William Kent Krueger

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Can you go home again?

April 25, 2017
Posted by William Kent Krueger

William Kent Krueger - high school photoThomas Wolfe didn’t think you can go home again. This weekend, I’m going to find out if he was right.

The photo is what I looked like at seventeen, when I lived in Hood River, Oregon, a small town on the south bank of the Columbia River. I spent most of my high school years there, years important to me in so many ways. The town folks have chosen my novel Ordinary Grace for their annual Hood River Reads program. On Saturday, Sunday, and Monday I’ll be presenting a writer’s workshop, speaking to the community, and dropping into the schools to talk with students.

It’s been a long time since I visited, and I’ve never been back in this way before, returning to discuss my writing, and especially Ordinary Grace, a novel that, in many respects, Hood River helped to shape. I’m looking forward to cruising past the house my family occupied, making a pilgrimage to the place where I first kissed a girl, standing on the football field where I was a terrible quarterback. I hope to be gathering with friends who still call Hood River their home.

Although Minnesota is my home now, the place that makes my heart sing, I still think about Hood River all the time. The past is never dead. It’s with us always, alive in our memories. It can still excite us, scare us, thrill us. All that we were a part of, every adolescent antic, can still make us cringe or laugh or cry. Probably, when I’m in Hood River, I’ll experience all these things.

Postscript: 

Can you go home again? The answer, I’m very happy to say, is a resounding, “Yes!”

When I returned to Hood River, Oregon, where I’d spent some of the most important years of my life, I received the warmest of welcomes. My high school classmates, some of whom I hadn’t seen in nearly fifty years, the committee that had worked so hard to plan the Hood River Reads program, the students in the schools where I spoke, and the crowd who joined me at the library to hear what I had to say about Ordinary Grace, all embraced this prodigal son with an affection that moved me deeply.

Hood River is one of the most beautiful places on earth, maybe rivaled only by the beauty in the hearts of the people who continue to call it home.

Hood River photo

Book tours, Ordinary Grace, Personal

2016 Highlights

December 27, 2016
Posted by William Kent Krueger

Looking back on some favorite memories from 2016…

William Kent Krueger - Caribou Coffee
January: A fan,Kate Olsen, took this photo of me on the sly. The coffee shop is one of the many where I sit and write very early every morning. I love the photo. It reminds me of one of my favorite paintings, Hopper’s “Nighthawks.”

Douglas County Reads
February: A full house in Alexandria, MN for the Douglas County One Book, One Community Read! Thanks to Tessa Dutcher for the photo.

William Kent Krueger
March: I visited southern Arizona to research #16 in my Cork O’Connor series, Sulfur Springs. Here I am atop Montezuma Pass in the Coronado National Memorial. Visible behind me is the wide San Pedro River Valley, the route Coronado used to enter this territory. It’s also a corridor for the entry of illegal aliens seeking sanctuary here in the states. Sulfur Springs will be about this difficult situation confronting Americans north and south of a border now marked by an enormous fence visible even from this great height.

William Kent Krueger
April: My wife and I spent a weekend in Omaha with lots of family. While there, we visited the National Park Service’s Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail Headquarters. Fascinating! Among the many items on display were reproductions of the uniforms the expedition’s two leaders wore to impress the Native population they encountered. Anyone could don the clothing, and I couldn’t resist. But I think I look more like Napoleon than Meriwether Lewis.

Newspaper
June: Why do I love small town libraries? Because the wonderful librarians there know small town politics. Just look what Meredith Vaselaar, director of the branch library in Adrian, Minnesota, twisted the arms of the mayor and the city councilmen into doing for the day of my visit there. A ticker tape parade down Broadway in New York City couldn’t be any sweeter.

William Kent Krueger in Petoskey
July: I was in Petoskey, Michigan, for a couple of book events sponsored by the Bay View Association, a Chautauqua community. As many of you Hemingway fans may know, Petoskey was one of Papa’s favorite haunts as he grew into manhood and became famous. Here I am at the City Park Grill. In Papa’s day, it was called the Annex, and he spent a good deal of time sitting at this bar, drinking, writing, probably holding forth vociferously with the locals. That’s him above me on the wall. I had to sit in the place he usually occupied (second stool from the end) and lift my glass in a toast to his memory.

