Minnesota Now

Across Minnesota and the nation, new and more diverse independent bookstores have been popping up. In fact, for every independent bookstore that has closed since 2020, more than three new ones have opened, according to the American Booksellers Association.

It’s part of a continuing trend jumpstarted by the pandemic, and each of these bookstores has a story of its own. 

When Josh Hames saw the storefront up for lease in West St. Paul, he knew it was perfect for a bookstore. It was late at night, and the lights on the side of the building illuminated the old brick building. He could see the tall ceilings through the windows.  

“It looked like the cover to ‘Needful Things’ by Stephen King a little bit,” he said.  

Hames, 30, opened Other Skies Weird Fiction in 2022, just in time for his favorite holiday: Halloween. The store sells high-quality editions of horror, sci-fi and imaginative fiction. Hames has been collecting these genres since he was 14, but the pandemic shutdown really clarified that passion.

“We all had time to reflect on, what are the things that we really, really like to do when we go out? And for me I found that, even before the pandemic, I would always spend all my time looking for books, at Goodwill, thrift shops, estate sales. I was always out there buying books, and I thought, man, that's really important, I want to be a part of that,” he said.

It turns out, others do, too, and Hames said he’s been blown away by the community of readers who share his interest.

A couple hundred miles to the northwest, in Detroit Lakes, Minn., Amy Erickson was feeling the lack of a bookstore in her town. The closest one was about a half-hour away, ever since the local Book World closed.

“And when they closed, I said, ‘I don’t know that I can live in a town without a bookstore.’ It just felt wrong somehow,” Erickson said.

Erickson was a 49-year-old stay-at-home mother of three. When the pandemic hit and her husband suddenly stopped traveling for work, they had some big family discussions.

“And I said, you know, if I don’t do this by the time I’m 50, I’m probably never going to do it,” she said. “I don’t want to live knowing that I there was something that I wanted to do and I could do and I just didn’t do it.”

In May 2022, she took a leap of faith and launched Bluebird Books. It’s a family affair: Her three teenage kids are now all old enough to work in the store, along with some of their friends.  

“I love being surrounded by books all the time,” she said. “My favorite thing in the world is when someone walks back into the bookstore and says, ‘You recommended that book to me, and I absolutely loved it. What else? What other recommendations do you have?’ That makes my heart happy.” 

Bluebird Books and Other Skies Weird Fiction are two of the 15 new independent bookstores that have opened in Minnesota since March 2020. That’s a big rise, and it’s in line with a regional and national trend.

Carrie Obry is the executive director of the Midwest Independent Booksellers Association. She credits the rise in part to Bookshop.org, the website that lets people buy books online and shares the profit with indie bookstores. She says having that online platform has democratized the bookselling industry. 

“There’s just a whole new influx of wonderful much-needed energy and diversity coming through our ranks of bookstore owners,” Obry said.

There are challenges, of course, for any bookstore: competition for customers’ time and attention, accelerating rent rates in an industry prone to low wages and supply chain issues. 

Former educator Mary Taris never expected to open a bookstore. When she got fed up with not seeing enough great children’s books by authors of color, she started Strive Publishing in 2018.

She quickly found the need was far greater than a one-woman publisher could address. After the murder of George Floyd, Taris said Strive publishing was flooded with people wanting to write their own stories.

“The civil unrest was a huge contributing factor in me kind of doubling down on my mission to elevate Black voices,” Taris said.

She looked for partnerships, and she found space in the IDS building in downtown Minneapolis, tucked among other retailers in the Black-woman owned Sistah Co-op. The tiny Strive Bookstore struggled for foot traffic following its opening in the fall of 2021, but still, Taris saw an impact.

“When Black people come in, they’re like, ‘Wow, this is for us,’” she said. “And I even get more people who are inspired to write, you know, when they come into the bookstore, and just, it kind of feels like, the more I can do in the book space, the more our mission can come alive.”

Working with the Minneapolis Downtown Council, she’s about to open a second location in the historic Young Quinlan Building on Nicollet Avenue in downtown Minneapolis. The ribbon-cutting ceremony is Saturday, June 2.

The 4,000-square-foot space has gotten some pre-opening customer praise:

“‘Oh, wow, this is so beautiful!’ That’s what I hear,” she said.

Taris can’t wait to use the space to celebrate authors and cross-cultural communication.

Because whatever the path they take to get there, for booksellers, there’s no better feeling than getting the right book into a reader’s hands.

St. Paul

1319 University Ave. W

Open Tuesdays through Fridays noon to 6 p.m., Saturdays noon to 5 p.m., closed Sundays and Mondays

Victoria, Minn.

7924 Victoria Dr.

Open Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Saturdays 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.; Sundays 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.; closed Mondays

Center City, Minn.

280 Andrews Ave.

Open Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. with additional popup hours and locations

Bemidji, Minn.

102 Third Street NW

Open Mondays through Fridays 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturdays 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., closed Sundays

Rochester, Minn.

602 Seventh St. NW

Open Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays

Minneapolis (two locations)

3801 N 27th Ave.

80 South Eighth Street, IDS Center skyway, Suite 254 in the Sistah Co-op

Open Mondays through Fridays 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., first and third Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Redwood Falls, Minn.

120 E Second St

Open Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Thursdays from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Fridays from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; closed Sundays

Wayzata, Minn.

3311 County Rd. 101 #4

Open Wednesdays through Sundays 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Tuesdays noon to 6 p.m., closed Mondays

Battle Lake, Minn.

