Mankato, Minn. – Minnesota State University, Mankato’s 2023-2024 Good Thunder Reading Series will host author Allen Eskens and Minnesota State Mankato graduate student Annie Lindenberg with a series of events Thursday, Jan. 18.

Eskens is the featured writer in the Robert C. Wright Minnesota Writer Residency. Lindenberg is the winner of the Robert C. Wright Award.

All of the events are free and open to the public.

Jan. 18 schedule:

• 10-11 a.m. – Workshop, Memorial Library, First Floor, SW Corner.
• 3-3:50 p.m. – “Talk on Craft,” Centennial Student Union, Room 253/4/5. Books available for purchase.
• 7:30-8:15 p.m. – Reading with Robert C. Wright Award Winner Annie Lindenberg, Centennial Student Union, Ostrander Auditorium. Books available for purchase.

About the featured writers (courtesy of the Good Thunder Reading Series):
Allen Eskens is a bestselling author, and the recipient of the Barry Award, Minnesota Book Award, Rosebud Award (Left Coast Crime), and Silver Falchion Award and finalist for other awards. He has a journalism degree from the University of Minnesota and a law degree from Hamline University. After law school, he studied creative writing in the MFA program at Minnesota State Mankato, as well as the Loft Literary Center and the Iowa Summer Writer’s Festival.

Annie Lindenberg is an MFA candidate in fiction at Minnesota State Mankato, where she also works as the graduate assistant for the Good Thunder Reading Series and as the head fiction editor for Blue Earth Review. Her work has previously been published in The Tower Journal and is forthcoming in Cutleaf Journal and Barnstorm Journal.

Founded in 1981, the Good Thunder Reading Series brings nationally and internationally acclaimed writers from diverse backgrounds and literary traditions to Mankato, Minnesota, with the goal of promoting access to great literature, inspiring creativity and connections in our communities, and fostering lively conversations about how writers work and why writing matters.

The Good Thunder Reading Series is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.

The 2023-24 Good Thunder Reading Series also receives support from Minnesota State Mankato’s Department of Creative Arts; College of Humanities and Social Sciences; Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion; the Nadine B. Andreas Endowment, the Eddice B. Barber Visiting Writer Endowment, the Robert C. Wright Endowment and individual donors.

For more information or to get involved, contact Robin Becker, a creative writing faculty member at Minnesota State Mankato, at robin.becker@mnsu.edu, or visit gt.mnsu.edu.

Minnesota State Mankato, a comprehensive university with 14,635 students, is part of the Minnesota State system, which includes 26 colleges and seven universities.