Sunday, February 22, 2015

Allen Eskens Visits South High

                                     Allen Eskens Visits South High School in Minneapolis.

February is "I Love To Read" month and South High invites authors in to school to speak with students every year.  This year, Allen Eskens, author of The Life We Bury, visited South High School in Minneapolis last week to speak to students.  On Thursday, February 13th, he spoke to a large group of 9th and 10th grade students in the media center.  Then he had lunch with the staff and spent the next hour with a CIS writing class.

Allen started by speaking to students about his experiences in school.  He went to a Catholic school and was the kind of kid who didn't like school.  He hated to read and still doesn't read much.  Theater and art are the classes were where he excelled.  He credited a few good teachers for getting him through school and for falling in love with theater and writing.  He encouraged every student in the room to make it through school and go to college.

Allen is a first generation college student, a lawyer and an awesome author.  When he realized he loved to write, he had to learn how to do it, since he didn't learn how to write in High School.  It turns out, he is pretty good at writing.  We can all attest to that.

Allen went to Hamline Law School and has been writing ever since.  He is a member of the Twin Cities Sisters in Crime and has written a great book which is up for the Minnesota Book Award and the Edgar Allen Poe award.

If you would like to win a copy of Allen's book The Life We Bury, enter here;
The Life We Bury Giveaway

Thanks Allen for coming to South High.  We really appreciate it.