The Grand Marais Public Library is thrilled to host a lively multi-genre discussion with three Minnesota authors on May 28, at 6 PM.

The panel will offer something enriching for a wide variety of readers and writers. 2023 Minnesota Book Award-winner Staci Drouillard will moderate the discussion among three 2025 finalists: Sarah Ghazal Ali, nominated in Poetry for Theophanies; Cathy Coats, nominated in Minnesota Nonfiction for To Banish Forever: A Secret Society, the Ho-Chunk, and Ethnic Cleansing in Minnesota; and Mubanga Kalimamukwento whose volume of shorts stories, entitled Obligations to the Wounded, won this year’s award for Novel & Short Story.

Moving Words is an opportunity for writers and readers to explore various themes together: the impact of literature in their lives, their connection as fellow Minnesotans, and the lens through which we read. Their books are available at Drury Lane or at the library.

Sarah Ghazal Ali is a recipient of The Sewanee Review poetry prize and winner of the GLCA New Writers Award. She is the poetry editor for West Branch, and she teaches at Macalester College.

Cathy Coats works for the University of Minnesota libraries and interned as an archivist while pursuing her degree. To Banish Forever is adapted from her master’s thesis and is her first book.

Mubanga Kalimamukwento is an attorney as well as a writer. Her first novel was listed as a one of the top fifteen debut books of 2019 by Brittle Paper. She is a mentor at the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop.

The event is free and registration is not required. This discussion is best suited to adults and secondary students.

Moving Words is a program of The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library as the Library of Congress-designated Minnesota Center for the Book. This program is made possible in part by the State of Minnesota through an appropriation to the Minnesota Department of Education, The Harlan Boss Foundation, and the generous support of Bernadette and Jeffrey Janisch.

In other upcoming events, the library will host an author talk and book launch for The Scenic Route: Building Minnesota's North Shore, by Dr. Arnold Alanen, on June 4, at 6 PM. Have questions? Call the library at 218-387-1140 or visit us on the web: grandmaraislibrary.org.