William Kent Krueger in Arizona
August: Back to the southern Arizona desert, spitting distance from the border, to research Sulfur Springs. Don’t ever say that I don’t put everything on the line to make sure I get my stories right!

Once Upon a Crime
September: The Manitou Canyon book tour kicked off at Minneapolis’ Once Upon a Crime. Thanks to Mindy Mejia for the photo.

NYT Bestseller List
Manitou Canyon debuted at #11 on the New York Times bestseller list. Wahoo!!! Thanks to everyone who bought a copy early to help this happen.

WKK and David Corbett
October: Writer David Corbett and his dog Hamley were among the crowd at Book Passage in Corte Madera, CA.

WKK in Manteca
At the Great Valley Bookfest, held yearly in Manteca, California, the town in which I was living when I graduated from high school. What a terrific celebration of the written word. And just look at this! Local artist Kathleen Banzon was commissioned to paint the cover of Ordinary Grace for a permanent collection the Bookfest has begun. It wasn’t quite finished, but I was so honored to see this beautiful beginning.

WKK on Sharp Top Mountain
On Sharp Top Mountain in Virginia.

Sioux Falls Barnes and Noble
November: The Sioux Falls Barnes & Noble really stocked up on Manitou Canyon!

New England Crime Bake
At the New England Crime Bake’s “Mooses & Hunters 2016,” with Lucy Burdette, Hank Phillippi Ryan and Hallie Ephron.

Edgar Award
December: Mystery Writers of America has asked those of us who’ve been fortunate enough to receive an Edgar Award for our work to send a current photo, author and the Edgar together. Eddie and I wish you all Happy Holidays and a Joyous New Year!

 

Book tours, Manitou Canyon, Personal

Bunker Hill

November 9, 2016
Posted by William Kent Krueger
Bunker HillI admit it.  This morning I cried.
 
I’m in Boston for the New England Crime Bake, a great mystery conference coming up this weekend.  I came to Boston early so that I could experience this place that, in so many ways, is the birthplace of American democracy.  Today, I walked the Freedom Trail, which ended at Bunker Hill.  Here I am at the foot of the memorial to that bloodiest battle of the Revolutionary War.  When I read about the men who stood here, shoulder-to-shoulder, facing overwhelming odds because they understood that to die in defense of freedom was a noble thing, I wept.
 
It’s fitting that I’m here this morning.  We have just come to the end of another hard-fought battle that, in its way, is a tribute to democracy.  The reins of our government will soon be handed over in a bloodless exchange that, though not all may agree with, all should be willing to abide by, because the majority in this democracy has spoken.
 
Who we voted for yesterday is irrelevant now.  The decision has been made.  If we, all of us, truly believe in this way of government secured for us by those who stood ready to die on Bunker Hill, we will join together in unity.  What has been a divisive period can now become, if we work with true hearts toward this end, a time of reconciliation.
 
I can’t help but feel that we stand on the threshold of a new political period, with incredible challenges ahead.  I would like to believe that we can put aside rancor and stand shoulder-to-shoulder once again.  What comes at us up the hill may not be the enemy of old.  It may be the necessity of looking at ourselves and our world in a different way.  It may be accepting some cold realities about the disillusionment of a great many of our fellow citizens and a government that often seems to serve its own self-interest above the interests of its people.  There’s plenty of reason to wring our hands and cry that the end times are near, but that’s the easy response.
 
We are Americans, all.  We have come from people who, at Bunker Hill and so many places like it, risked everything to defend the dream of a democratic nation.  It seems to me time once again to roll up our sleeves and get down to the hard work of shaping a future.  We can simply stand back and let others do the shaping and complain.  Or we can take our place in this democracy, work within the guidelines a pretty good document called the Constitution of the United States, and find ways together to solve the problems that threaten us all.  We don’t always have to agree with one another.  But we should always do our best to respect one another.
 
