The Shakopee Public library, 235 Lewis St. S., is hosting a Minnesota Author Series, starting in March running through May. This is your opportunity to hear famous Minnesota writers, including Ellen Hart, David Housewright, Ann Bauer, Tim Brady, Catherine Watson, and more. All author programs are free and open to the public. Books will be available for purchase and signing at most events.
Author Lineup

Catherine Watson - 7 p.m. Monday, March 17 : Catherine Watson was first travel editor at the Star Tribune and chief travel writer and photographer 1978-2004. She’s won awards including the Lowell Thomas Travel Journalist of the Year and the Society of American Travel Writers' Photographer of the Year. Her work includes Home on the Road: Further Dispatches from the Ends of the Earth and Roads Less Traveled: Dispatches from the Ends of the Earth and is anthologized in several books. (Author web site- http://www.catherinewatsontravel.com)

Kathleen Winters - 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 25: Kathleen Winters is an author, aviation historian, and pilot. Her articles have appeared in Woman Pilot, Aviation for Women, and Soaring magazines. Her first book, Anne Morrow Lindbergh: First Lady of the Air, is a biography focusing on Anne’s flying career though it covers her entire life. (Author web site- http://www.kathleenwinters.com)

Tim Brady - 7 p.m. Thursday, March 27: Tim Brady is the author Gopher Gold (a history of the University of Minnesota) and The Great Dan Patch and the Remarkable Mr. Savage, winner of a 2006 Midwest Book Publishers Award. He writes for The History Channel Magazine, Minnesota Monthly, Minnesota Conservation Volunteer, and Minnesota, (University of Minnesota’s alumni magazine) and contributes to PBS history documentaries. Brady won James Michener and Bush Foundation fellowships for his writing.

Pat Sinclair - 1:30 p.m. Saturday, March 29: Pat Sinclair’s Baking Basics and Beyond won the 2006 Baking Cookbook Award for 2007 presented by the Cordon d’Or- Gold Ribbon Award International Annual Cookbooks and Culinary Arts Program. She has also played a role in several community cookbooks, including Cooking with KARE and Breakfast in Cairo, Dinner in Rome (winner of the 2000 Midwest Regional Winner in the Tabasco Community Cookbook Awards). She teaches cooking classes at Cooks of Crocus Hill and Mothersauces Cooking School. (Author web site- http://www.patcooksandbakes.com)

Wayne Liebhard – 7 p.m. Monday, March 31: Dr. Wayne Liebhard has practiced medicine in Minnesota for over 20 years. Minnesota Magazine named him one of the University of Minnesota’s “Everyday Heroes” and he has been the recipient of the Minnesota Medical Association’s prestigious Community Service Award. His articles have appeared in publications including Minnesota Physician. Elephants in the Exam Room is his first book. (Author web site- http://www.omegamed.com)

David Housewright - 1:30 p.m. Saturday, April 5: Housewright earned a 1996 Edgar Award for Penance. Practice to Deceive won a 1998 Minnesota Book Award; his Tin City was nominated for the same prize in 2006. His other works include Dearly Departed, A Hard Ticket Home, Pretty Girl Gone and Dead Boyfriends. The next Rushmore McKenzie book, Madman on a Drum, is out May 13. His short stories have appeared in a variety of publications and anthologies. (Author web site- http://www.davidhousewright.com)

Julie Peterson – 1:30 p.m. Sunday, April 6: Would you like lemon or sugar with that? In 1998, Julie merged her life-long love of tea parties with a business, Specialteas, now known as AntiquiTea Flair. Her first book, Treasuring the Gift of Tea Time: Tea Parties for Mothers, Daughters, Sisters and Friends is a resource guide to help everyone plan and host their own special tea parties. (Author web site- http://www.antiquiteaflair.com)

Maureen Millea Smith - 7 p.m. Thursday, April 10: Hennepin County librarian Maureen Millea Smith’s first novel, When Charlotte Comes Home is a tale of growing up in the 60s and 70s with a special needs sibling. She currently is working on a second novel that will be set in Cincinnati.

Susan Davis Price - 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 22: Susan Davis Price’s articles have appeared in many publications. Her Minnesota Gardens, an Illustrated History, won a Minnesota Book Award, an award from the Midwest Independent Publishers Association, and the1996 Quill and Trowel Award from the Garden Writers Association of America. Growing Home, Stories of Ethnic Gardening received the 2001 American Horticultural Society Book Award. Currently she’s working on a book about the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum.

John Diers - 7 p.m. Monday, April 28: All Aboard! Besides Twin Cities by Trolley, Diers has written for Trains magazine, Ramsey County History, and a number of technical and professional journals. He is currently working on a history of the St. Paul Union Depot. Diers serves on the editorial board of the Ramsey County Historical Society and the board of the Scott County Historical Society.

Ann Bauer - 7 p.m. Thursday, May 1: Ann Bauer is an essayist, journalist, and fiction writer whose work has appeared in Rake Magazine (on subjects including food and wine), The Atlantic Monthly and Salon.com. Her first book, A Wild Ride Up the Cupboards, looks at two families dealing with kids who don’t fit the norm. Currently, she is working on her second book on the life and loves of a food critic. (Author web site- http://www.annbauer.com)

Ellen Hart - 1:30 p.m. Saturday, May 3: Ellen Hart is the author of twenty-three crime novels in two different series: the Jane Lawless Mysteries and the Sophie Greenway Mysteries. Ellen’s novels have received five Lambda Literary Awards for Best Lesbian Mystery, three’ Minnesota Book Awards for Best Popular Fiction, and two Golden Crown Literary Awards for Best Mystery/Thriller/Adventure. In 2005, Ellen was made an official GLBT Literary Saint at the Saints and Sinners Literary convention in New Orleans and was honored with the 2005 Alice B. Readers Appreciation Medal, a career achievement award. For the past eleven years she has taught mystery writing through The Loft Literary Center. (Author web site- http://www.ellenhart.com)