Roseville - Minnesota Writers Off the Page: Carson Faust
2026-03-24 18:00 - 19:30 (America/Chicago) | Autumn Grove Park, 1365 Lydia Avenue W, Roseville, 55113, United States
Minnesota Writers Off the Page and Makwa Coffee’s Native Author Book Club are joining forces for a special evening with Carson Faust, author of “If the Dead Belong Here,” which has just been shortlisted for the Minnesota Book Awards in the Novel/Short Story category! For this intergenerational, supernatural thriller, Faust will be in discussion with author Dennis E. Staples, and along with readings from the book, they will discuss ghosts, hauntings, the craft of horror/thriller, and how their Indigenous backgrounds inform their writing. Following the discussion, audience members are invited to participate in a Q&A session, and have further informal conversation with the featured speakers. Light refreshments will be available for purchase through the cafe. Copies of “If the Dead Belong Here” will be available for purchase, and the evening will finish with a book signing.
About the Speakers
Carson Faust is two-spirit and an enrolled member of the Edisto Natchez-Kusso Tribe of South Carolina. He is the recipient of artist fellowships from the McKnight Foundation and the Jerome Foundation. His fiction has appeared in TriQuarterly, ANMLY, and Waxwing, among other journals, and has been anthologized in “Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology.” He lives in Minnesota, where he works in philanthropy.
Dennis E. Staples is an Ojibwe writer from Bemidji, Minnesota, and the author of “This Town Sleeps” and “Passing Through a Prairie Country.” He holds an MFA in fiction from the Institute of American Indian Arts and is a graduate of the 2018 Clarion West Writers Workshop and a recipient of the Octavia E. Butler Memorial Scholarship. His work has appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction and Nightmare magazine. He is a member of the Red Lake Nation.
This event is presented in partnership with Makwa Coffee, a community centered craft coffee shop in Roseville, MN. This event is part of the Minnesota Writers Off the Page series, bringing the inspirational voices of Minnesota’s authors directly to readers.
Registration
This event is free, however registration is required.
Registration Questions: registrations@mnhum.org
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Shoreview - Minnesota Writers Off the Page: Debra J. Stone
2026-03-25 17:30 - 19:15 | Emmet D. Williams Elementary School, 955 W County Rd D, Shoreview, 55126, United States
To celebrate Women’s History Month, Off the Page is pleased to feature author Debra J. Stone and her new book, “The House on Rondo,” which has been shortlisted for the MN Book Awards in the category of Middle Grade Literature. Debra will be in conversation with Terresa Hardaway, discussing the history of the Rondo neighborhood, what it means to be a writer, and their hopes for the future of Rondo. Following the discussion, audience members are invited to participate in a Q&A session, and have further informal conversation with the featured speakers. Copies of “The House on Rondo” will be available for purchase, and the evening will finish with a book signing.
Debra J. Stone is a 2023-2025 Jerome Hill Arts Fellow in Literature, essay, poet and novel author. More of her work has been published by Blue Earth Review, Indiana Review, Green Mountains Review, Under the Gum Tree, and other literary journals. In 2021 her poem, “year-of- staying–in place,” was nominated Best of Net and Pushcart nominated. She is a board member of the Hennepin History Museum. Debra is married and resides in Minneapolis.
Terresa Hardaway, Ph.D., is an abolitionist, design researcher, author, anti-racist facilitator, creative director, organizer, and educator based in Minneapolis. She is Creative Director of Blackbird Revolt— a social justice-based design studio; an Associate Professor of Graphic Design; McKnight Presidential Fellow; the Director of Design Justice at the University of Minnesota’s College of Design; and the owner of Black Garnet Books.
This event is presented in partnership with Black Garnet Books, an independent bookstore in Saint Paul, MN, that offers a curated selection of books and art by authors and illustrators of color in an environment that encourages learning, joyful interaction, and communal care for everyone who visits. This event is part of the Minnesota Writers Off the Page series, bringing the inspirational voices of Minnesota’s authors directly to readers. This edition of Minnesota Writers Off the Page will be held at Emmet D. Williams Elementary School in Shoreview.
Registration
This event is free, however registration is required.
Registration Questions: registrations@mnhum.org
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St. Cloud - Minnesota Writers Off the Page: Joyce Sutphen
2026-04-17 18:00 - 19:30 | Paramount Center for the Arts, 913 W. Saint Germain St., St. Cloud, 56301, United States
To celebrate National Poetry Month, MHC’s Off the Page is bringing together two of Minnesota’s Poet Laureates, Joyce Sutphen and Gwen Nell Westerman. Sutphen will be reading from her most recent collection, “Paper Camera: Poems, Poets, and Poetry,” which examines the many facets of poetry itself; reading, memorizing, writing, and what poetry can do for us. She will be joined in discussion by the current Poet Laureate, Gwen Nell Westerman. Following the discussion, audience members are invited to participate in a Q&A session, and have further informal conversation with the featured speakers. Light refreshments will be provided, copies of “Paper Camera: Poems, Poets, and Poetry” will be available for purchase, and the evening will finish with a book signing.
