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BANneD BOOKS Ticket Confirmation

Thank you for purchasing tickets for Rain Taxi's BANneD BOOKS fundraising event on Friday, May 3, 7pm at the Granada Theater in Minneapolis!

Your tickets will be held under your name at the Will Call table in the lobby—please check in anytime after 6:30pm to enter the theater. Food and drink are available at the Granada’s Uptown Lobby Bar & Restaurant starting at 5:30 pm; more info about the Granada Theater can be found at https://granadampls.com.

Books and music by the performers, as well as an assortment of chapbooks and broadsides created by Rain Taxi, will be available for purchase at the Rain Taxi table inside the theater.

Thank you again for joining us—we look forward to celebrating with you!

Click here to go back to the BANneD BOOKS page

A Note on Parking in Uptown:

The Granada is located at 3022 Hennepin Ave, Minneapolis, MN 55408. Since Hennepin Ave. is under reconstruction, Hennepin from 31st to Lake St., including in front of the Granada, is closed to drivers. That means people can’t get dropped off except at the backdoor in the alley. So you'll get to take the scenic route to the Granada after you park.

The best place to park is the ramp behind Seven Points (formerly Calhoun Square). Then walk down to 31st, over to Hennepin, and north on Hennepin to the Granada.

Residential street parking is also an option off 31st on cross streets (Holmes, Irving, etc.).

After a little walking adventure from your car to the Granada, you will be ready for a drink, a bite to eat, and a show. We have you covered in all three areas with our celebration of books, bands, and more at BANneD BOOKS.

Thank you for becoming a Member or renewing your Membership!!

Your continued support means the world to us. We can't do this essential work without you, bringing to light works of literary excellence to a wider audience. You will continue to receive the quarterly Rain Taxi Review of Books. If you have any questions or need to update your address, please email us at orders [at] raintaxi [dot] com.

Soon, you will receive a letter of thanks from our Executive Director along with your Member Card. Thanks again!

If this is a gift membership or you want to update your address and information, please fill out the form below!

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Rain Taxi Spring Fling

Rain Taxi’s BANneD BOOKS spring fling on Friday, May 3, 2024, was a great success, with 100 people enjoying the riveting musical performances by The Muatas, Zak Sally, and Willie Wisely, and spellbinding literary readings by Dessa, Klecko, and special guest Carolyn Kuebler, amid the beautiful Granada Theater backdrop. Thank you to all who made this fundraiser a smashing success: the Rain Taxi Board, the talented artists, our sponsors, and everyone who attended! Click on the photos below for a fun slide show:

— FEATURED ARTISTS —

THE MUATAS, Ayanna and Cam Muata, create an original blend of post-punk, trip hop, dark wave, shoe gaze, and electronic music. The Muatas have released three albums since 2020, most recently Battle Weary. With a sound that mixes sampled and programmed beats layered with synthesizer, guitar, bass guitar, ambient strings, and vocals that often range between the melodic and spoken, they desire to share a bit of their story through their music, and to connect with others through that experience.

ZAK SALLY has been making comics and art (Recidivist, Sammy The Mouse), creating music (Low, The Hand, solo work), publishing books (via his small press La Mano), and otherwise engaging in various creative WTF’s for 35 years (and counting); he recently published a prose memoir titled Folrath. He lives and works in Minneapolis.

WILLIE WISELY is equal parts Minnesota music scene veteran and Laurel Canyon devotee. Wisely remains that rare bird mixing profound power pop with vaudevillian showmanship, a troubadour on an all-night rave, a cold Komboucha on a hot California day, a McCartney-ite taking a break from his Japanese import of Ram for a quick canyon run listening to João Gilberto. Singer, Guitarist, Producer, Composer, and sometimes Clothes Horse, he has released over a dozen albums, the latest of which is Face the Sun.

