By: Karl Salkowski

There are a number of very influential and well regarded authors who are affiliated with Saint Paul, Minnesota. Many of the stories they wrote were based on life growing up in Minnesota and the communities they were a part of. F. Scott Fitzgerald is probably the most famous author from the Saint Paul area, but there are many others including modern authors such as Kao Kaila Yang and William Kent Krueger.  

F. Scott Fitzgerald was born on Summit Avenue in 1896, just a few miles away from Highland Park Senior High school. He is most well known for his novels about the “jazz age.” His most successful work ‘The Great Gatsby’ is still relevant in the modern era over a hundred years after its publication, and is still frequently taught in high schools across the United States. I personally would recommend ‘The Great Gatsby’, because I really enjoyed the way the story and characters’ relationships unfolded.

August Wilson, a Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, lived in Minnesota for over a decade. He has had a long association with the local Penumbra Theater Company located in Saint Paul. His most famous plays are ‘Fences’ and ‘The Piano Lesson’. He is known for writing about the African American experience growing up throughout the 20th century. Three of his plays have already been adapted into films.

Another famous writer, Garrison Keillor, spent much of his career living in Saint Paul, producing the MPR variety show ‘A Prairie Home Companion’ and several books. He is best known for making fun of the “Minnesotan Sensibility”, through his “News from Lake Wobegon,” where “all the children are above average.”

William Kent Krueger is a crime writer who lives in Saint Paul, famously known for having won back-to-back Anthony Awards for best novel. When the Saint Clair Broiler was still in operation, locals would often see him there writing. 

Kao Kaila Yang is one of the most influential contemporary writers in Saint Paul. She is a Hmong refugee and has often written about the refugee experience, and her own family’s story. She writes for all ages, everything from picture books to memoirs. Her most famous work is ‘The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir’, which has won several prestigious awards and is highly rated on both Goodreads and Amazon.