English professor wins Minnesota Book Award for her memoir
St. Olaf College Visiting Assistant Professor of English Kaethe Schwehn took home a Minnesota Book Award this weekend for her memoir.
Schwehn’s book, Tailings: A Memoir, chronicles the time she spent living at Holden Village, a Lutheran retreat center in the Cascade Mountains.
“What seemed at first like a utopian ideal faded over the months and she was left with 354 inches of snow, a prowling cougar, 65 disgruntled villagers, and a pile of copper mine tailings 150 feet high,” notes a Minnesota Public Radio story about the winners of the 27th annual book awards.
On her website, Schwehn describes the book as “a lyrical memoir of intentional community told from the front lines, a passionate and awkward journey about embracing the ‘in-between’ times of our lives with grace and hope.”
The Minnesota Book Awards, established in 1988, are presented annually.
Schwehn is also the co-editor of Claiming Our Callings: Toward a New Understanding of Vocation in the Liberal Arts, a collection of essays written by 14 St. Olaf faculty members.