A couple weeks ago, I went to a great reading & discussion at the new Minneapolis Public Library. Susan Orlean, Matt Weiland, Said Sayrafiezadeh and Philip Conners were all in town to promote the new book, State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America, which Weiland edited and to which the others had contributed. It’s a fantastic idea, based on the old WPA guides from the 1930s. The discussion was a lot about the meaning of place and the stories we tell ourselves about the places we live. We also got to watch the full 35 minutes of the Powell’s documentary about the book:

After the reading, a few of us went out for drinks, which was fun, and my interview with Matt Weiland will be up on World Hum in the near future. Meanwhile, you can read the contributor bios here.