Blank Verse is a reading series that supports diverse writers of all ages, levels, genres and performance styles including poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction and spoken word. Each event will feature local poetry and prose writers, and time for open mic and conversation.

February's Featured readers are MN Mystery authors and include: 

M.E. Bakos writes cozy mysteries about a house flipper, turned sleuth, in fictional Crocus Heights, Minnesota. She has published short stories in Twin Cities Sisters in Crime anthologies and was a regular fiction contributor to national women’s magazines. She is an alumna of the University of MN. If she isn’t plotting mysteries, she’s planning home improvements. She lives in Minnesota with her husband, Joe, and a spoiled pooch named Chipper. Her Home Renovator Mystery series starts with Fatal Flip, Deadly Flip, Lethal Flip, and Killer Flip. All earned five-star ratings from Readers’ Favorite. Mortal Flip, Book 5, released August 1, 2024. For a change of pace, she wrote The Perfect Match, A Reindeer Falls Holiday Romance, that debuted in December 2024, and which was graciously compared to a Hallmark story by Midwest Review. She is currently working on another mystery series. You can reach her at mebakos@yahoo.com, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mebakos/ and https://www.facebook.com/mary.sebesta.90/,  and her website at https://mebakos.wixsite.com/author

Christine Husom is a best-selling author from Buffalo. She writes the suspenseful Winnebago County Mysteries, and the cozy, but not too cozy, Snow Globe Shop Mysteries where bad guys demonstrate not everyone is “Minnesota Nice.” Christine also has stories in six anthologies. She trained with the St. Paul Police and served with the Wright County Sheriff. She’s a member of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime, active with the Twin Cities Chapter. She loves meetings readers at events, author panels, and book clubs. www.christinehusom.com.

C. N. Buchholz is a writer of poetry, memoir, mystery, and suspense. She has an avid interest in true crime and stories of survival. She has been published in three poetry anthologies, various newspapers, and magazines. Her short stories have been featured in It Was a Dark and Stormy Night, Dontcha Know, Hook, Line, and Sinker, Minnesota Not So Nice, Cooked to Death Volume II: Lying on a Plate, and Festival of Crime. She and her cohort in crime, A. W. Powers, recently released In Too Deep, the first suspense novel in their Kill Shot Series. When not writing, C. N. Buchholz strums a strapless guitar with a band of retirees. She lives in the Land of 10,000 Lakes with a pony-size dog, five black cats, and one husband. https://cnbuchholz.com/

Growing up in a family of voracious readers, Barbara Deese developed an ear for a good story, as well as an appreciation for sharp wit. She is the published author of four books, so far, in the No Ordinary Women mysteries, which feature five book club ladies who keep finding themselves up to their bifocals in real-life mysteries to solve. Several of her short stories have been published in anthologies.

Blank Verse is sponsored by Cracked Walnut, a chapter of the League of Minnesota Poets, which aims to generate love for live literature, community, and creativity.

Anoka County Library strives to ensure that all visitors are able to access library resources, services, and programs. Assistive technology and program accommodations are available at many library locations as outlined here. Please call the library branch hosting the program at least two weeks prior to an event if there are additional accommodations we can provide for you to fully participate.