When it was announced that Operation Metro Surge had been scaled back, Gov. Tim Walz said the presence of thousands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol agents left “deep damage,” including economic ruin among small businesses, in Minnesota.
Among Minnesotans who stood up for peace are members of the literary community, who used their writing skills to document their thoughts and experiences as they watched what unfolded in Minnesota for more than a month. Their allies were independent bookstores. Now those stories are being told this week at several events.
(Courtesy of Ian Graham Leask)
‘Ice Out: Minnesota Writers Rising Up’ / Friday
“This is the most important thing I’ve done in my life, fighting back against authoritarianism,” Ian Leask says of “Ice Out,” the nation’s first compilation of prose and poetry about living through the federal law enforcement surge. He calls it “an emergency anthology” of writing from more than 50 poets, immigrants, activists and witnesses, with cartoon-like drawings by Robin Schwartzman.
The paperback is a collaboration between Calumet Editions and Afton Press, separate entities for which Leask is publisher. Thanks to long experience in publishing, Leask got “Ice Out” to market in just a few weeks, a feat almost heard of in the industry. He laid out the pages Jan. 31 and the book was published Feb. 6, with some typos going uncorrected because he felt immediacy was paramount. (A second edition will fix the errors.)
“I wanted writers’ impressions, very raw stuff from on the ground, as it was happening,” Leask said. The writing varies widely, from an account of the killing of Renee Nicole Good, witnessed by Lynette Reidi-Grandell, to the lyrics of Bruce Springsteen’s “Streets of Minneapolis.”
Leask lives in south Minneapolis, close to where George Floyd was murdered by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020 and where Good and Alex Pretti were shot to death.
“I am in the middle of (the turmoil) and I put out a call three or four weeks ago to social media and writers I know and they responded,” Leask said. “We all feel good about the project. The contributors are writing to thank me for taking the lead on this book.”
Typical of those letters is one from Julie A. Ryan, who wrote: “Thank you from the deepest part of my nervous system for creating the cathartic emotional ride that I took through the anthology. While anger about what is occurring in Minnesota and throughout this country still tangles with my thoughts, I experienced a form of healing as other writers’ words validated the grief, frustration, and disbelief I’ve been feeling. And thank you for throwing your right hook at the bullies; you landed the punch.”
Ian Graham Leask.
Leask is an immigrant, born and raised in London, and he knows the consequences of authoritarianism.
“I never thought I’d see this in America. I am aghast,” he says. “I grew up in the ruins of London 10 years after the war. My father was in the Royal Navy and everybody you talk to there tells of how it felt to be waiting for Nazis to invade us. It’s changed me growing up, made me a certain kind of person that dislikes authority, and I am seeing that in our government. This is the opposite of what’s happening in Minnesota where people are kind and trying to do good in the world and the U.S.”
Leask will return to London next month for the big international book fair, where he’ll meet with publishers interested in foreign rights to the book, which as of mid-February had sold a couple of hundred copies and hit the Amazon nonfiction bestseller list.
There will be a celebration party from 4 to 7 p.m. Friday at 6800 France Ave., Edina. On March 1, poet Tim Nolan and Leask will host a reading by some of the book’s contributors at 1 p.m. at Eat My Words bookstore, 201 Sixth St. S.E., Mpls., with books available. All profits after expenses will be dedicated to a history book about the immigration crackdown to be published in 2027.
(Courtesy image)
Authors for Minnesota Day / Saturday
Jess Lourey (Courtesy of the author)
If these were normal times, award-winning authors Jess Lourey and Kristi Belcamino (who works for the Pioneer Press) would be concentrating on on their writing careers. Lourey is preparing to launch her dystopian novel “The Verdant Cage” in April and Belcamino co-authored “Silver Bullet,” coming out in May. They are also finishing plans for a joint tour of central Minnesota libraries next month.
But these are not normal times, so these friends organized Authors for Minnesota Day, involving more than 52 authors signing copies of their books at 24 bookstores around the state.
From noon to 4 p.m. Saturday, authors will be assigned to one of the bookstores where readers can get a free, signed book (while supplies last) in exchange for an on-site donation to the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota and/or Women’s Foundation of Minnesota Immigration Rapid Response Fund. (Call or go online to check the authors scheduled at your favorite bookstore, or do a “bookstore crawl” and make a day of it.)
Lourey and Belcamino say the event was created to celebrate independent bookstores that anchor Minnesota communities while raising money for protection of civil rights.
Kristi Belcamino (Courtesy of the author)
“Independent bookstores are more than places to buy books,” Belcamino said. “They are where neighbors meet, ideas are exchanged, and communities learn how to stand up for one another. Authors for Minnesota Day is about celebrating those spaces and reminding people that supporting local bookstores is one powerful way we show up for our neighborhoods and the values we share.”
The idea for Authors Day began in January when Lourey noticed that Comma, a Minneapolis bookshop, was speaking out on behalf of its immigrant neighbors. She wondered how many other bookstores were risking their income by taking a stand against federal agents and found nearly all Minnesota bookstores were doing so in some form, including raising money and offering safe spaces.
Lourey was surprised at how fast people said yes to the event: “Within hours, authors and bookstore across the state were in. That tells you something about Minnesota — we don’t sit around when our communities need us.”
Bestselling Minnesota author William Kent Krueger posted this comment to Facebook in connection with Authors for Minnesota Day, scheduled for Feb. 28, 2026. (Courtesy of the author)
Among high-profile participating authors are Jess Chandler, Heid E. Erdrich, Allen Eskens, Shannon Gibney, Matt Goldman, Rebecca Kanner, Judy Kerr, William Kent Krueger, Lorna Landvik, Mindy Mejia, Bao Phi, Curtis Sittenfeld, William Sounder, Sarah Stonich, Kathleen West, Wendy Webb and more.
Minnesota Writers Respond: A reading / Thursday
An evening of fellowship and readings at 6:30 p.m. Thursday presented by the Loft Literary Center and Milkweed Books. Readers will be Curtis Sittenfeld, Michael Kleber-Diggs, Sarah Ghazal Ali, Chaun Webster, Claire Wahmanholm, Saymoukda Duangphouxay Vongsay, Lara Mimosa Montes, Halee Kirkwood, and Jessica Nordell, author of “The End of Bias: A Beginning,” who is organizing the event at Open Book, 1011 Washington Ave. S., Mpls. The suggested donation is $25, with proceeds going to the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota.
Letter from Minnesota / Ongoing
If you want to read heartfelt and heartbreaking writing, be sure to check out Literary Hub’s ongoing Letter from Minnesota series, in which writers share their perspectives about living with the enforcement surge. Among contributors are Angela Ajayi, Michael Kleber-Diggs, Kao Kalia Yang, Sun Yung Shin, Dobby Gibson and David Mura.
Charles Baxter
An example is Charles Baxter’s offering “Mad Means Something,” in which he writes of the rage of the poet and its power. Baxter, a fiction writer and essayist who has won two Minnesota Book Awards and is a former University of Minnesota professor of creative writing, calls for more poetry now. He recalls previous political uses of the form: “During the Vietnam War, roving bands of poets — I saw Creeley, Ed Sanders and the other Fugs, Diane Wakoski, and Robert Bly on the same stage in Minneapolis in 1968 — they all did marathon readings against the war.”
Free downloads from the Letter from Minnesota series are at https://lithub.com/tag/letter-from-minnesota/.
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