DESSA is a singer, rapper, and writer who has made a career of bucking genres and defying expectations. As a musician she has performed at Lollapalooza and Glastonbury, collaborated with the Minnesota Orchestra, and had entries on the Billboard charts. As a writer, she’s been published by The New York Times and National Geographic Traveler, penned the acclaimed memoir-in-essays My Own Devices, and has had two chapbooks of poetry published by Rain Taxi, A Pound of Steam and Tits on the Moon. Also a noted public speaker on topics from art to entrepreneurship (including a TED Talk about her science experiment on falling out of love), Dessa is the host of the podcast Deeply Human. When not on the road, she calls both Minneapolis and NYC home.

KLECKO studied breadmaking at Dunwoody Technical College in Minneapolis and the American Institute of Baking in Manhattan, Kansas. He spent the first decade of his 45-year career running ovens on the night shift; often, while waiting for the loaves to bake, he wrote poems. He has since written several books, including the Midwest Book Award-winning collection Hitman-Baker-Casket Maker and the memoir A Bakeable Feast; his work has also been featured in the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, and the New York Times. An ardent fan of “all things 651,” Klecko lives in a St. Paul mansion across the street from where F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote his first novel.

CAROLYN KUEBLER co-founded the literary magazine Rain Taxi and has been the editor of the award-winning journal New England Review for the past 10 years. Her short stories and essays have been published in numerous venues including The Common and Colorado Review; her piece “Wildflower Season” won the 2022 John Burroughs Award for Nature Essay. She has published scores of book reviews, small-press profiles, and author interviews in Publishers Weekly, The Review of Contemporary Fiction, Rain Taxi, City Pages, and other venues. Now residing in Middlebury, Vermont, Kuebler returns to Minneapolis to launch her debut novel, Liquid, Fragile, Perishable, described by Michael Collier as “A true-to-life, richly detailed American tale in the tradition of Sherwood Anderson, Willa Cather, and Thornton Wilder” and named one of Oprah Daily’s Most Anticipated Books of 2024.

A note to help you find your way and park in Uptown:

The Granada Theater is located at 3022 Hennepin Ave in Minneapolis, but since Hennepin Ave. is currently under reconstruction, the road between Lake Street and 31st, including in front of the Granada, is closed to drivers. This means people can’t get dropped off directly in front of the theater—so you’ll get to take the scenic route there after you disembark or park!

For parking, the closest, easiest is in the Seven Points (formerly Calhoun Square) pay ramp across the street from the theater — from there simply exit to 31st St., head west to Hennepin, and then north on Hennepin to the Granada. Free street parking is also an option on residential cross streets (Holmes, Humboldt, Irving, etc.). Further navigational directions and a detailed map of street closures and parking availability is available from our official event bookseller Magers & Quinn, whose store is just a few doors down from the Granada: https://www.magersandquinn.com/directions
No matter how you’re getting to the Granada, you will be ready for a drink, a bite to eat, and a show. We have all three areas covered with our celebration of books, bands, and lively fun at BANneD BOOKS!

Thank you to our sponsors for their support:

Media Sponsor

Event Book Seller

Rain Taxi Volume 29, Number 1, Spring 2024 (#113)

To purchase issue #113 using Paypal, click here.
To become a member and get quarterly issues of Rain Taxi delivered to your door, click here.

INTERVIEWS

Darryl Pinckney: The Women Who Shaped Him | interviewed by William Corwin
Jody Hobbs Hesler: Atonement Is Not Transactional | interviewed by Sharon Harrigan
Dorothea Lasky: Why Horror | interviewed by Zachary Pace
Patty Crane: Hues of Translation | interviewed by Dennis Maloney

FEATURES

Plus cover art by Noah Lawrence-Holder

NONFICTION REVIEWS

Dear Jean Pierre | David Wojnarowicz | by Patrick James Dunagan
Cosmic Scholar: The Life and Times of Harry Smith | John Szwed | by Richard Kostelanetz
The Rigor of Angels: Borges, Heisenberg, Kant, and the Ultimate Nature of Reality | William Egginton | by David Brizer
The Upside-Down World: Meetings with the Dutch Masters | Benjamin Moser | by Allan Vorda
New Voices: Contemporary Writers Confronting the Holocaust | Howard Debs and Matthew Silverman, eds. | by Gale Hemmann

FICTION REVIEWS

POETRY REVIEWS

COMICS REVIEWS

Impossible People: A Completely Average Recovery Story | Julia Wertz | by Greg Baldino

To purchase issue #113 using Paypal, click here.
To become a member and get quarterly issues of Rain Taxi delivered to your door, click here.

