Bestselling author visits Marshalltown Public Library
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New York Times best-selling author William Kent Krueger visited the Marshalltown Public Library on Saturday afternoon to discuss storytelling, the importance of libraries and answer questions offered from an audience of nearly 100 people that packed into the library's Community Meeting Room.
The event was sponsored by the Friends of the Marshalltown Public Library and the Pioneer Heritage Library in Le Grand. Beaverdale Books sold copies of his most recent release "The River We Remember," published on Sept. 5 of this year, for signing after his discussion.
William Kent Krueger's latest novel, "The River We Remember,” follows the aftermath of a shocking murder in late-1950's small-town Minnesota.
"Libraries have such an important part in my heart and in my life," Krueger said. "I don't think of librarians as those people that just keep the books on the shelf in the right order and give you a hard time if you return them late, I think of librarians as important guides in our understanding of the world. And I think that's particularly true when we're children.
"These are the places that house the books that are so important in our understanding of who we were, where we came from, and maybe help us understand who we are now and where we're going. When our libraries are gone, and our librarians with them, there goes everything we are as a people."
Krueger also spoke about his work, including his long-running series of novels featuring Cork O'Connor, set primarily in Minnesota, where Krueger himself lives in St. Paul with his wife; and also discussed recent popular standalone novels like "Ordinary Grace," "This Tender Land," and his latest release, of which he read the prologue to those in attendance.
He explained that he considers himself a storyteller, a role which confers great power as well as great pressure, explaining the backstory behind the creation of his two latest standalone novels in the wake of the critical acclaim that was showered upon "Ordinary Grace."
"It sold over a million copies, and when my publisher saw how well that book was doing, boy, did they want another book just like that," Krueger said.
A 30-minute question-and-answer session followed his opening talk, with Krueger fielding questions about his Minnesota reference points for his works, the authors that inspire him, his advice to aspiring writers including battling writers' block, and the relationships he's built with the Ojibwe people to help him flesh out the Cork O'Connor series, whose namesake is part-Ojibwe and part-Irish.
Krueger emphasized the importance of a story needing to have a voice that speaks to him as a writer, to help him believe that he could do the story justice.
"Over countless millennia, stories have entertained us, enlightened us, encouraged us, inspired us and given us hope," Krueger continued. "I've come to believe that stories are every bit as important to us as breathing. ... The most seductive, most promising, most important words any of us ever hear are, 'Let me tell you a story.'"
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Contact Jake Ryder at (641) 753-6611 ext. 227 or jryder@timesrepublican.com.