20th Annual NEMBA 2-day event:

Saturday, May 17, 2 - 4 p.m.

Writing workshop, UMD Library Rotunda

Sunday, May 18, 12:30 - 3 p.m.

Book Fair & Reception, Tweed Museum of Art

Sunday, May 18, 3:30 - 5 p.m.

Awards Ceremony & Speaker, Weber Music Hall

The UMD Library is working in collaboration with the Lake Superior Writers this year in celebration of the 20th Anniversary of NEMBA. This gala joint event begins with a writing workshop on Saturday, May 17, and continues with a public celebration on Sunday, May 18.  The writers' workshop, conducted by Bill Holm, will be coordinated by the Lake Superior Writers group. There is a fee for this event.

The Sunday celebration begins with an expanded book fair and reception in the Tweed Museum of Art from 12:30 to 3 p.m. and continues with the awards presentation at 3:30 in the Weber Music Hall. The awards presentation will be emceed by Duluth's first poet laureate, Barton Sutter, and will include featured speaker Bill Holm. Sunday's events are free and open to the public. Find directions to the Tweed and a map of the campus highlighting the Tweed Museum and the Weber Music Hall on the NEMBA map page.

Bill Holm, poet, musician, wit, and polemicist, will give this year's NEMBA keynote address. His books include Eccentric Islands, The Heart Can be Filled Anywhere, Coming Home Crazy: An Alphabet of China, and poetry collections including Playing the Black Piano. In his most recent publication, The Windows of Brimnes: An American in Iceland, his most ambitious book to date, he repairs to his cottage in Iceland to reflect on the state of our country today and what we might learn from the land of his ancestral roots.

Windows of Brimnes

Born in 1943, Bill Holm studied English at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota, and the University of Kansas, where he earned his MA in English. Holm spends his summers in Iceland, where he owns a fisherman's cottage near a fjord. Throughout the rest of the year, which is known as winter, he makes his home in Minneota, Minnesota, where he is a half-time professor of English literature at Southwest State University.

"The tallest radical humorist in the Midwest and a truthful and graceful writer." - Garrison Keillor

Nominations:

Nominations are evaluated in one of four categories: (1) Fiction, Poetry, Drama, (2) Nonfiction, Memoir, (3) Art, Photography, or (4) Children's Literature. Reading Teams will choose a winner and honorable mention in each category. If a book is nominated in more than one area, the UMD Library Communication and Events Team will determine the category for the entry.

Eligibility Requirements:

Nominated books must substantially represent northeastern Minnesota in the areas of history, culture, heritage, or lifestyle.  For the purpose of the awards, northeastern Minnesota includes the following counties: Aitkin, Carlton, Cook, Itasca, Kanabec, Koochiching, Lake, Pine, and St. Louis.

Nominated books must have been initially released in the year 2007.

Nominated books must have been written in English and published in bound paper format. The deadline for entry was February 1, 2008.

Prizes:

The winning author in each category will receive a cash prize of $300. The winning author and the honorable mention in each category will receive a plaque.

Awards Presentation:

Winning and honored authors will be announced at a reception and awards ceremony at the UMD Weber Music Hall the afternoon of Sunday, May 18, 2008, at 3:30 pm.