Noah Lawrence-Holder

Noah Lawrence-Holder is a black, nonbinary artist from Madison WI, now based in the Twin Cities. Their work consists of illustration and animations centered around racial justice, equity, intersectionality and gender identity. They have featured work in gallery shows highlighting queer and black artists across Minneapolis and beyond. Visit their website here.

Volume 28, Number 4, Winter 2023 (#112)

To purchase issue #112 using Paypal, click here.
To become a member and get quarterly issues of Rain Taxi delivered to your door, click here.

INTERVIEWS

Lynn Levin: Playthings of Chaos | interviewed by Carolyne Wright
Elizabeth Metzger: In Two Separate Rooms, Breathing | interviewed by Tiffany Troy
Marty Cain: Pastoral Politics | interviewed by J. B. Stone

FEATURES

If and Only If | by Scott F. Parker
A Personal View: The Writer as Publisher | by David Stromberg
A Look Back: Bright Lights, Big City | by Neal Lipschutz
The New Life | a comic by Gary Sullivan

Plus cover art by John Schuerman

NONFICTION REVIEWS

FICTION REVIEWS

POETRY REVIEWS

MIXED GENRE REVIEWS

Poets on the Road | Maureen Owen and Barbara Henning | by Kit Robinson
Poetechnics / Poetécnicas: Designs from the New World | Yaxkin Melchy
| by kathy wu

COMICS REVIEWS

My Picture Diary | Fujiwara Maki | by Jeff Alford

To purchase issue #112 using Paypal, click here.
To become a member and get quarterly issues of Rain Taxi delivered to your door, click here.

John Schuerman

*Walk on Lake Hiawatha, Winter Solstice*, 2021

John Schuerman is a self-taught artist and independent curator. His artwork reflects his deep interest in nature both human and nonhuman. His aesthetic style and social consciousness formed as he grew up on a dairy farm in southern Wisconsin. Schuerman is an environmental, and documentary artist, exploring the physical, social, and psychic landscapes through drawing, video, photography, and walking-based art forms. His artwork has been presented in numerous exhibitions locally and nationally.

His curatorial projects engage viewers on today’s most pressing issues: empathy, human overpopulation, gun violence, money, time, nationalism, identity, conflict, environmentalism, and abuses of power. See more of his work online at www.schuermanfineart.com.

VOLUME 28, NUMBER 3, FALL 2023 (#111)

To purchase issue #111 using Paypal, click here.
To become a member and get quarterly issues of Rain Taxi delivered to your door, click here.

INTERVIEWS

Ronnie Pontiac and American Metaphysical Religion | by Zack Kopp
Grant Maierhofer: Keeping the Circulating Happening | by Alex Kies
Amanda Gunn: Black Pleasure vs. Black Joy | by Eileen G’Sell

FEATURES

If and Only If: Imaginary books reviewed | by Scott F. Parker
The New Life | a comic by Gary Sullivan
Remembering Brian O’Doherty (1928–2022) | by Richard Kostelanetz

