Augustana University is announcing the release of Dr. Patrick Hicks\u2019 latest book,\u00a0Greater Minnesota: Exploring the Land of Sky-Blue Waters, which is being published by Indiana University Press. The launch of the book, written by Augustana\u2019s writer-in-residence and professor of English, is set to take place on Monday, Sept. 1.<\/p>\n
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In this new book, Hicks takes readers on \u201ca witty, wise and affectionate journey to every corner of the North Star State.\u201d The Stillwater, Minnesota, native, earned a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in English from St. John’s University, Minnesota, and master\u2019s degree from DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois. For years, Hicks lived in Northern Ireland, Germany and Spain \u2014 earning a second master\u2019s degree from Queen\u2019s University Belfast and Ph.D. from the University of Sussex in England.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWriting\u00a0Greater Minnesota\u00a0was such a joy because I was able to travel around my home state and see it as if I were a foreigner. I visited places I\u2019ve heard about all my life, but hadn\u2019t taken the time to see,\u201d said Hicks.<\/p>\n
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Rediscovering his home state after living abroad for years, Greater Minnesota is an account of Hicks’ adventures to the North Shore, Iron Range, Southwest and even Up North in the dead of winter. Traveling the back roads of the state, Hicks visited ancient petroglyphs, the Mayo Clinic, SPAM Museum and U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame, as well as the birthplace of Minnesota Public Radio (MPR), a world-class aviation museum hidden on the prairie, a lost forest, the humble start of the Mississippi River and other stops along the way \u2014 both surprising and intriguing.<\/p>\n
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\u201cGreater Minnesota had me spellbound about my own home state. I had thought I knew all there was to know,\u201d noted Tim O\u2019Brien, author of\u00a0The Things They Carried. \u201cHicks delivers to us a travel book, compendium of fascinating facts, mini-memoir, love letter, reportorial tour de force and ode to the Land of Sky-Blue Waters \u2014 all of it wonderfully written, all of it vividly painted in words.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Hicks, the radio host of \u201cPoetry From Studio 47,\u201d is the author of more than 10 books and his work has appeared on NPR, \u201cThe PBS Newshour\u201d and \u201cAmerican Life in Poetry.\u201d Hicks has been nominated seven times for the Pushcart Prize and won the Glimmer Train Fiction Award. He was also a finalist for the High Plains Book Award, Screencraft Cinematic Book Award, Steinberg Essay Prize, as well as an Emmy Award.<\/p>\n
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The former visiting fellow of University of Oxford has received several grants, including from the Bush Artist Foundation, Loft Literary Center and National Endowment for the Humanities, South Dakota Arts Council and Augustana University.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Hicks is also the author of\u00a0Across the Lake,\u00a0In the Shadow of Dora: A Novel of the Holocaust and the Apollo Program, published in 2020 by SFA Press\/Texas A&M Press,\u00a0The Commandant of Lubizec: A Novel of the Holocaust and Operation Reinhard, published by Steerforth\/Random House,\u00a0The Collector of Names, published by Schaffner Press, as well as six poetry collections.<\/p>\n
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Hicks, Augustana\u2019s writer-in-residence since 2007, teaches courses on creative writing, Irish literature, Holocaust studies, as well as honors courses.<\/p>\n
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