Listen to a conversation with Bill Holm

You can click HERE to listen to Bill Holm on Realgoodwords last fall.

I hope you get the chance to listen to my conversation with Bill Holm, and that most of all, it will cause you to take a look at his award winning writings. Published works include:

The Windows of Brimnes: An American in Iceland
The Heart Can Be Filled Anywhere on Earth
Coming Home Crazy: An Alphabet of Chinese Essays
Eccentric Islands: Travels Real and Imaginary
Playing the Black Piano: Poems

Missing Bill Holm...

I was shocked and saddened today to see the news that Minnesota author Bill Holm had passed away. It was just last fall that I had the opportunity to chat with him about his book "Windows of Brimnes: An American in Iceland". Chat is not even the right word for it - I felt like I got to know him a little bit. Listeners did too - I heard from so many people that heard our conversation and were moved by it in someway. They were moved by his descriptions of life in Iceland and really, how he lived his life. One of the people I heard from wrote me the following letter.

Ms. Holtan,

Last Sunday I sat at my cabin on Lake Vermilion staring out
ot he ice forming on the lake and blue jays eating from my bird feeder. And
along came Bill Holm legitimizing my staring as he and guests do in Brimnes. I
had read his book but your interview with him brought the book alive. Thank you!

Dale
Mulfinger

It turned out that Dale too is an author, and this letter lead to a great conversation that he and I had about "Cabinology".

Here's an excerpt from "Windows of Brimnes: An American in Iceland".

"When Americans ask me to describe my little house in Iceland, I tell them not entirely disingenuously, that it is a series of magical windows with a few simple boards to hold them up, to protect your head from the rain while you stare out to sea."

I will post the audio from our conversation in the next few days.

MN writer Bill Holm this week!

"When Americans ask me to describe my little house in Iceland, I tell them not entirely disingenuously, that it is a series of magical windows with a few simple boards to hold them up, to protect your head from the rain while you stare out to sea."

from The Window Of Brimnes - An American in Iceland by Bill Holm

Read here for information on Bill being named the 2008 McKnight Distinguished Artist of the Year.