The Study Podcast

In this episode of The Study Podcast, author Kent Krueger discusses his use of the mystery/crime genre as a framework for exploring deeper human questions about justice, spirituality, morality, relationship, loss, and change; his commitment to creating a vivid sense of place for readers and to craft stories that are true to real life, that can help readers navigate and understand their own experiences as well as expanding their understanding of others. Kent also discusses various aspects of craft, the importance for him of the novels he’s written beyond the Cork O’Connor series, and the complexities of fiction and cultural representation. Finally, from his many years as a teacher of creative writing, he ends with some advice and encouragement for writers. Raised in the Cascade Mountains of Oregon, William Kent Krueger briefly attended Stanford University—before being kicked out for radical activities. After that, he logged timber, worked construction, tried his hand at freelance journalism, and eventually ended up researching child development at the University of Minnesota. He’s been married for more than fifty years to a marvelous woman who is a retired attorney. He makes his home in St. Paul, a city he dearly loves.Krueger writes a mystery series set in the north woods of Minnesota. His protagonist is Cork O’Connor, the former sheriff of Tamarack County and a man of mixed heritage—part Irish and part Ojibwe. His work has received a number of awards, including the Minnesota Book Award, the Loft-McKnight Fiction Award, the Anthony Award, the Barry Award, the Dilys Award, and the Friends of American Writers Prize. His last thirteen novels were all New York Times bestsellers. Ordinary Grace, his stand-alone novel published in 2013, received the Edgar Award, given by the Mystery Writers of America in recognition for the best novel published in that year. The companion novel, This Tender Land, was published in September 2019 and spent nearly six months on the New York Times bestseller list. His most recent stand-alone, The River We Remember, published in 2023, was featured on many best-of-the-year lists, as well as receiving an Edgar Award nomination for Best Novel.More at https://williamkentkrueger.com/Thanks to my guest and to you, listener and fellow student, for joining me in The Study. Before you go, we'd love to welcome you into the wider work of The Study. Head to thestudynd.org for free and low cost online classes, lectures, living history performances, study clubs and other ways to curate your own study practice on your terms. Join us when you can and bring a friend!

Human beings are mortal. Intellectually, we know this to be a certainty. Having been born, we will die. In this episode, writer and philosopher H.L. Hix visits The Study to talk about his novella, The Death of H.L. Hix, in which he writes the story of his own death, using Leo Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilyich as his prompt. What was this experience like? Why did he write this story? How did writing the story of his death change him? Why is it important for human beings to think about their death? H. L. HIX was born in Oklahoma and raised in various small towns in the south. After earning his B.A. from Belmont College (now Belmont University) and his Ph.D. (in philosophy) from the University of Texas, Hix taught at the Kansas City Art Institute and was an administrator at the Cleveland Institute of Art, before joining the faculty of a state university in the Mountain West, where, after a term as director of the creative writing MFA, he now teaches in the Philosophy Department and the Creative Writing Program. He has been a visiting professor at Shanghai University, Fulbright Distinguished Lecturer at Yonsei University in Seoul, and the “Distinguished Visitor” at the NEO MFA.  He taught in the low-residency MFA at Fairleigh Dickinson University until its closure.His poetry, essays, and other works have been published in McSweeney’s, Georgia Review, Harvard Review, Boston Review, Poetry, and other journals, been recognized with an NEA Fellowship, the Grolier Prize, the T. S. Eliot Prize, the Peregrine Smith Award, and the Vern Rutsala Book Prize, and been translated into Spanish, Russian, Estonian, Urdu, and other languages.He lives in “one of those square states” with his partner, the poet Kate Northrop. To learn more, visit his website at hlhix.com Thanks to my guest and to you, listener and fellow student, for joining me in The Study. Before you go, we'd love to welcome you into the wider work of The Study. Head to thestudynd.org for free and low cost online classes, lectures, living history performances, study clubs and other ways to curate your own study practice on your terms. Join us when you can and bring a friend!

In this conversation with poet Lauren Camp, she shares some of the experience of writing her newest collection, Is Is Enough, poems that emerged from attending to her father's decline and death from Alzheimer's disease.  She talks about writing as ritual, how her poetic practice helps her anchor the experience and hold on to her father, and her hopes for what this collection might do for others going through this experience with loved ones. Lauren Camp is the author of nine books, most recently Is Is Enough (Texas Review Press, 2026) and In Old Sky (Grand Canyon Conservancy, 2024), which grew out of her experience as Astronomer-in-Residence at Grand Canyon National Park. Other honors includefellowships from the Academy of American Poets and Black Earth Institute, a Dorset Prize, the New Mexico Book Award, and finalist citations for the Arab American Book Award and Adrienne Rich Award. Her poems have appeared in The Nation, Poetry International, and Poem-a-Day and have been translated into Mandarin, Turkish, Spanish, French, and Arabic. She served as the second New Mexico Poet Laureate (2022-25). www.laurencamp.com Thanks to my guest and to you, listener and fellow student, for joining me in The Study. Before you go, we'd love to welcome you into the wider work of The Study. Head to thestudynd.org for free and low cost online classes, lectures, living history performances, study clubs and other ways to curate your own study practice on your terms. Join us when you can and bring a friend!