Books and Brews Podcast Episode #8: Sarah Stonich

Sarah's first novel, These Granite Islands was awarded a Loft McKnight Award; a Friends of American Writers Award, and was a Barnes & Noble Great New Writers pick, among other awards. That novel was translated into eleven languages. Her second, The Ice Chorus, was also widely translated. Her memoir Shelter: Off The Grid in the Mostly Magnetic North won a Northeast Minnesota Book Award. Her feminist trilogy Fishing With RayAnne (originally written under the pen name Ava Finch) will be re-issued by The University of MN Press, beginning in 2020. She is currently adapting that series for television, as well as writing original screenplays. Laurentian Divide, the second book in her Northern Trilogy, was the winner of the 2019 Minnesota Book Award and the NEMBA award, as well as being a 2019 National Reading Group Month selection by National Women's Book Association. In March 2020, WPRI, Wisconsin Public Radio International's longest running program, Chapter A Day, will feature Laurentian Divide, to be read on air by Jim Flemming. She's currently researching and is at work on the final volume of the Northern trilogy, Watershed. Sarah has been awarded fellowships at several international residency programs, including the Tyrone Guthrie Center in Ireland; Gibraltor Center, Toronto; Hawthornden, Scotland; Art Omi, New York, and Chicago's Ragdale Foundation, Sarah lives in Minneapolis on the Mississippi River in a renovated flour mill with her husband, musician Jon Ware. sarahstonich.com Sarahstonichbookshelf   Sarah's Readings:   Alpo Ponders Life – 16:30 Pete Meets Meg – 29:05 Sissy and the Sled Dogs – 44:41   Michael's Beer Pairings:    Grain Belt Premium, August Schell Brewing Company (paired to Alpo Ponders Life) – 14:50 Summit Great Northern Porter – Summit Brewing Company (paired to Pete Meets Meg) – 27:20 Tip Up Winter Ale – Beaver Island Brewing (paired to Sissy and the Sled Dogs) – 42:12   Interview Highlights:   Overview of the Northern Trilogy – 13:00 Why do people read? – 24:20 What makes a great book? – 25:20 How and when did you get started writing? – 39:51 40 raw acres with a city boy – 54:16   COMING NEXT MONTH: Novelist Lyn Miller Lacoursiere, author of the Lindy Lewis Adventures   Our theme music is from www.bensound.com.