PLUS: Cover art by Korynn Newville

NONFICTION/ART REVIEWS

Humanly Possible: Seven Hundred Years of Humanist Thinking, Inquiry, and Hope | Sarah Bakewell | by John Toren
Quantum Criminals: Ramblers, Wild Gamblers, And Other Sole Survivors from the Songs of Steely Dan | Alex Pappedemas and Joan LeMay | by Angelo Gentile
The Tribe: Portraits of Cuba | Carlos Manuel Álvarez | by Jesus Francisco Sierra
Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City: A Memoir | Jane Wong | by Genevieve Hartman
Soundwriting: A Guide to Making Audio Projects | Tanya K. Rodrigue and Kyle D. Stedman | by Cam Miller
Jean Conner: Collage | Rory Padeken, ed.
Mina Loy: Strangeness is Inevitable | Jennifer R. Gross, Ann Lauterbach, Roger L. Conover, & Dawn Ades, eds.
Betye Saar: Heart of a Wanderer | Diana Seave Greenwald | by Patrick James Dunagan

FICTION REVIEWS

POETRY REVIEWS

COMICS REVIEW

The Planetoid and Other Stories | Joe Orlando and Al Feldstein | by Paul Buhle

To purchase issue #111 using Paypal, click here.
To become a member and get quarterly issues of Rain Taxi delivered to your door, click here.

KORYNN NEWVILLE

At the time this was a final piece, but it actually created the space and thought process to begin Indiscernible Elements: Calcium. The painting is an exploration of the next life, after the process of grieving the planet. Bringing the question, after grieving is the future of the planet only a fairytale? Visit Korynn Newville at: www.newvillekorynn.com.

Anne Enright

In conversation with Francine Prose

Wednesday, September 13, 2 pm Central
Free Virtual Event (registration required)

Rain Taxi proudly presents Anne Enright, one of Ireland’s greatest living writers, to celebrate the U.S. publication of her newest book, The Wren, The Wren—a searing story about the ravages of love across three generations of women that will both break and warm your heart. At this unique event, Enright will be in conversation with acclaimed American author Francine Prose. Join us for an exploration of literary fiction at its finest!

Book Purchasing Information: The Wren, The Wren, other books by Anne Enright, and a selection of titles by Francine Prose, are available from Magers & Quinn Booksellers at the link below. Don’t forget, when you buy books at an event, you support not only the authors and their publishers, but a great independent bookstore and the event host.

About the Book:

Nell McDaragh never knew her grandfather, famed Irish poet Phil McDaragh. But his love poems seem to speak directly to her. Restless, Nell leaves her mother Carmel’s home to find her voice as a writer and live a life of her choosing. Carmel, too, knows the magic of her Daddo’s poetry—and the broken promises within its verses. When Phil abandons the family, Carmel struggles to reconcile “the poet” with the man whose desertion scars Carmel, her sister, and their cancer-ridden mother. The Wren, The Wren brings to life three generations of women who contend with inheritances of both abandonment and a sustaining love that is “more than a strand of DNA, but a rope thrown from the past, a fat twisted rope, full of blood.” In sharp prose studded with crystalline poetry, Enright masterfully braids a family story of longing, betrayal, and hope.

"These pages practically crackle with intelligence, compassion and wit. Phil McDaragh is so real I almost googled him. The Wren, The Wren might just be Anne Enright’s best yet."

—Louise Kennedy

“A true masterpiece by one of our greatest novelists. Rich, emotional and brilliantly observed, Anne Enright’s eighth novel, The Wren, The Wren, may even beat her Booker-winner, The Gathering."

—The Telegraph

“A novel where shards of brilliance flash in every direction.”

—The Times

About the Authors:

Anne Enright is the author of seven previous novels, most recently Actress, as well as story collections and nonfiction. She has won numerous awards for her writing, including the Man Booker Prize, the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Irish Book Awards. She lives in Dublin.

Francine Prose is a novelist and critic whose most recently published book is CLEOPATRA: Her History, Her Myth. Coming up next is a memoir titled 1974: A Personal History, to be published by Harper next year. Her previous books include the novels The Vixen, Goldengrove, A Changed Man, and Blue Angel, which was a finalist for the 2001 National Book Award, and the New York Times nonfiction bestseller Reading Like A Writer: A Guide For People Who Love Books and For Those Who Want to Write Them. She writes frequently for the New York Times Book Review and the New York Review of Books and lives in New York City.