Garrison Skyped with students at Amherst in Summer 2011
A sample of what our students had to say after their visit with Garrison Keillor:
“Garrison Keillor was hilarious.”
“It was an honor to get to listen and ask questions of Garrison Keillor!”
Garrison Keillor is an author, storyteller, humorist, and creator of the weekly radio show A Prairie Home Companion, which was launched in 1974. The show began as a live variety show on Minnesota Public Radio and became a pop culture phenomenon, with millions listening to Keillor's folksy tales of life in the fictional Midwestern town of Lake Wobegon, where (in Keillor's words) "the women are strong, the men are good looking, and all of the children are above average." Keillor ended the show in 1987, and 1989 began a similar new radio show titled American Radio Company of the Air. In 1993 he returned the show to its original name. Keillor also created the syndicated daily radio feature A Writer's Almanac in 1993.
Today, A Prairie Home Companion is heard by more than 4 million listeners each week on some 590 public radio stations, and abroad on America One and the Armed Forces Networks in Europe and the Far East. Garrison recalls, "When the show started, it was something funny to do with my friends, and then it became an achievement that I hoped would be successful, and now it's a good way of life."
Keillor has written for The New Yorker and is the author of several books, including Happy to Be Here, Leaving Home, Lake Wobegon Days, and Good Poems for Hard Times, A Christmas Blizzard and Life Among the Lutherans. His radio show inspired a 2006 movie, A Prairie Home Companion, written by and starring Keillor and directed by Robert Altman.
For more information about Garrison Keillor please visit his website.
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