Simple Words, Sensational Stories

In conjunction with our Winter Reading Program, we planned a speaker series every Tuesday evening at the library from Jan. 22-March 12. We included programs which encourage participants to use words, including a Scrabble game night, art of letter writing workshop in time for Valentine's Day and a local presenter on living in Mexico and teaching ESL in the U.S., to highlight words in other languages. We also invited local authors and speakers to bring their stories to life for us. We also hosted two Minnesota History Players from the MHS to give us the words of two influential Minnesotans: Mary Dodge Woodward and William de la Barre. Scott Thoma from Willmar, MN will be presenting on his new book Out of the Blue a sensational true story about the F5 tornado that hit Tracy, MN in 1968. As a finale to our series we hosted Minnesota Poet Laureate Joyce Sutphen. Using words in a creative way, Sutphen has published several works of poetry and has the accolades to gow tih them. She currently teaches a range of courses in British Lit and Creative Writing a Gustavus Adolphus College.