News from Gustavus Adolphus College

Office of Public Relations ~ 800 W. College Ave. ~ St. Peter, MN 56082-1498
News Director Stacia Senne ~ (507) 933-7510 ~  ssenne@gustavus.edu

Author Bill Holm to Speak
for Gustavus Author Day
Photo of Bill Holm
Bill Holm
ST. PETER, Minn. (March 25, 2002) – Minnesota author Bill Holm, a celebrated poet and essayist, as well as a 1965 graduate of Gustavus Adolphus College, will speak at Gustavus Library Associates' Author Day at 9:30 a.m. Friday, April 12 at the Edina Country Club (5100 Wooddale Ave., Edina).

Holm has won many awards for his writing, including the 2000 Prairie Star Award, a Fulbright Scholarship, a Bush Foundation Arts Fellowship, and a National Foundation for the Arts grant. Among Holm's publications are eight books that have received high praise: Boxelder Bug Variations (1985), The Music of Faith (1985), The Dead Get By With Everything (1991), Coming Home Crazy (1992), The Heart Can Be Filled Anywhere on Earth (1996), Faces of Christmas Past (1997), Playing Haydn for the Angel of Death (1998), and Eccentric Islands: Travels Real and Imaginary (2000).

According to Garrison Keillor, "Bill Holm is the tallest radical humorist in the Midwest and a truthful and wonderful writer." Holm is also described as a captivating speaker and he will be this year's Gustavus Commencement speaker. Holm teaches at Southwest State University during the academic year but returns to his once ancestral Iceland in the summer to write.

The cost for this Gustavus Author Day event is $17 per person, which includes a reception, brunch, and book signing. Reservations can be made by calling the Gustavus Office of Public Relations at 507/933-7520. The reservation deadline is Monday, April 8.

Gustavus Library Associates is an organization of volunteers, whose purpose is to promote literature, literacy, and the Folke Bernadette Memorial Library at Gustavus through programs of culture, education, service, and monetary support.

Gustavus Adolphus College is a private liberal arts college in St. Peter, Minn., that prepares 2,500 undergraduates for lives of leadership, service, and lifelong learning. The oldest Lutheran college in Minnesota, Gustavus was founded in 1862 by Swedish immigrants and named for Swedish King Gustav II Adolf. At Gustavus, students receive personal attention in small-sized classes and engage in collaborative research with their professors. Fully accredited and known for its strong science, writing, music, athletics, study-abroad, and service-learning programs, Gustavus hosts a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa and is internationally recognized for its annual Nobel Conference.

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Digital photograph available at gustavus.edu/news/images/