March 8: Minnesota State Mankato, Carnegie Art Center to Host Poetry Readings in ‘GT at the Carnegie’ Event

Saturday, March 8, 2025
7:30 PM - 9:30 PM
Carnegie Art Center, 120 S. Broad St., Mankato

Mankato, Minn. – Minnesota State University, Mankato will host readings by poets Richard Robbins and Michael Kleber-Diggs on Saturday, March 8 at 7:30 p.m. at Mankato’s Carnegie Art Center (120 S. Broad St.).

Doors open at 7 p.m., and the readings are free and open to the public.

The readings are part of a new “GT at the Carnegie” series, which is an offshoot of Minnesota State Mankato’s Good Thunder Reading Series.

The following information about the writers was provided by the Good Thunder Reading Series:

Richard Robbins was raised in California and Montana, taught in Minnesota for many years and recently moved to Oregon. He studied with Richard Hugo and Madeline DeFrees at the University of Montana, where he completed his Master of Fine Arts degree. He has published seven books of poems, most recently “The Oratory of All Souls,” which Lynx House Press released in 2023. He has received awards from The Loft, the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Oregon Poetry Association, The National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Society of America. From 1986-2014, Robbins directed the Good Thunder Reading Series at Minnesota State Mankato, where he recently retired from the creative writing program. His website is https://richardrobbinspoems.com.

Michael Kleber-Diggs is a poet, essayist and literary critic. His debut poetry collection, “Worldly Things” (Milkweed Editions, 2021), won the Max Ritvo Poetry Prize. Among other places, Kleber-Diggs’ writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Poem-a-Day, Poetry Daily, Poetry Northwest, Potomac Review, Hunger Mountain, Memorious and various anthologies. Since 2016, Kleber-Diggs has been an instructor with the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop. He also teaches creative writing in Augsburg University’s low-res Master of Fine Arts program and at Saint Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists. He lives in Minneapolis.

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 2024-25 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; the Prairie Lakes Regional Arts Council; Friends of the Library; 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 15,251 students, is part of the Minnesota State system, which includes 26 colleges and seven universities.