Rob Hardy's blog

February 25.  2/25.  Two 25s equals 50.  Oh, I get it now!  February 25 is a perfect day to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Northfield Arts Guild with a reading of new work by Northfield writers.  Come to the Northfield Arts Guild at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, February 25 to hear local writers Azna Amira, Olivia Frey, Paula Granquist, Rob Hardy, Amy Haslett-Marroquin, Leslie Schultz, Mary Steil, and Tim Taggart read poetry and prose on the theme of 50.  We’ll be downstairs in the dance studio.

NCO Board member Jane McWilliams has contributed a set of 21 photographs of Winternet 2010, the celebration of Northfield.org at the Contented Cow on Thursday night, January 21. A slideshow of the photos can be seen here. The Flickr photoset can be found here.

There are still a few days left to sign up for a winter writing class at the Northfield Arts Guild.  This is your opportunity to workshop your writing with author Rebekah Frumkin, whose work was recently featured in The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2009, edited by Dave Eggers.  For a description of the classes Rebekah is offering at the NAG, and an exclusive interview with Rebekah, click "Read More."

Saturday, November 7, 2009 marks the first National Bookstore Day, a great idea cooked up by the folks at Publishers Weekly to promote local independent bookstores. This would be a great opportunity to stop in at Northfield's downtown independent bookstore, Monkey See, Monkey Read and do your holiday book shopping.  Jerry Bilek, the proprietor, has a great selection in the shop, and he's always happy to place special orders for books he doesn't have on hand.  The shop is open from 10 to 5 on Saturday.

Monster, a short story by Rebekah Frumkin (Carleton '12), is featured in the 2009 edition of Best American Nonrequired Reading (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), edited by award-winning author Dave Eggers. Described by its editors as an "offbeat but vital anthology," Best American Nonrequired Reading is renowned for bringing together the country's best fiction, journalism, humor, essays and comics while simultaneously introducing a vast readership to dozens of new writers and publications each year. The Carleton Bookstore carries the just-released edition and will host a booksigning event for Frumkin on Tuesday, November 3, from 12-1 p.m.

Halloween is coming up on Saturday.  Now's the time to stock up on candy, carve that pumpkin, and plan your Halloween activities.  Or perhaps you'd rather celebrate El Día de los Muertes, in which case you'll want to check out this great page from Art.org. Meanwhile, here's some of what's going on around Northfield on Halloween:

I spent a couple of hours on Thursday afternoon meeting with Doug McGill's journalism class at Carleton.  Doug's students are spending the fall term digging into issues of concern to Northfield and Rice County, and a selection of the best stories from the class are being posted on the Pressville news blog.  I had several good conversations with students who were exploring a wide range of issues, from the impact of the recession on school finances to the impact of buckthorn on the local landscape.  You can find the Pressville feed aggregated at the bottom of our right sidebar.

The next two Fridays bring live poetry to venues around Northfield, with a reading by local poet Joanna Rawson and two readings from a new anthology featuring work by local poet Rob Hardy and St. Olaf alum Holly Hughes.

Beyond Forgetting: Friday, October 16, 4:00 pm, Viking Theater, St. Olaf & 7:00 pm, Northfield Retirement Community Chapel

Joanna Rawson: Friday, October 23, 7:30 pm, Monkey See, Monkey Read, Division Street

Autumn brings brilliant colors, cooler temperatures, and a crop of great new books from local authors, including Shannon Hyland-Tassava and Patrick Mader.

Back in April, I introduced you to local author Shannon Hyland-Tassava, whose writing is inspired by the hard work of being a modern stay-at-home mom.  Shannon is a contributor to the new anthology P.S. What I Didn't Say: Unsent Letters to Our Female Friends, now available from Seal Press.  In her essay, Shannon writes about how her decision to be a stay-at-home mom put pressure on one of her close female friendships. 

The September 2009 issue of Womeninc magazine is available now, featuring an article by Northfield freelance writer Christine Bernier Lienke.  The article, "I Shop Ugly," profiles the contemporary clothing store Sisters Ugly in downtown Northfield. 

School supply lists are posted on the school district website, athletic practices have started at the high school, and, like it or not, Labor Day is just around the corner.  To help make the transition to the school year a little smoother, Northfield writer Joy Riggs has gotten back-to-school advice from the three most recent Minnesota Teachers of the Year.

If you were suddenly beamed aboard a Klingon Bird of Prey, would you know how to ask for directions to the bathroom?  Thanks to Ultralingua, a software company co-founded by Northfielder Jeff Ondich, all you would need to handle such a 24th century emergency is a little 21st century technology—an iPhone equipped with Ultralingua’s Klingon Language Suite.  Available from the iPhone App Store, the Klingon Language Suite includes a Klingon-English Dictionary, a phrasebook, and the audiobook Conversational Klingon.  The Klingon Language Suite is the latest offering from the Minneapolis-based company, which specializes in dictionary, translation, and grammar software.