Frank Bures - Under Purple Skies: The Minneapolis Anthology

UNDER PURPLE SKIES

The Minneapolis Anthology

MORE CITY ANTHOLOGIES BY BELT

The Milwaukee Anthology

St. Louis Anthology

The Akron Anthology

Right Here, Right Now: The Buffalo Anthology

Rust Belt Chicago: An Anthology

The Cincinnati Anthology

The Cleveland Anthology

A Detroit Anthology

Happy Anyway: A Flint Anthology

Grand Rapids Grassroots: An Anthology

The Pittsburgh Anthology

Car Bombs to Cookie Tables: The Youngstown Anthology

UNDER PURPLE SKIES

The Minneapolis Anthology

Edited by Frank Bures

Copyright 2019, Belt Publishing

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

First Edition 2019

ISBN: 978-1948742436

Belt Publishing

3143 W. 33rd Street, Cleveland, Ohio 44109

www.beltpublishing.com

Book design by Meredith Pangrace

Cover by David Wilson

contents

Frank Bures

Laurie Hertzel

Kao Kalia Yang

Morgan Grayce Willow

Doug Mack

Todd Boss

Bill Donahue

James Wright

Dobby Gibson

Jason Good

Ahmed Ismail Yusuf

Marlon James

Neal Karlen

Leif Pettersen

Eric Dregni

Valrie Dus

Kelly Barnhill

Kris Bigalk

Lindsay Nielsen

Kevin Kling

Steve Marsh

Matt Rasmussen

Robert OConnell

William Souder

Max Ross

Shannon Gibney

Sofia Burford

David Mura

Sheila OConnor

Ed Bok Lee

Fathia Absie

Gwen Nell Westerman

Sarah Stonich

Marge Barrett

Adam Regn Arvidson

Bao Phi

Jason Albert

Rae Meadows

Jay Botten

John Rosengren

Julian Bernick

Megan Kaplan

Joshua Davies

Lars Ostrom

Luisa Muradyan

J. D. Fratzke

Marcie Rendon

James Norton

Dobby Gibson

Peggy Pearl Zambory

Francine Marie Tolf

Jonathan Raban

Sandra Sidman Larson

Matthew Power

Su Hwang

Julia Klatt Singer

Tami Mohamed Brown

Michael Perry

Danez Smith

Prologue

FRANK BURES

The entire area of Minneapolis, before a storm, the skies would turn this amazing blue-purple before the rain came. It was a phenomenon. So for me, the concept of purple rain was very specific in terms of the feeling you get just before the clouds would open up and literally gush raindrops. Later on, when Prince and I were working at Paisley Park, we would go outside prior to a rainstorm and just stand in the field, looking at the sky together. Waiting for the rain to drop. And those skies went purple.

Albert Magnoli, Director, editor, and co-writer of Purple Rain, in GQ

Years ago, when I left Minneapolis I brought a book with me: Coming Home Crazy: An Alphabet of China Essays. It was published by a local publisher, Milkweed Editions, and written by a Minnesota author, performer, and force of nature, Bill Holm, about his year teaching English in China in the late 1980s.

Holm was an unforgettable figurecantankerous, joyful, angry, and full of laughter. He was also emblematic of the Minnesota writers in those days, coming (as he and I both did) from a line of northern European immigrant farmers.

Reading Holm was a revelation. He broke the mold of what an essay could do, and I was inspired by all the things on display in his work: his ability to laugh at absurdity, his attempts at understanding, his distrust of authority, his populism seeping into every sentence. I didnt know you could do all thator how you did it.

In particular there was an essay I loved called Swiss Army Knife: A History about the many times Holm used his knife in China to fix sparking lamps, open cans of dog meat, disconnect propaganda speakers, and take doors off their hinges.

As I attempted to find my way as a writer, I would occasionally reread this essay and try to emulate Holms style and voice. But I didnt have the depth of experience to turn life into art. Today I still cant write like Holm, but I did manage to find my own path. And when I went to China to research my own book, I brought a copy of his essay and my Swiss Army Knife, only to find that China had changed, as had I. The world Holm described was long gone, replaced by a new, stranger, wealthier China where things (mostly) worked. All I needed the knife for was opening an occasional beer.

When I moved back to Minneapolis I found the city had changed as well. It was more international. The food was better. There were more bikes and fewer murders. The once plucky local publishers had become national literary treasures. And the writers at work here werent so much from the same lineages of Scandinavians who came here to farm and enjoyed making each other feel guilty.

Like me, the city had picked up stories from other parts of the worldSomalia, Laos, Mexico, Vietnam, Nigeria, Jamaica, and others, not to mention White Earth, Leech Lake, and the states other Anishinaabe and Dakota communities. I found these stories as compelling as anything that had happened in Gopher Prairie or Lake Wobegon. Not only did the citys narrative threads now run from different corners of the world, but whenever the national (and sometimes international) literary prizes were announced, there was almost certain to be a writer or publisher from around here among the ranks. While I was away, the Twin Cities had somehow become a literary powerhouse.

With that in mind, we have collected a sampling of some of the best work being done in or about this city that casts its long shadow across the state. Most of writers in Under Purple Skies live in Minneapolis or the larger Twin Cities. Others here have passed through and told great stories about it. Still others live farther away, like Luisa Muradyan. Growing up in the Soviet Union (now Ukraine), she watched a bootleg copy of Purple Rain. My family was so transfixed with the movie, she writes, that they thought it was set in the future. The music, the clothing, the magnificence, this movie became the narrative of America that my family would later pursue through immigration. Prince touched so many lives, including a Soviet family that would later turn to his music as a soundtrack for assimilation.

Of course, Prince is the specter that hangs over the city, and this collection. Hes the one who showed us that you can create your own world right here, rather than chasing after it elsewhere. And just as the purple sky he loved meant change was in the air, so does this collection show the literary storm that is washing over us.

Collectively, the writers here have won, or been shortlisted for, the Newbery Award, the Man Booker prize, the Pulitzer, the Caldecott Award, the National Book Award, the Minnesota Book Award, and many others. Their work appears alongside new and first-time voices. But Minnesotans dont like to brag, and prizes are beside the point. The stories and poems here should speak for themselves. And in the same way Holms generation showed mine a path, I hope this collection paves the way for the writers who will follow.