Barton Sutter is a Duluth, Minnesota

Minnesota

Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...

-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

Minnesota Book Awards

The Minnesota Book Awards are presented annually for books created by writers, illustrators or book artists who are Minnesotans. The award, originally established in 1988, is organized by The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library....

 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. Sutter was also appointed Poet Laureate of Duluth, the first in Duluth

Duluth, Minnesota

Duluth is a port city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and is the county seat of Saint Louis County. The fourth largest city in Minnesota, Duluth had a total population of 86,265 in the 2010 census. Duluth is also the second largest city that is located on Lake Superior after Thunder Bay, Ontario,...

 history. He was unanimously chosen for the position by a committee set up by the Lake Superior Writers.

Publications

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 professor at the University of Minnesota, Duluth. He also occasionally appears as half of the artistic duo The Sutter Brothers which also includes his brother, Ross Sutter, an acclaimed folk musician. He continues to live in Duluth with his wife and two daughters.