Madelon Sprengnether

Madelon Sprengnether is a poet, memoirist and literary critic and Regents Professor Emerita of the University of Minnesota. Her recent and forthcoming publications include Great River Road: Memoir and Memory (New Rivers Press, 2015), Near Solstice: Prose Poems (Holy Cow! Press, 2015), and Mourning Freud (Bloomsbury 2018).

She is the author of three memoirs, Great River Road, Crying at the Movies, and Rivers, Stories, Houses, Dreams, and three collections of poetry, Near Solstice: Prose Poems, The Angel of Duluth, and The Normal Heart.

Angel of Duluth [excerpt]

I lied a little. There are things I don’t want to tell you. How lonely I am 

today and sick at heart. How the rain falls steadily and cold on a garden 

grown greener, more lush and even less tame. I haven’t done much, I 

confess, to contain it. The grapevine, as usual, threatens everything in its 

path, while the raspberry canes, aggressive and abundant, are clearly out of 

control. I’m afraid the wildflowers have taken over, being after all the most 

hardy and tolerant of shade and neglect. This year the violets and lilies of 

the valley are rampant, while the phlox are about to emit their shocking 

pink perfume. Oh, my dear, had you been here this spring, you would have 

seen how the bleeding hearts are thriving.

— Madelon Sprengnether