102 Summit St. W

In May, open Thursdays and Fridays 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturdays 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Detroit Lakes, Minn.

813 Washington Ave.

Open Mondays through Saturdays 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sunday noon to 4 p.m.

Minneapolis

4250 Upton Ave. S

Open Tuesdays through Thursdays from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Fridays through Sunday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., closed Mondays

Grand Rapids, Minn.

4 NE 3rd Ave.

Open Tuesdays through Fridays 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturdays 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., closed Sundays and Mondays

Carlton, Minn.

Grand opening likely this fall, hours TBA

Moorhead, Minn.

40 Fourth St. N

Grand opening this summer, hours TBA

Zumbrota, Minn.

320 East Ave.

Open Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Additional and holiday hours may vary.

More than a thousand workers at the Windom, Minn. hog slaughtering plant, Hylife, face their last day of work Friday. That's at least partially a result of the hog industry taking a downturn this year. In early April, Manitoba-based HyLife announced plans to close the Windom plant if they could not find a buyer and soon after that, they filed for bankruptcy.

Closing the plant will have big reverberations in the area. Workers who came to this country for those jobs will have to find a new one quickly, or leave the U.S.

MPR News Host Cathy Wurzer talked with two people who are helping workers affected by the Windom Hylife plant layoffs.

Gabby Nelson has facilitated the aid response to the Hylife layoffs through the Windom Cultural Integration Collaborative, a group formed to welcome the hundreds of Hylife workers on temporary H2B visas that came to Windom.

Maria Guerrero is a community health worker with Wellshare International in Mankato. She has worked to find solutions for the hundreds of laid-off Hylife workers who live in hotels in the Mankato area. The majority of those workers arrived from the Mexico border.

It has been nearly seven months since Brian O’Hara was confirmed as the police chief of Minneapolis. As the first police chief appointed after George Floyd died under a Minneapolis police officer's knee, O'Hara is entrusted with changing the culture within MPD as the world watches. MPR News Host Cathy Wurzer talked with Chief O’Hara about what he has done so far and what remains on his to-do list.

It has been over a decade since Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was repealed. The policy was issued under President Clinton in 1993, and it prohibited openly gay, lesbian and bisexual recruits from serving in the military. MPR News Host Cathy Wurzer talked with Lavender CEO Stephen Rocheford and Major General Shawn Manke about the story behind the first national guard recruitment ad to be printed in a publication for the LGTBQ+ community.

Leaders in the DFL party have voted to sanction a Minneapolis city council candidate after a tumultuous convention earlier this month. We'll unpack this decision with the party chair.

And Sven Sundgaard will break down a hot and stormy weather forecast for the rest of the week.

Healing from the trauma caused by gun violence is an uphill battle. We'll hear from an organizer that is looking to nature for solutions.

Ever been to a concert at a friend's house? We'll hear about the time blues legend Lead Belly showed up to one in Minneapolis.

Even if you haven't seen a coyote, they may have seen you. We'll talk with a scientist who is learning from their movements through urban - and soon, rural - communities.

We've got a story for you from our history series “Minnesota Now and Then.” This time, we’re going back to November 1948.

Folk and blues singer Huddie Ledbetter, known by his stage name Lead Belly, had just finished a tour of Minnesota college towns, when he turned up at a friend’s Minneapolis home and gave a short concert.

It was a moment that would have been lost to music history, except that somebody decided to record it.

Here are MPR producers Robbie Mitchem and Jamal Allen with a story by Britt Aamodt.

In late spring, coyote pups spend their first few weeks of life hunkered in dens — some of which are tucked in Minnesota’s various urban parks. And the pups are just about to make moves - leaving the den with their parents for a new home base.

A research team based at the University of Minnesota is monitoring some of these animals to learn more about how coyotes, foxes and humans interact in the Twin Cities. Geoff Miller has been working on this project as a Ph.D. candidate since it began about four years ago.

MPR News host Cathy Wurzer spoke with Miller about what he’s learned so far.

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation. 

Subscribe to the Minnesota Now podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.   

We attempt to make transcripts for Minnesota Now available the next business day after a broadcast. When ready they will appear here.

It's the last day of May, but it sure feels like summer already. It's been warm and humid with some rumblings of overnight thunder in the forecast.

MPR meteorologist Sven Sundgaard joined the show give MPR News host Cathy Wurzer all the details.

Outdoor activities like hiking, biking and bird watching can soothe the soul.

Our next guest says awareness of the natural environment around us is key to healing from— and preventing— the gun violence that plagues the U.S.

Farji Shaheer is the founder and director of the new nonprofit, Innovative SOULutions. It partners with Three Rivers Park District in the Twin Cities to bring families affected by gun violence into nature as a way to connect and heal.

The Minnesota DFL party has voted to ban a Minneapolis city council candidate from ever seeking the party's nomination.

The move stems from chaos at the Minneapolis Ward 10 endorsing convention on May 13, and results in a ban on Minneapolis City Council candidate Nasri Warsame from seeking the DFL endorsement for any office.

His supporters were allegedly among the instigators in the brawl at the Ward 10 convention, where he was challenging incumbent Aisha Chughtai.

MPR News host Cathy Wurzer spoke with DFL Party Chairman Ken Martin about the decision.

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation. 

Subscribe to the Minnesota Now podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.   

We attempt to make transcripts for Minnesota Now available the next business day after a broadcast. When ready they will appear here.