About the Speakers
Joyce Sutphen grew up on a farm near St. Joseph, Minnesota, and currently lives in Chaska. She has degrees from the University of Minnesota, including a Ph.D. in Renaissance Drama. Her first book, “Straight Out of View,” won the Barnard New Women’s Poets Prize (Beacon Press, 1995, republished by Holy Cow! Press in 2001). “Coming Back to the Body” (Holy Cow! Press, 2000) was a finalist for a Minnesota Book Award, and “Naming the Stars” (Holy Cow! Press, 2004) won the Minnesota Book Award in Poetry. In 2005, Red Dragonfly Press published “Fourteen Sonnets” in a letterpress edition, and in 2006 Sutphen co-edited the award-winning anthology “To Sing Along the Way: Minnesota Women Poets from Pre-Territorial Days to the Present” (New Rivers Press). Her poems have appeared in “Poetry,” “American Poetry Review,” “Atlanta Review,” “Minnesota Monthly,” “Water-Stone,” and many other journals, and she has had work featured in Ted Kooser’s “American Life in Poetry,” and on “The Writer’s Almanac.” She has also been a guest on A Prairie Home Companion, hosted by Garrison Keillor. In 2011 she was named the second Minnesota Poet Laureate by Governor Mark Dayton, following the tenure of Robert Bly. Her newest collection is “Paper Camera: Poems, Poets, and Poetry,” published by Nodin Press, 2025.
Gwen Nell Westerman is a poet, visual artist, and scholar. Her roots are deep in the landscape of the tallgrass prairie and reveal themselves in her art and writing. She is an enrolled citizen of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate, and her father’s family is from the Heipa District. Her mother’s family is from the Flint District of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. Neither of her parents spoke English when they were sent as small children to boarding schools in Oklahoma and South Dakota. Singing and writing for as long as she can remember, Gwen understands from experience the important ways language and the land shape who we are. She was appointed as the Poet Laureate of Minnesota by Governor Tim Walz in 2021.
This event is presented in partnership with Paramount Center for the Arts, a multidisciplinary community arts facility whose mission is to engage, educate, enrich, and entertain through inspiring arts experiences. This event is part of the Minnesota Writers Off the Page series, bringing the inspirational voices of Minnesota’s authors directly to readers.
Registration
This event is free, however registration is required.
Registration Questions: registrations@mnhum.org
Register Now

Hopkins - Minnesota Writers Off the Page: Kristin Collier
2026-05-20 18:00 - 19:30 | Cream & Amber, 1605 Mainstreet, Hopkins, MN, 55343, United States
In her striking new memoir, “What Debt Demands: Family, Betrayal, and Precarity in a Broken System,” Grand Central Publishing (2025). Kristin Collier recounts the moment she discovered she owed $200,000—not from debt she incurred, but from loans her mother had taken out in her name without her knowledge. She reflects on the emotional and financial toll of this betrayal, and the lasting impact it has had on her life. Collier’s story also broadens into a powerful exploration of the collective burden of debt in today’s society. She will be joined in conversation by fellow writer Jennifer Eli Bowen, author of “The Book of Kin: On Absence, Love, and Being There.”
Following the discussion, audience members are invited to participate in a Q&A session and have further informal conversation with the featured speakers. Light refreshments will be provided, copies of “What Debt Demands: Family, Betrayal, and Precarity in a Broken System” will be available for purchase, and the evening will finish with a book signing.
About the Author
Kristin Collier is the author of “What Debt Demands: Family, Betrayal, and Precarity in a Broken System,” Grand Central Publishing (2025). She has received funding from the Minnesota State Arts Board, a Jack Hazard fellowship, and a Yaddo artist residency. Her writing has been published in journals such as the Los Angeles Review of Books, Oprah Daily, and Longreads. She is an organizer with the Debt Collective and a visiting scholar and TREC community engagement fellow at Metro State University.
About the Moderator
Jennifer Eli Bowen is a writer, arts instructor, and editor, whose most recent essay collection “The Book of Kin: On Absence, Love, and Being There,” Milkweed Press (2025) has been shortlisted for the MN Book Awards in the Memoir/Creative Non-fiction category. Her work has received a Pushcart Prize, The Arts and Letters Prize, The Tim McGinnis Award, and has appeared in The Sun, The Iowa Review, Orion, and Kenyon Review, among others. Jennifer is the Founding Artist Director of the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop. She teaches creative writing in prisons across the state of Minnesota, and occasionally at local colleges. She also edits creative prose and conducts interviews. Jen lives in St. Paul, a block in any direction from sidewalk poetry and snow.
This event is presented in partnership with Cream & Amber, a unique book store where reading and beer come together and people can connect with each other. This event is part of the Minnesota Writers Off the Page series, bringing the inspirational voices of Minnesota’s authors directly to readers.
Registration
This event is free, however registration is required.
Registration Questions: registrations@mnhum.org
Register Now
