A novel about three teens and a Norse woman’s journey, plus memoirs about political activism in the Black community, and life in all its big and small experiences, are being launched by Minnesota authors this week.
(Courtesy of Soho Press)
“Ashes to Ashes”: by Thomas Maltman (Soho Press, $29)
Even if the stone lies, carved in a previous century by an enterprising shyster, what is true is that winter calls the stones from under the earth, and some of them rise bearing a strange magic. — from “Ashes to Ashes”
Thomas Maltman (Courtesy of the author)
Thomas Maltman blends contemporary teen life with a Norse saga in this inventive novel, one of the best of this literary season.
Set in a small Minnesota prairie town, it begins after Ash Wednesday services when the ashes on a congregations’ foreheads do not wash off. Is this a curse or a blessing?
Among them is Basil, a “gentle giant” who’s thought to be mentally slow, prodded by a coach who painfully pinches him to make him angry enough to hurt another player. Basil’s father was injured when he rescued Basil from being “drowned” in a corn bin, and the teen’s mother has been in a mental facility for years. Basil is not mentally impaired, and he wants to change, to be taken seriously and not hurt people. So he decides to fast and pray but keeps his vow secret from his best friends Lukas and Morgan. The trio call themselves “a gay, a goth, and a giant.” Luke is the gay one, but he’s afraid to come out in such a small town, and goth Morgan is a writer.
When a windstorm blows over a big tree, the teens discover under the roots the remains of an explorer whom they call The Lady in the Hill. And this is where the magic grows strong as they read from pages of a diary that describe her journey into inland North America in the 14th century. Her chapters are written in a cadence that begs to be read out loud:
“I knew the sea even before I was born, adrift
within my mother’s womb waters,
hearing the dull drum-thumping of her heart
washing over me in waves…”
Maltman drew inspiration from the real-life Kensington Runestone in a museum in Alexandria. The inscription (which he quotes on the first page) tells of “eight goths and 22 Norwegians on an exploration journey from Vinland to the West” in the 14th century. The runestone, discovered in 1898 in a Swedish farmer’s field, is controversial — whether it is a hoax is still debated.
The three teens decide to honor The Lady by staging a historical pageant just before the COVID lockdown, from the early centuries to contemporary times, subtly working Luke’s sexual preference into the script.
Both stories — contemporary and Norse — end tenderly. “Ashes to Ashes” has everything you want in a novel — interesting plot(s), family problems, an old saga involving magical dreams of humans in fish form.
Maltman has an MFA from Minnesota State University at Mankato and teaches at Normandale Community College in Bloomington. His previous novels are “The Night Birds,” about the 1862 Dakota Conflict; “The Land,” which explores a white supremacist enclave deep in the Minnesota North Woods; and “Little Wolves,” in which a teen shoots the town’s sheriff. There is a hint of magic in some of these plots, but nothing like the aura that surrounds “Ashes to Ashes.”
Maltman will launch his novel with a conversation with award-winning Minnesota author William Kent Krueger at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Bryant Lake Bowl and Theater, 810 W. Lake St., Mpls., presented by Valley Bookseller of Stillwater and Literature Lover’s Night Out. Music by Nate Boots. $10. Information at bryantlakebowl.com/theater/ashes-to-ashes.
(Courtesy of the University of Nebraska Press)
“At the Corner of Past and Present”: by Pamela Carter Joern (University of Nebraska Press/Bison Books, $17.95)
These days I am overly tender about the clumsiness of our efforts to get by. I cry over Hallmark card commercials. The wafting of a memory, the rustle of a rabbit through a snowbank, the unfolding of a rose. I am scraped raw by precious things on the brink of being lost. — from “At the Corner of Past and Present”
Pamela Carter Joern (Courtesy of the author)
In this wide-ranging memoir in essay form, the author writes a love letter to her native Nebraska, where she worked on the farm. She explores her experiences raising children, surviving cancer and becoming a writer.
Author of four novels and six plays that have been produced in the Twin Cities, Joern shares on her publisher’s blog that the personal essays in this book “are chock-full of disparate pieces brought together: my father’s life and the experiments of Isaac Newton; the Shaker colonies and butchering chickens; Salvador Dali and considerations of time to a cancer patient; even the ancient art of alchemy and writing processes… I do like shining an observation from one aspect of life on something seemingly unrelated to see what I might learn.”
Joern, who has taught at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis, will discuss her book with Minnesota author Sheila O’Connor at 7 p.m. Thursday at Magers & Quinn, 3038 Hennepin Ave. S., Mpls.
(Courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society Press)
“Rewind: Lessons from Fifty Years of Activism”: by T Williams with David Lawrence Grant (Minnesota Historical Society Press, $24.95)
We also understood something else that our white allies did not: Even if all racially prejudiced Americans lost that prejudice overnight, there was still a long road ahead in targeting and dismantling the systems of institutional racism that had long been oppressing Black access to capital, decent housing, equitable employment opportunities, a quality education, and equality under the law. — from “Rewind”
Theatrice (“T”) Willliams and his family moved to Minneapolis in 1965. After military service and earning a master’s degree in social work, Williams became a leader in the Minneapolis Black community beginning in 1975 when he was named executive director of the Phyllis Wheatley Community Center, a Minneapolis institution.
Williams’ new memoir is a mini-history of the successes and struggles he participated in through the murder of George Floyd and beyond.
One of his biggest accomplishments was helping form the Minneapolis Urban Coalition after the Plymouth Avenue violence in 1967. The coalition was a rare political collaboration among community, corporate and political leaders to address issues of race and poverty. After the 1971 rebellion at Attica prison in New York, Minnesota Gov. Wendell Anderson appointed him the first corrections ombudsman in the country. Williams was also a teacher and school board member, always working for his community’s betterment. Now he is an independent consultant specializing in questions of social and distributive justice with emphasis on issues affecting minority populations.
Williams will discuss his book with co-author David Lawrence Grant at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Magers & Quinn, 3038 Hennepin Ave. S., Mpls.
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