Happy New Year with good news, my fellow readers. The first of the 2026 titles are here, promising exciting books for adults and children from some of our most popular, award-winning Minnesota authors, including Louise Erdrich, Mary Casanova, Julie Schumacher, Marcie Rendon, Shannon Gibney and Kao Kalia Yang, as well as some newcomers. This is just the beginning; there will be more titles announced in the months ahead. Several 2025 latecomers were worth mentioning here as well. Enjoy.
“Liar’s Creek” by Matt Goldman (Minotaur Books)
Fiction
“The Jilted Countess”: by Loretta Ellsworth (Harper Perennial) — Based on a true story, a young Hungarian countess jilted by a GI persuades a Minneapolis newspaper columnist to help her find an American husband as she learns social differences between her homeland and America after her marriage.
“Liar’s Creek”: by Matt Goldman (Minotaur Books) — A mystery set in a quiet Minnesota town, where a man who left without looking back returns to discover his family is facing a crisis.
“Loon Point”: by Carrie Classon (Lake Union Publishing) — Set in the beauty of Minnesota’s North Woods, a debut exploring how chosen family can sweeten bitterness into surprising joy.
“The Luminous Fairies and Mothra”: by Shin’ichiro Nakamura, Takehiko Fukunaga and Yoshie Hotta; translated and with an afterword by Jeffrey Angles (University of Minnesota Press) — Originally published in Japanese, this is the first official English translation of the novella formed the basis for the film “Mothra.”
(HarperCollins)
“Python’s Kiss”: by Louise Erdrich (Harper) — The winner of the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize offers 13 stories that include magical realism, cultural themes and humans facing extraordinary circumstances. With illustrations by the author’s daughter Aza.
“Patient, Female” by Julie Schumacher (Milkweed Editions)
“Patient, Female”: by Julie Schumacher (Milkweed Editions) — The winner of the Thurber Prize for Humor for “Dear Committee Members” balances sorrow against laughter in stories about women and social blunders, generational misunderstandings, and other situations with humor and wit.
“The Trestle”: by James A. Engen (Independently published) — Subtitled “A Story From the East Side of Saint Paul.” Anchored by Hamm’s Brewery, 3M and Whirlpool, a look at heartache and tragedy among generations proud of where they lived.
“Terry Dactyl”: by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore (Coffee House Press) — A search for intimacy and connection, from club culture to the art world, from the AIDS crisis to COVID, with a protagonist who has lived many lives. <there are two t’s in her first name>
“A Wasp in the Beehive”: by Mary Logue (University of Minnesota Press) — Third in the series featuring Irish immigrant Brigid Reardon, who is living in Salt Lake City in 1881 when her new employer, a leader in the Church of Latter-Day Saints, is found murdered in his home.
“Wolf Hour”: by Jo Nesbo; translated by Robert Ferguson (Knopf) — A serial killer lurks on Minneapolis streets and maverick detective Bob Oz is reminded of himself. This Oslo-based author is a Minnesota favorite.
Children’s picture books/young adult
“The Blue House I Loved”: by Kao Kalia Yang, illustrated by Jen Shin (University of Minnesota Press) — A Hmong girl tells of her beloved aunt and uncle’s first house in America in St. Paul — long gone, but still alive in the family’s memories.
“Napesni Renegade” by Marcie Rendon (Copperfield Books)
“Napesni Renegade: A Bison’s Journey”: by Marcie Rendon, illustrated by Sam Zimmerman (Charlesbridge) — A tale based on a true story about a wild bison who is moved from Wyoming to Minnesota’s Red Lake Ojibwe reservation where he joins a herd that is part of the tribe’s mission to repopulate the area with bison.
“Northwoods Lullaby”: by Mary Casanova, illustrated by Jordan Sundberg (University of Minnesota Press) — It’s time to sing a lullaby and all through the northwoods different animals join in, to the delight of a child and adult on an evening hike encountering loons, bear cubs, foxes and hares and wolf pups. The author began to hum while rocking her newborn grandchild to sleep, and she shares the lullaby now with other children.
“Northwoods Lullaby” by Mary Casanova (University of Minnesota Press)
“Where Is My Sister?”: by Shannon Gibney, illustrated by Huy Voun Lee (University of Minnesota Press) — When the family’s much-anticipated baby dies, Mama tells the two older siblings that the baby is in the cemetery but will always be their sister. Explores the heartbreak of losing an infant and the love that joins family together.
“A Year Without Home”: by V.T. Bidania (Penguin Young Readers/Nancy Paulsen Books) — The author’s middle grade debut tells the story of her family’s escape from Vietnam to two different refugee camps, and as a year passes, the young protagonist learns how to rebuild home no matter where she is and finally finds her voice.
Nonfiction
“Making Mill City”: by Robert M. Frame III (University of Minnesota Press) — Subtitled “Flour and Fortune in Minneapolis.”
“August Wilson’s American Century”: by Laurence A. Glasco (University of Pittsburgh Press) — A look at Pittsburgh’s influence on the life and work of the acclaimed author of the American Century play cycle, who wrote much of his work in St. Paul.
“Remember the Main”: by Meg Gorzycki (Minnesota Historical Society Press) — The story of the Main Club, opened in 1983, a hub for LGBTQ social life in the Twin Ports of Duluth-Superior and the Iron Range.
(Some information about forthcoming books later in the year is based on publishers’ descriptions.)
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