And so I say with a full and hopeful heart on this day after a democratic election, God bless America.
Book tours, Personal

2015 Highlights

December 27, 2015
Posted by William Kent Krueger

Looking back on some favorite memories from 2015…

Kent Krueger in Door County
February: My wife snapped this photo while we were in Door County, Wisconsin. That’s frozen Lake Michigan in the background.

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March: I stopped for a couple of days in Oklahoma to visit family here. Here I am beneath a statue of Standing Bear, the great chief of the Ponca Nation, all of whom were exiled at bayonet point from Nebraska. When Standing Bear attempted to return to his home to bury his son, he was arrested and put on trial. In its favorable decision, the court declared that Standing Bear was, in fact, “a person” and had rights, the first legal acknowledgement of such. One small step for Standing Bear, one giant leap for all indigenous people.

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In Sedona, my favorite place outside Minnesota, for a little R&R. Love hiking among the red rocks here. And the sunsets, are they amazing! For those of you who know Sedona, this shot was taken on the trail to Chicken Point.

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April: I visited Ireland with my wife and sister. We’d been advised to enjoy the “bright spots” in the weather—good advice, as it turns out that conditions change about every ten minutes. The last time I was here was over forty years ago, on my honeymoon. Still a stunningly beautiful island. For those who are fans of the great John Ford—John Wayne—Maureen O’Hara 1951 film “The Quiet Man”, here I am in Conga, the village where the movie was filmed, giving the Duke a hand hoisting his co-star.

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May: Preparing to end (reluctantly) my time in Ireland. This photo was one of the last taken during our stay. My wife shot it on the shoreline of Cork Harbor, just outside Cobh, which was the last port of call for the ill-fated Titanic. She thought she was capturing only my image. Look closely and you can see that we weren’t alone.

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June: Here I am, deep in the Grand Canyon, rising at dawn, to raft the Colorado River. Nothing like the cold splash of whitewater rapids first thing in the morning to wake you completely to nature’s glory and your own human frailty.

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August: South Dakota is quickly becoming one of my favorite places. Here I am at the stunning Falls Park in Sioux Falls.

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September: My wife and me atop Pincushion Mountain above Grand Marais, MN.

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October: Here I am in Roswell, New Mexico, sight of the infamous UFO crash and coverup, with a couple of my new best friends.

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November: Caribou Lake, at the edge of the Boundary Waters, the very morning after the first snowfall of the year.  God, do I love this place.

Book tours, Personal

The Bared Essentials

October 27, 2015
Posted by William Kent Krueger

Kent Swimming

WARNING: Anyone with a prudish bone in their body SHOULD NOT watch this video.

So, here’s the story. I’m in Carlsbad, New Mexico, for a cousin reunion and a bit of a vacation. This is an area of the country that has appealed to me forever, but I haven’t had the opportunity to explore it much. In the empty high desert of the Guadalupe Mountains, thirty miles west of Carlsbad, lies Sitting Bull Falls State Park. It came highly recommended by the locals. Several of my family headed out for a hike and a view of the falls. The day was overcast, cool (60º F), and the park was deserted. We hiked a long trail to a spot on Sitting Bull Spring just above the falls. What I discovered there were two stunningly beautiful pools of crystal clear water, an inviting oasis.

Confession: I can’t resist a swim in a gorgeous, natural setting. I’ve swum in countless rivers; the headwaters of the Mississippi, the Snake, the Columbia, the Colorado, the McKenzie, and the Deschutes, to name just a few. I’ve dipped my body in Lake Superior and Lake Michigan, cold mountain lakes in the Rockies and the Sierras and the Cascades, and, of course, an enormous number of the pristine lakes my beloved Minnesota is famous for. I simply have an affinity for water.

So when I spotted these pools, I had to experience them. But I didn’t bring a suit. No problem. I shed my clothes and did what comes naturally. And, oh, was it glorious! Bracing, revitalizing, infinitely satisfying. Another fine memory to keep me warm in my dotage.

In much of my writing, I’ve bared my soul. I figured maybe it was time to bare a little more of me.

Thanks and a tip of the hat to the event’s volunteer videographer, my cousin Paul Krueger.

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