2016 MLA Annual Conference

“What is a true Minnesotan?  In a land defined by Lake Wobegon, the Vikings, Snoopy and Mary Tyler Moore, the ideas of who we are have not caught up to the realities, not by a long shot. This book helps narrow that gap.”  - Wing Young Huie, author of Frogtown and The University Avenue Project.

The library patrons walking through your door are, no doubt, different than the patrons who walked through the same door 30 years ago.  That’s what makes this year’s One Conference One Book selection a timely and vital read.   A Good Time for the Truth: Race in Minnesota is a collection of 16 essays from writers who give you the chance to step in someone else’s shoes and help you understand what it is like to be a person of color in Minnesota.

In their exceptionally engaging essays, they invite us to see the world through their eyes. Their world is very different than most of ours and yet their world is still Minnesota! In some ways, it is a challenging read – after all, the subject is provocative – but in other ways, it’s an easy read:  16 self-contained essays, each with a different idea and perspective.  Pick up the book and read a 15-page essay and then go back when you’re ready for another viewpoint.  Whether you read just one or all 16 essays, you’re going to want to talk about what you’ve read – and what is better than the opportunity to talk with the editor, Sun Yung Shin, plus three of the authors: Shannon Gibney, Andrea Jenkins and Rodrigo Sanchez-Chavarria.