and finding hope within yourself in the face of adversity and change.
On the first Friday of each month, a puzzling group of people gathers to do a jigsaw puzzle or two. Over the highs, lows, and drama of completing a puzzle, friendships and interesting conversation emerge from the woodwork. Puzzlers of all ages and skill levels are welcome.
Have an artistic project that you just can't finish? Have 12 unfinished projects and thinking of starting another? Struggling with creative block?
This group is for you!
MPLS Creative's Support Group is for creatives of all types to receive kind constructive criticism for their work. We'll help each other take the next step to getting our art into the world.
Bring an artistic project (or even just a concept) and we'll all help to add the final touches and get your art in front of some eyeballs!
Set primarily in 1948, The Fox follows Carl and Elsa, a couple spending the summer at their cabin nestled on the rocky shore of Lake Vermilion in the wilderness of northern Minnesota. Their peaceful retreat is turned upside down when they stumble upon a body and an old treasure map, sparking a thrilling search for answers that unearths long-buried secrets tied to the lake’s past.
Karen Engstrom writes short stories and historical fiction. When she’s not writing, Karen spends time making handcrafted fountain pen inks for a family company, Anderillium Inks.
From the Kerlan Collection at the University of Minnesota:
Please join us on Nov. 14 at 5 p.m. for a reception and guided gallery tours of the exhibit “Journey to Joy: Rise, Relevance, Representation in Children’s Picture Books.”
The exhibit illuminates the diversity of children’s picture books and was developed in curatorial consultation with award-winning children’s book author Andrea Davis Pinkney and Lisa Von Drasek, Miranker Family Curatorial Chair.
Sowing Seeds tells how Minnesota, of all places, came to be host to vibrant literary communities in the 1960s and 70s, fertile ground for the Loft Literary Center, several major independent literary presses, and much else. The benefits of this renaissance are still plain to see all around us.
Mark Gustafson’s previous book was Born Under the Sign of Odin: The Life & Times of Robert Bly’s Little Magazine & Small Press. He lives in South Minneapolis, near the river.
An evening of instrumental music featuring pianist Nick Bhalla and the guitar stylings of the Beachey/Verdin Duo.
Minneapolis-based pianist Nick Bhalla creates meditative arrangements and improvisations by drawing on the past to create moments in the present.
Guitarists Matt Beachey and Mark Verdin explore American primitive guitar odysseys and pastoral folk oddities.
Family law attorney Susan Mundahl distilled her 35 years of professional experience into her first book, “The Emotional Divorce.” This guide offers a straightforward and pragmatic pathway into the world of personal growth, presenting divorce as a catalyst for the profound journey into emotional awareness. Combining practical advice with heartfelt insights, it encourages readers to view upheaval as an opportunity for self-discovery and the gateway to fulfilling new possibilities.
Susan Mundahl is the founder and President of Mundahl Law, PLLC, a proudly woman-owned and operated family law firm in Maple Grove. She has dedicated over 35 years to helping families navigate the complexities of the law to find positive solutions.
On the first Friday of each month, a puzzling group of people gathers to do a jigsaw puzzle or two. Over the highs, lows, and drama of completing a puzzle, friendships and interesting conversation emerge from the woodwork. Puzzlers of all ages and skill levels are welcome.
Bring your treat basket and stroll down 13th Ave. NE for some (pre) Halloween family fun! Stop by the following businesses and community locations for a treat and say hello to our small-business owners:
13th Ave Fire Station
Fiber Works
Curiosity
Young Joni
Squared Up
Nixta/Oro
Matchbox
Heart Salon
Eat My Words Bookstore
Heartwood Montessori
Craft Hair Collective
The Anchor
Theater Latte Da
SNO (Community Gardens with a "Haunted Garden"
Mill City Church
Please join us for a performance from local artists!
Penitent Echoes is an acoustic duo; Jae plays cello and Joey plays guitar and banjo. They take turns singing and the music ranges between gothic-folk, shanty-songs, acoustic-punk, and ambient-instrumental.
Mainly described as “weird,” Lucas Kurmis is a singer-songwriter from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Lucas’ music ranges from folk-punk, to indie rock, to spoken word, to noise-rock. Lucas’ focus is often on guitar, as he’s played since his teens, but he uses strings, drums, and a toy Casio keyboard in his own style. Lucas is currently releasing a visual album song by song on YouTube, Bandcamp, and Spotify. The album is called Another Time/Life/Universe and focuses on the grays of fiction/nonfiction and missed connections.
Admiral Fox’s sounds range from introspective indie folk to synth-flavored garage rock. Following the release of their 2020 EP Nowhere is Safe, their music has been slanting away from the acoustic singer-songwriter crooners of their debut, and heading into louder, more electric, and more socially conscious territory. Though they’ll always find time for a sad-boy ballad or three.
Maddie suffers an episode of transient global amnesia (TGA) and struggles to piece together the events that took place during the hours missing from her memory. In the days, weeks and months that follow, her nightmares reveal several shocking truths.
Kathryn Schleich is a multi-award-winning author, feminist and activist in the Minneapolis and Saint Paul area of Minnesota. Her novel “Darkness and Grace,” a domestic thriller based on true events, received a 2022 Independent Press Award.
Have an artistic project that you just can't finish? Have 12 unfinished projects and thinking of starting another? Struggling with creative block?
This group is for you!
MPLS Creative's Support Group is for creatives of all types to receive kind constructive criticism for their work. We'll help each other take the next step to getting our art into the world.
Bring an artistic project (or even just a concept) and we'll all help to add the final touches and get your art in front of some eyeballs!
On the first Friday of each month, a puzzling group of people gathers to do a jigsaw puzzle or two. Over the highs, lows, and drama of completing a puzzle, friendships and interesting conversation emerge from the woodwork. Puzzlers of all ages and skill levels are welcome.
Heartfelt, poetic meditations that explore family dynamics from an accomplished poet of Finnish heritage.
In Stars Unseen, Greg Watson fearlessly navigates a path through multi-generational trauma and grief, explores his Finnish American heritage, and the joys and challenges of single parenting in the present age.
