Barton Sutter

Barton Sutter is a Duluth, Minnesota-based writer whose poetry and prose often reflect his love of the North-Country. He is the only author to win the Minnesota Book Award in three separate categories: in fiction for My Father’s War and Other Stories, in creative non-fiction for Cold Comfort, and in poetry with The Book of Names: New and Selected Poems.^[1] Sutter was also appointed Poet Laureate of Duluth, the first in Duluth history. He was unanimously chosen for the position by a committee set up by the Lake Superior Writers.^[2]

Publications

Chester Creek Ravine: Haiku, Nodin Press, 2015
Farewell to the Starlight in Whiskey, BOA Editions, 2004
Cold Comfort: Life on the Top of the Map, University of Minnesota Press, 1998
The Book of Names: New and Selected Poems, BOA Editions, 1993
My Father's War and Other Stories, Viking, 1991, University of Minnesota Press, 2000
Pine Creek Parish Hall and Other Poems, Sandhills Press, 1985
Cedarhome, BOA Editions, 1977

Contributions

Sutter was an essayist for the "Voices from the Heartland" series on Minnesota Public Radio from 1991-1997. He has also published numerous poems, stories, and essays in such magazines and anthologies as The North American Review, Poetry, Live Music, Minneapolis Star Tribune, and Minnesota Monthly.

Awards

Duluth Poet Laureate, 2006
George Morrison Artist Award, 2005
Minnesota Book Award for Creative Non-Fiction, 1999
Northeastern Minnesota Book Award, 1999
Jerome Foundation Travel and Study Grant (Sweden), 1997
Individual Artist Fellowship, Arrowhead Regional Arts Council, 1996, 2001
Minnesota Book Award for Poetry, 1994
Minnesota Book Award Fiction, 1992
Individual Artist Fellowship, Bush Foundation, 1989
Loft McKnight Award in Poetry, 1987
Bassine Citation from The Academy of American Poets, 1986

Biography

Barton Sutter is a Lutheran preacher's son and was raised in a large rural family. He acquired his B.A. in Language Arts from Southwest State University in 1972. He then received his M.A. in Creative Writing from Syracuse University in 1975. He moved to Duluth, MN in the 1980s where he continued publishing and also began work as an English instructor at the University of Minnesota, Duluth. He thereafter spent a number of years as a Senior Lecturer of English at the University of Wisconsin-Superior, retiring from that position in 2010. He also occasionally appears as half of the artistic duo The Sutter Brothers which also includes his brother, Ross Sutter, an acclaimed folk musician.^[3] He continues to live in Duluth with his wife and two daughters.

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