Joyce Carol Oates was nominated this week for not one but two National Book Critics Circle annual awards -- "The Journal of Joyce Carol Oates, 1973-1982" and "The Gravedigger's Daughter" (both Ecco). The nonprofit organization of nearly 700 critics nationwide also nominated two poetry collections published by Graywolf Press in St. Paul: "Elegy," by Mary Jo Bang, and "Modern Life," by Matthea Harvey. And Emilie Buchwald, publisher emeritus of Milkweed Editions in Minneapolis and now publisher of Gryphon Press, received the group's Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award. Winners in six categories (autobiography, nonfiction, fiction, biography, poetry and criticism) will be announced March 6 in New York City. For a complete list of the finalists, go to www.bookcritics.org.
Kindred book thumpers Two Minnesota storytelling titans -- Garrison Keillor and Bill Holm -- will converse one-on-one publicly for the first time, 2 p.m. today at Swedenborgian Church, 170 Virginia St., St. Paul. As proprietor of Common Good Books, Keillor will quiz Holm about his new book, "Windows of Brimnes: An American in Iceland" (Milkweed). They're sure to shake the rafters.
Wild things Award-winning Milkweed author Seth Kantner ("Ordinary Wolves") traded in his mukluks for a suit and tie this week, appearing as a lobbyist for Defenders of Wildlife on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. Kantner, who lives in the northwestern village of Kotzebue, Alaska, argued in Congress against aerial wolf hunting. His memoir, "Shopping for Porcupine: A Life in Arctic Alaska," will be published by Milkweed in May.
Remembering Carol Bly A public memorial for Carol Bly, the author of many books, including "Changing the Bully Who Rules the World" and "My Lord Bag of Rice," will be held 2 to 5 p.m. Feb. 10 at Hamline University's Sundin Music Hall, 1538 Hewitt Av., St. Paul. Bly died Dec. 21 of ovarian cancer, leaving a rich legacy as a fiction writer, essayist, teacher and ethicist.
SARAH T. WILLIAMS
